Progress Report - March 2023

We don't mean to brag... but March has been very good to us 😀 Work on Backpack v6 has been going very very well, so we have a lot to u...

Cristian Tabacitu

Published on 31 March 2023 in News

Share:

• 
• 

We don't mean to brag... but March has been very good to us 😀 Work on Backpack v6 has been going very very well, so we have a lot to unpack:

Maintenance

Let's quickly get this out of the way - since our last progress report, we've pushed to:

• CRUD: 12 bug fixes;
• PRO: 1 bug fix;

New Features in Backpack v5

Our v5 focus this month has been on UX... improving the administrator's experience. And we've got two new features for them, that pack a great punch:

Compress line buttons into a dropdown

The more custom operations you add to a CrudController... the more powerful it becomes. But it can also become an eyesore... with the line buttons taking up so much space that there's no room for information. This is something we've seen time and time again - CrudControllers getting seemingly too BIG. If you've been there, have no fear, Mauro has created a quick way for us to compress all of those buttons, so they don't take up so much space:

public function setupListOperation() {
    // ...
    CRUD::setOperationSetting('lineButtonsAsDropdown', true);
}

Check out the docs here.

Add a Delete button to the Edit form

If you've ever been asked by your clients to add a "Delete" button to the Update operation, we have good news for you. Mauro has add that as a built-in feature now, you just need to enable it:

public function setupUpdateOperation() {
    // ...
    CRUD::setOperationSetting('showDeleteButton', true);
}

This could be an excellent UX improvement, basically removing the need to set up the Show operation in most cases. The admin can click Edit... see all fields, then either edit them or click Delete. Check out the docs here.

Backpack v6 - coming soon

We're proud to say work on Backpack v6 has been going very well. So good in fact, that we're probably tagging the private alpha version next week 🤞 And it's already got some very cool features up its sleeve. But before all that - don't worry! If you've purchased Backpack v5 one year before the v6 launch, you'll have access to v6. In case you don't know, every Backpack purchase comes with 12 months of updates and upgrades 😉 So for most people, no need to purchase anything else, it'll be a free upgrade.

But yes... here are a few cool things we have ready in Backpack v6, to get you all excited:

Dark mode

You wanted it... you have it! Thanks to upgrading to Bootstrap v5 and Tabler... we have a brand new "dark mode" look, that Mauro has spent a lot of time polishing:

The image doesn't do it justice, though... I can't express how good this is. Not only does it look cool, but it's also so usable and easy on the eyes. Coming soon in Backpack v6!

Themes

Antonio, Mauro and Tabacitu have been working on something BIG. The ability to easily create Backpack themes. Basically, you can take any Bootstrap HTML template out there... and within a few hours... create a Backpack theme, so Backpack looks like that. This. Is. HUGE. This means if your client doesn't like the default Backpack style, you can just let them choose an admin panel from GetBootstrap, Envato or WrapBootstrap... and you can make Backpack use that template 🤯

This was possible before, of course, but it wasn't recommended, not documented. But soon, you'll be able to do this, faster than ever, by following a few steps. Coming soon in Backpack v6!

An innovative way of loading CSS & JS assets

We've invented a dead-simple way of loading your CSS and JS. This helps Backpack drop its weight from ~100 MB to about 2 MB! That. Is. CRAZY! And best of all... it's open-source... so you'll be able to do the same in your front-end app. Hell, you'll even be able to use this if you don't use Backpack:

// just do
@basset('https://unpkg.com/vue@3/dist/vue.global.js')

// and the system will internalize it and output something like
<script src="https://your-app.com/bassets/vue@3/dist/vue.global.js"></script>

This means you're getting most of the benefits of using a CDN (except caching), but NONE of the downsides. No privacy concerns. No GDPR. No downtime concerns. Since the asset is quickly downloaded to your server, and served from there. So if you dislike using NPM... and want to load assets "the old-fashioned way"... you will LOVE this thing Antonio and Tabacitu have invented. Coming soon in Backpack v6!

One more thing

Pedro and Jorge have also been working on something BIG. Something that took us 3+ months to figure out. We've taken something you've asked for... to a whole new level. But you know what? I'm not going to tell you what it is yet 😀 You'll have to subscribe to our blog digest or follow us on Twitter to find out 😀 Coming soon in Backpack v6!

Others

Bonus - here are a few more cool things we've done this month:

Cool new promo video on Github

We're pretty proud about this! As far as we know, we're the first repo in the Laravel community to add a promo video on their README. Check it out here, and remember to turn on the sound too. We're getting better and better at this video thing, right? 🤞

Laravel tips & tricks on Twitter

Thanks to Karan, we've now started posting general-purpose Laravel tips on our Twitter. So by following us, you'll not only learn tips & tricks about Backpack, but about Laravel itself.

Stay tuned. GREAT things coming soon!

Thanks for using Backpack. We love doing this for you. Cheers!