Rename and Move Folder Options are Inactive

💬 App Building
1

  • Goal: Trying to rename a folder or move it but the folder is inactive

  • Steps: Right click on folder. I can delete (probably it won't work), but Move and Rename are inactive.

  • Details: I've got two layers of folders and a number of apps, some protected. I also have a number of branches but I've been trying to make sure they're all committed and nothing is changed on them. This is not easy as "recent" and "suggested" branches seem to be either mirages of deleted branches or it's unclear if there are any changes not committed. So visibility is difficult. But regardless, I have no visibility into why some folders can be moved and renamed and others not.

  • I'm Admin so I have power to do anything.

  • This must have something to do with some state of the apps in the folders but I have no idea what would be checked out or uncommitted

  • Screenshots attached.

    Example 1
    Example 1850×217 19.1 KB

    Example 2
    Example 2853×196 17.4 KB

2

Similarly, here I've got a module I would like to delete but it's protected and I can't unprotect it.

Why is it inactive?

3

Hi @ijames,
This can happen if there are any apps in that folder that are protected. Is that the case?
(still looking into the module...)

4

Hi Linda,

Thanks for your reply!

Yep, that's the situation. So I understand what's going on here.

It definitely makes this particular feature very brittle compared to the powerful flexibility that Retool provides in general. I've got a lot of protected apps in that folder and I can't unprotect them. This locks me into a folder name that doesn't exactly fit unless I do a lot of unprotecting and protecting and that seems very unpleasant.

It's a curious thing that a containing folder is a dependency of the items in the folder in this way. Very counter intuitive because of the meaning that a "folder" carries with it, that you can pick it up and move it and the contents are irrelevant.

I'm assuming there's a roadmap here to address the protecting/foldering/url relationship here so that either folders morph into something more aligned with their intuitive meaning, or that a new paradigm for containers and apps are established.

My suggestion is to use app tags instead of a hierarchy, so that all apps can be tagged however the teams want and that it's through filtering that apps are organized. Having a single organizing dimension for such a broad powerful tool seems limiting.

So, what are the plans?

James

5

@ijames,
Yes, I agree with you that this is not the best way to handle folders. I will file a feature request with our team for this.

Meanwhile, here are a couple suggested workarounds:

  1. Create a new folder that has the name and/or location you want and move all the apps there.

OR

  1. Create a temporary folder
  2. Move all the protected apps to that folder
  3. Update the original folder as needed
  4. Move all the apps back

Both these workarounds will require prs and merges, but at least you won't have to unprotect and reprotect!

1 Like
6

Thanks Linda! It was painless enough, though a lot of merges needing to happen took a while.