Hi there- I was just wondering about the possibility of adding a new feature surrounding components which could hopefully expedite some slow and time consuming processes- namely defining more complex variables which rely on the modal values of other variables without applying and editing it every single time to every relevant component- which is incredibly time consuming (for context, I used Figma as required for an assessment task, and building it with the variables in interactions took up too much time, both in figuring out how to apply variables if I couldn’t predefine them -apart from simple definitions in the variables table- and in debugging all of it- I even stayed up all night because I was too stressed- I ended up working on it from late afternoon all the way to 8 AM and thinking of solutions and I still couldn’t finish it- and that was just some of the final touches that should not have taken as long as it did.. even got sick from not sleeping. I’m still sick from it).

So, I was wondering if, in the variables table, if we could use a similar kind of approach to the conditional logic interaction with components in the variables values- where we can create that logic through equations, for example, only once then apply it to each component that requires it (e.g. “product_1_final_cost == product_1_quant * product_1_value” or “product sums==product1 + product 2 + etc….” or even “cart total== product sums*110% (GST) + card fees + shipping cost”- where an ingrained definition of that value would be quite helpful)- essentially, you’ll have to do the same thing over and over to get all of them working, and you’ll likely have to define that same variable again (or change it) in interactions, costing time that could be spent doing other things.

So now, onto my second point- the conditional action. This overall is great but takes up a lot of time when you’re doing something like enabling anyone previewing it to type- for starters, you need to make the blocks they’re connected to, then add 1 conditional for every required key (the lower and uppercase alphabet, space bar, backspace (wondering how to make the spacebar only delete 1 previous letter, though that would likely require a vector component (or whatever equivalent CSS has to this, please forgive my C++ terminology in the stead of CSS. I really need to understand CSS more)), then the numbers and symbols (all of which is quite literally 94 interactions). Then all of these conditional interactions need to be applied to other blocks that may need separate text variables so it doesn’t repeat the initial entry. The current solution? Copy and paste every interaction. The problem? You need to change every single text variable entered in those *94* interactions with multiple commands to suit that one block. Then go through and check all of them to ensure you didn’t miss anything. This from experience wastes hours if you’ve got multiple blocks that need this to function. While I don’t know what could be done about the keyboard interactions specifically, I know the issue about changing variables after copying and pasting the interactions into a separate block definitely bleeds through. In that situation, could there possibly be a way to have an option to edit all of them once they’re all selected and have an option to view and change any variables entered to the desired variable? Sort of like- “hey, here’s all the variables you’ve used in these selected interactions. Feel free to change any” and have a sort of array of each variable that was used in the interactions, where you could just change in a similar format to the “target variable” setting in the conditional block- essentially a dropdown menu which shows possible replacements to the currently present variable selected. Could this possibly work?

As someone who actually works… sort of... as a site developer (technically part time at a small business-  but anyway) and has learnt a few programming languages to a certain degree-- despite forgetting most of it, I at least know from experience how difficult coding and debugging really is, so no hard feelings if nothing is done about this. I just really think it’s beneficial to have some kind of process in place to make actions like these quicker so that developers can focus on other more pressing matters- like front-end operations such as testing, designing, debugging, and back-end operations that make the front end work such as working out shipping details, security measures, logging errors / malfunctions, etc...- or if I or any other student needs to work on this again for a school assessment. Thank you for reading my lengthy blob-paragraph monstrosity / abomination and have a nice day / night.