Another sprint, another sprint review!
EDIT: We added additional information received from the Anytype team!
Although this sprint was not as feature packed as the previous sprint, a lot of work has been done on putting the plans of previous sprints into practice
. Let’s start with the (I think) most impactful change under “Process Improvements” and then dive into a great new feature to look forward to in the next release
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Note
As @Jeroen pointed out to me (thank you! ), people might take the information shared in the sprint review meeting notes as “promises” and could be disappointed if the release notes don’t include at least all the updates that were shared in the sprint review meeting notes. Hopefully, the following “disclaimer” clarifies the intent of sharing these meeting notes and makes the communication a bit better/clearer again
: information shared in sprint review meeting notes communicates what was achieved in the past sprint and sometimes even provides an outlook to what to expect from coming sprints. Now that the release train has been put in motion, the bug fixes and new features that are showcased usually are planned for the first next release (sometimes even explicitly mentioned, like for simple tables, see below) but this could always change before the actual release date for several reasons. Please take these notes as an attempt to give you a picture of Anytype’s development state as up-to-date as possible
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Process Improvements
In the previous sprint review meeting it was announced that big improvements were coming to the way new versions are released in the form of a “release train” . The upcoming release (planned for August 1st, 2022) is the first release where a new feature is released (almost*) simultaneosly on all platforms to move towards feature parity across all platforms step by step
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Product Updates
All Platforms
New Feature
: Simple Tables
First announced here on Twitter!
Use the “/” slash menu to add a simple table with “/table” or specify the dimensions with “/table4x5”. Simple tables start out simple with these features available on all platforms:
- Plain text and Object-mentions (using “@”)
- Cell formatting/styling
- Add/remove row/column
- Sort (currently columns only)
Desktop
On the desktop, URL/linking related features got a lot of love
New features
- Simple tables (next release, 1-AUG-2022), see above for details
- Desktop only: Cell navigation with keyboard
- Desktop only: Cell navigation with keyboard
- Set account data location
during setup (linked to login and registration screen improvements, see below). Note
: this feature is not ready for prime time, so it won’t be part of the upcoming release.
- Use Object from Library as Object cover
Bug Fixes
- Location of links inside preview of linked Objects is now static (always at the bottom)
Other Improvements
- UI of login and registration screens is improved
- “Link” option in Quick menu is improved: by default, only a search box is shown and when you start typing you get suggestions based on the query (suggestions to link to Objects, Relations, website, email address)
- For inline links, the menu options in the preview to edit/copy URL/unlink are improved
- Work on “decluttering” is still in progress
- Work on “sidebar refactoring” is still in progress
- Work on “multi-windows” is still in progress
- Work on “Kanban” is still in progress
- Editor optimizations (no details shared)
iOS
New features
- Simple Tables (next release, 1-AUG-2022), see above for details
- iOS only: multi-select cells for styling
- Bookmark Set
can open link to web view
- Image link and page with properties (Relations)
Bug Fixes
- Checkbox state can now be changed from Set view
- Removed “Done” button in navigation bar in Move mode
- Fixed crash on start for some users
- Fixed search through relations doesn’t work
- Fixed text alignment in text block
Other Improvements
- Implemented handling tap on file/image/video/bookmark link
- Implemented using async calls for middleware functions (no further details shared)
Android
New features
Note : due to problems faced with testing, the next release will be on 7-AUG-2022, so about a week later than the other platforms!
- Simple Tables, see above for details
Bug Fixes
- “Hide” icon option should be always available in View Settings for Grid view in Sets
- Set Grid View header should display / hide object icon in row headers according to the view settings
- Remove “History” option and “Template” action from object’s menu
- Invalid layout in headers containing task checkbox and cover
- Toast error messages related to Undo / Redo operations should have TOP gravity
- Default color for text in featured-relations block should be text/secondary, not text/primary
- Should not trigger keyboard opening when tapping on object’s top toolbar
- Display object icon image / emoji in object top toolbar header
- Rectangle border of the file block in loading state has incorrect color in dark mode
- “Alignment.Middle” option is sometimes available for “Highlight” block when quickly selecting blocks in select-mode
- Some items have incorrect bottom offset on wallpaper-picker screen in Settings
- Redesign of recovery phrase screens to better protect/hide the content
- Flaking remaining days count issue when using “Delete Account” in Settings
Backend/middleware
- Updated get started page for new accounts (default content in Anytype for new accounts)
- Added sync metrics on clients for better sync issue troubleshooting
- Fixed “Human” type in store on wrong place, sorting from A-Z (bug report)
- Fixed parent block duplication after turning it and its children into a page
- Fixed multiselect text copy and paste to title
Community/Communication
@Angelo shared a lot of awesomeness about community and communication related topics.
- Town Hall event is planned and available in Discord
- Integrations are set up and being tested between different platforms. This should further increase transparency (mainly with a public kanban) and knowledge sharing (better alignment between alpha users & mods & Anytype team/devs)
- Discourse (input of bug reports and feature requests) > Linear (internal tracker)
- Linear > GitHub (public Kanban board)
- Most Anytype team members are now on the Discourse forum to interact with the community (replying to posts, tagging topics). Feel free to wave and say if you come across a team member!
- Discourse plugin will be installed to have more detailed reporting on the number of topics and posts with certain statuses in the various categories