A Scalable Bubble App: 7 Best Practices

When developing an app using Bubble there’s likely more than one option to get the result you’re trying to achieve in Scalable Bubble App.

When you are developing an essential feature, for instance, it is possible to use several different strategies -that all lead to the same main feature being developed…

But, not all pathways to the result are created in the same way…

Although the final product may appear similar it’s not always the same.

And that’s what’s great about developing an app for Bubble…

The platform offers you the option to start with a “blank paper” and create exactly what you need however, with this capability it is essential to determine the most effective path is left to you.

In this blog, we’ll be taking a different approach and dissecting the most effective practices for external Scalability  Bubble App.

With caution, “in-editor” best practices can be applied to any app and user case in general. 

Use these best practices regardless of what kind of app you’re developing you’ll set yourself up for growth.

Scalability as well as performance, from a user perspective but also the effectiveness of workflows you use, databases structure and much more the most effective techniques aren’t just “plug in and enjoy.”

Scalable Bubble App Best Practice 

Structure Your Database Correctly:

Consider your database as an integral part of your application’s “system.”

It’s the basis of your application — and among the biggest items that you could spend your time on.

Your database can indeed be structured in various ways, making it simple to choose the wrong path.

The structure of your database must be up-to-date for the purpose you intend to use it for as well as identical across the board this is crucial.

Imagine logging into your inbox of emails, and you don’t have a system that is consistent in regards to how information emails drafts, emails, deleted emails, and much more is organized and stored.

If your inbox was only an area for messages, you shouldn’t be using it.

To ensure that you keep checking your inbox every day you’ll need to have labels, folders, subfolders and much more and everything must be consistent regardless of where in your inbox you are, or what you’re in contact with.

About the Bubble database, it is important to know if you’ve got things like…

• Duplicate records
• Missing values
• Relationships that are not correct
• Your application’s overall functionality and user-friendliness will be affected.

A bubble requires a reference to your database for your application to function in a way. If you’ve configured your databases in a manner that makes it difficult to reference them, Bubble will slow down.

And to that, overbuilding your database is also an error that can make it difficult for Bubble to sort through the information within your application.

Take the time to map and organize your data (ideally before building it in Bubble) And do it with Bubble’s ability to filter and search your database with an eye. It will help you adopt an efficiency-first mentality that will lead to a more flexible application ( see app examples here).

Utilize Option Sets Properly

The option sets feature a function in Bubble which lets you build an array of pre-defined choices in the app.

If you’re not using option sets properly or even properly and instead just ask for data from users and let them fill in their information according to their personal preferences, the app could soon be in danger of suffering.

This could give your app an improvement in performance since options sets aren’t in your app’s database and therefore there’s no “load” that can be added.

It’s also great for ensuring uniformity throughout your app, affecting the user’s perception of performance.

If they don’t have to go through a variety of different kinds of data in your application (if you present the inputs of users as options for other users also) the processes of your users will naturally become faster. Even if your app’s functioning is different, it’ll appear as it’s.

Create Front-End Layouts Strategically

Some layouts for the front end work great with smaller amounts of content or information, but as your app grows, those exact layouts may begin to show poor performance.

There could be a directory of 10 users, as an example the way you present this data may work with the 10 people…

Once you hit 100,000 or 1000 users, it could begin to fail.

We’re huge advocates of starting with a basic foundation and moving to fancy later…

When you’re designing designs, it’s often sensible to choose an alternative method.

When you’re creating your application and testing data when you’re not correctly creating how this data is displayed at the right scale, you’ll not notice issues with performance or display which could develop later on.

For example, if using a repeating group in your Bubble application to show 10 results in your data source, the app could run and work smoothly…

However, suppose that the repeating group is trying present 1000 results. In that case, it may render your entire site unusable because of spacing and layout load times, as well as general accessibility for anyone trying to sort through the information.

Making plans too far ahead isn’t generally a good idea for your application due to the ease of being able to make assumptions in the beginning (if you’re in the preliminary or prototype stage it’s crucial not to go way too much ahead) However, when it concerns proper front-end layouts it’s worthwhile to take having a plan in place.

Use the correct plugins

While you’re developing your app and trying out various plugins, you’ll see yourself adding many different plugins for your application, but ultimately deciding not to make use of them for some reason or other.

The issue is that every time you add a plug-in to your application it is technically adding code.

The best general rule of thumb is to remove all plugins that you aren’t actively making use of within your application.

