Best Practices for Handling Multi-Page App Transitions and App Size Concerns

Hello everyone,

I'm currently developing a multi-page application using a sidebar for navigation across various apps. However, I've encountered a couple of challenges that I hope to get some insights on:

Transition Lag Between Apps: Each time I navigate from one app to another within my multi-page setup, there's a noticeable loading time where the screen briefly turns white, resembling a flicker, before the next app appears. This loading takes approximately one second. Is this considered a normal behavior for such transitions? How can I minimize or eliminate this flicker effect to ensure a smoother user experience?

Feedback on Consolidating Apps: To address the transition issue, I received a suggestion to merge my multiple apps into a single app. However, doing so led to another concern - the app size becomes quite large, and I received feedback from debugging tools that the app size is too big. What is considered an appropriate size for an app to ensure optimal performance and manageability? Are there best practices for managing app size while still offering a comprehensive user experience?

I would greatly appreciate any advice, experiences, or strategies you might have regarding these issues. Specifically, I'm looking for guidance on:

Minimizing transition times between apps in a multi-page setup.
Best practices for app size management when consolidating multiple functionalities into a single app.
Thank you in advance for your time and assistance. I look forward to your valuable insights.

3 Likes

Hi! I'm facing the same problem, end-users are mentioning it takes so much time to switch between apps (Since I'm saving values to DB before switching tabs), If you are not saving any data before switching to another app then you should keep everything within the same app, that second of loading its normal for Retool.

1 Like

Hi @Hayoung_Lee and @JuanPablo! We're currently working on multiscreen apps, which will reduce latency when transitioning between different pages/apps. I'll update this thread when we're ready for early users!

4 Likes

Definitely want to try!

Yes please :slight_smile:

+1

+1 on this.

I’m sort of confused by all this.

Much of what I read says get resource heavy apps, apps with multiple queries etc into different apps and then use the features to make it seamless.

So I finally planned out my app. Being as efficient as possible using modules etc - and then I see the restrictions it causes me

My findings:

  1. Breadcrumbs are pretty useless
  2. Modules for dynamic nav’s are quite challenging when you want to use url params
  3. The lag is untenable for client use
  4. The white flicker is also untenable for client use - and looks very unprofessional

I’m sure some of this comes down to my lack of knowledge but I’m kind of at a cross roads and not quite sure which way to turn now to get my ‘super app’ ready.

I’m coming to conclusion multiple apps in retool can not be seamless. Not even close.

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I'm also running with this issue. And could not find any solution to improve the transition glitch.

The lag makes me rethink that retool can't be used for a user facing solution.

  • Ideally the sidebar navigation should be persistant
  • a transition or skeleton should be offered for the main app content
1 Like

Totally agree with this. I just started merging all my individual apps into one full admin to improve navigation and discovery but the app switching is so glitchy/jumpy I'm hesitant to release this to my team.

Hello everyone, this feature is still in development and we are actively collecting all your +1s! :slightly_smiling_face:
On the meantime, we advice not to merge individual apps into one, this will have an impact on performance.

1 Like