Recently started using Ninox 4
Recently started using Ninox 4, some screenshots
28 replies
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They look very professional well done.
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Did you recreate all the tables in v4? or did you import data? Did you get a v4 subscription or are you running on the free edition?
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The organizational chart was adapted for Ninox 4.
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Hi Guys - Hope you are all well.
Rafael - looks good
Sorry for being a bit quiet!
Had many a good chat to Ninox and like thas fact that they are deffo going to bolt on Api's direct for accounts etc.
I am doing the same - Have renewed my Ninox 3 (N3) but running Ninox 4 (N4) in freebie version for now. Note if you do but N4 you get to keep N3 in all it's glory forever - well until every last user has moved over or worst case until the poull it off the servers (Ninox say end of developed life is Dec 2027 but it will run on with some essential tweaks but no enhancements.
I did look at other software and wasted about a month testing virtical soft ware etc - amazing what companies promise the short deliver when it comes to the crunch!.
Had many a good chat to Ninox and like thas fact that they are deffo going to bolt on Api's direct for accounts etc.
So I strongly considered the migration path (I know the Ninox migration tool is not finished yet) -
and tested some imports etc. but in the end i have taken a good hard look at what commands/tools etc are missing from N4 and have decided as my main app was delveloped over 10 years ago it is time to redo from scratch as have learned so much during that time.
Note - the space object and page break no longer exist for page/form design - you need to use containers to get some decent designs done!
Tab control is poor - so I prefer using a choice field with display x fields if choice 1 selected etc.
and the grid system could be better implemented. - Containers have the potential to delete cells and remove all their data - so ensure you drag cells of them before you delete any container !
otherwise - yes the interface is somewhat harder to get into but - getting there and - actually quite like it! (I will deny that 🤣) am getting some very nice form designs now !
oh yeah and Ninox say the forum will have it's own area for N4 - I am still currently arguing the record size limit with them tho...
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Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do if they don't change their record limit for the Pro version. I'm not buying three licenses (have over 111,000 records) to run my DB.
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same here Fred I now have 220k record in just one table so pricing that on N$ ids in the "ouch" category
however, I have a bit of a plan!
insofar as it makes some sense to move to N4 at some point to take advantage of the forthcoming development etc and the potential for direct API links that will be hardwired (ie Sage accounts, stripe etc) - thus here is my kind of plan. At the moment in order to keep my data down in size and be under my 4 GB per user - I purge our records/images etc via button scripts. New limit on N4 is 5GB per per user but record limit is 50k records (N3 is unlimited in real terms)
So it occurred to me that in reality, I only need to keep about about 5 years customer history instead of 15+ at present, which will easily come under the 50k limit (teams) and I can still run out my exports and have my large DB of 200k records and odd tables stay in N3 as they are stand alone (basically my leads and archive files). Moving forward I can keep a mirror of my main jobs tables and take the export and batch install it into N3 - I calculate that I will only need to do the about twice a year. so no real big issue. Eventually, I am hoping that Ninox will rethink the record limit or at least allow direct import/data retrieval between databases across different workspaces (not sure if they allow this yet or what). My worse case is as the archive stuff will be basically static I can run out to Excel. I am quite savvy with Excel as this is still my favourite software and have all sorts of projects with embedded VB/forms etc so could cope easily with this.
I agree one could easily hit 50k records when you need to keep all the data in one workgroup - But N3 sits in a different workgroup. Finally If I have to - I will take hit on other added phantom users!
Have already decided to keep the freebie on another sign in for testing etc.
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Poking around v4, it looks like you can buy a single business license. But the 250,000 record limit is per user, so if I need to restore a copy of my DB to do some testing I will go over my limit.
This new system is really screwed up compared to v3. I don't need the larger storage, just more records.
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The way I found to save space regarding relationships is to create tabs and include them there; I’m not sure if there’s a better solution.
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Hi Mel
There are no major differences in the language itself. What changes is how the logic is organized:
Formula becomes Logic. The Formula field from Ninox 3 is now the Logic field. Use it when the field's value should come from logic (a formula or a script) rather than manual input. As in Ninox 3, a calculated field can't modify other fields; that has to be done from buttons or automations.
Triggers become Automations. Ninox 3 had five trigger types, such as "Trigger on new record" and "Trigger after update". The latter was available in the table settings and in almost every field. In Ninox 4 they are called Automations: "On update" runs when a record changes and "On delete" when a record is deleted. The documentation also mentions "On create". Check whether field-level triggers still exist in your database or only table-level ones. If only table-level automations exist, logic you had in a specific field's "Trigger after update" must move to the table's "On update", with an if that checks what changed.
Internal names. This is the main change in the code: in Ninox 3 you wrote 'Date Start', and in Ninox 4 you write date_start.
Performance. Chained Logic fields (fields that depend on other fields) are much slower in Ninox 4 than in Ninox 3, because they recalculate every time the form opens. For heavy calculations such as EVM, store the results in Number fields and fill them with a button or a global function (e.g. recalcEVM).
Buttons. They work the same way and are still the recommended option. The Ninox documentation itself advises using buttons instead of automations when the user should decide when the logic runs.
In short, Ninox 3 code can be ported almost as is. You only need to change the field names, move triggers to Automations, and replace heavy chains of formulas with stored fields.
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Performance (the only practical difference). I have three heavy fields: taken_days and approved_pending loop through all of the employee's absences and query Holidays, and vacation_available depends on them. In Ninox 3 they run fast. In Ninox 4 they recalculate every time the form opens, which is the same thing that happened to me with the EVM in Gestión de Obra. Leave Entitlement and Absence Request are noticeably slow, and the fix is the same: stored Number fields filled by a button.
I would like to get some input on this.
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It would be interesting to be able to share some displays, so we can get to know some of the details of this new Ninox, and known issues
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Just a friendly reminder that we have a dedicated Discord group for Ninox 4 discussions. It would be great if we could keep those conversations there. Thanks for understanding! 😊
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where is the group ?
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This is a quick mock up sample with cells held with 3 containers. Quite like the containers as you a can assign different grid settings to each container and control the visibility as a whole for each. from a form design point of view you can drag/resize the container and all cells move with it etc.
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I think this is a good conversation to have in the v3 forum to help those who haven't touched the new version getting a better understanding on what is happening.
It is also good to remind people that if they are interested in keeping up with v4 that there is a Discord group to join.
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Agreed - especially as Ninox are planning a separate section for N4 in this forum
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Steven ah got access to this now - Awsome ! I can see all the release notes / comments, requests and even some of the fixes I have been nagging about. Reading all this will keep me busy for weeks as plenty of bedtime reading !
Whilst we are at it. Note re scripting :- Quite a bit of the N3 scripting is not yet implemented or is simply ignored in N4 as indeed as are some form functions... but have been assured that script compatibility is deffo coming 🙂
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New Ninox 4 rule: an if … end inside a [ … ] filter or a where clause may return empty without raising an error. The fix is to compute the value before the filter or to use a for loop.
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I fear I am going to be left behind if the only Ninox 4 forum is on Discord. I had a quick look at Discord the start of the Beta release and thought 'this isn't for me'. It looked loud, flashy and overly complicated, the opposite of this forum. Am I missing something?
Content aside
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