Additionally, however, determine if you need to utilize an application at all…

Are you using a third-party plugin or service that’s developed and maintained by someone else that will add any value to your app when compared to creating it yourself (in the way that you be sure it’s well-performing and expandable)?

Make the Image Sizes small

This is certainly “plug and go,” and there are no complexities here…

If your image file size is excessively large, it could create delays in loading speed.

You can either limit the number that you’re using images or ensure you compress images properly with an application such as tinypng.com.

Disable the functionality that is not being used on your pages

It’s possible to ask yourself what the reason you’d want to leave unfinished functions on the pages of your app…

It’s common to see developers building out different elements, features and workflows, but not all at once then putting them “not visible” even though they’re still being developed.

If you’ve got hidden elements in your pages, however, they’ll be loaded when the page loads. If the workflow is linked to these invisible elements is often the case, the app will be working in the background.

While users don’t notice this happening, it could cause a slowdown to your app.

Develop efficient workflows

Around 98% of the performance and scalability of your app is dependent on the data you use — as well as the structure of your database, and the way you use the data in your application.

The way you present, utilize information and reference it in workflows can have a major impact on the performance of your app.

The method you use to ask Bubble to find something within your app could be executed in many different ways, just like we have previously discussed…

Let’s take an example. there is a Field under the user’s name to record the Date of Birth.

If you want to show the user’s age in your application, you’ll have to design an expression inside a Bubble which determines the user’s age every when it’s displayed.

 

General Facts on Scalable Bubble App:

The smaller the amount of data that is fetched and the more efficient the performance

A page typically requires a data fetch during page loading. A page that fetches 100 objects upon page load will load more quickly than one that retrieves 1 million data items similarly, fetching basic kinds of data like numbers will take less time than fetching millions of MBs of data.In the same way, having lots of simple and small pages will speed up the process more than having less complicated pages.

Sorting or filtering should be as close to the original query as possible

The bubble has already optimized database queries in numerous ways, however, performing sorting or filtering at the database level is extremely efficient. That implies that questions that apply sort or filter to them are more likely to be efficient than queries using sorting or filtering following some different kind of alteration or manipulation of results (an example of this is that searching: count is more effective than searching: group using: count)

Utilising advanced filters may slow down queries

The underlying idea is that the sort (or sort) is done “on in the database” and that it will be quicker than the filters (or sort) that Bubble must perform after obtaining the initial set of data in the database. What filters are performed on the database and which ones are? not? Filters that appear within the Search palette (the sidebar that opens after you press “Do Search to find”) are performed in the database and therefore generally speedy. Filters that are applied using the filter are usually “advanced” filters, which tend to be slower.

Chained queries operate in a series, not parallel

With Bubble, you can utilize what you get from one query to the criteria for another. These searches are run in sequence, not in parallel so if the first search yields lots of information and slows the subsequent search as well.

Bubble already handles a great deal of optimization of performance

 Bubble attempts to perform queries on the database, modify images stored on the server and instruct the browser to store Javascript or other scripts, etc. in the appropriate way. When you’re using a query which appears to be relatively easy and returns very little data, and it’s running extremely slow look into whether there’s any optimization that can be made to the data hierarchy of the app or queries by the guidelines in this article.

It is generally accepted that the more straightforward method of expressing an inquiry is the fastest

This is not always the case but an excellent general rule of thumb. The bubble is always striving to optimize database performance for the most popular patterns.

Beware of changing data on each page load

 Altering element states is more efficient than calling additional databases to achieve the same result.

Consider moving costly calculations to the background to schedule workflows

A scheduled workflow could execute the heavy query, and save the results somewhere to be used later on; this is much more efficient than running the query when a page loads.

Make use of this “Make changes to an item on a List of X” workflow step with caution

This action is excellent for making quick changes to a small list of items, but when the number of items on the list increases and the list grows, it can increase the possibility of running out of time. If you’re experiencing delays with this method, think about “Schedule API Workflow on a list” This is more efficient because it reads the list and creates the API Workflow that runs for every item on the list in a separate manner (i.e. lessening the possibility of an error)

Let’s begin creating the Scalable Bubble App with Brisk Logic.

Each app is unique…

This means that your ideal workflow and database structure will be different from someone else’s.

To make it even more complicated to that, even if you’re creating a similar feature to someone else the best way to accomplish the task might not be appropriate for the other person and the reverse is also true.

The main thing to do is gain an understanding of the way a database is organized inside Bubble, and also how Bubble refers to data.

However, ultimately, it will allow you to develop a robust and well-performing application that you can expand into a company — or one that can support your existing business in the long term.