Toolset is the greatest thing since the beginning of time immemorial

Thank you for your feedback @dcrunningguy

I know that Types requires a bit of a learning curve.

Once you master it, I think it is quite powerful.

Do you have any points in mind that really made you struggle and that you suggest to change?

We are always eager to improve the plugin according real user voices!

Sure, thanks for asking. A few thoughts:

There are lots of pieces, and it can be difficult at times to understand “what goes with what” and “what does what”. You have post types, fields, taxonomies, templates, archives, views and forms. It is essentially a content management system, and that’s great. The dashboard describes which is the front end and back end pieces…also great. But you end hitting unforeseen snags, which is true anywhere, but especially frustrating at times here given the time investment required.

I’ve had challenges with connecting “fields” created with other WordPress add-ons to Toolset applications. I understand the reasoning you give regarding not querying other application’s databases, but I was able to accomplish that with other add-ons who also appear to be following WP’s guidelines.

I think the most difficult aspect to learn was Views. Understanding what a View is was simple enough…but navigating the complex interface and options available for it was daunting. Everything just sort of looked alike but did slightly different things (in Views).

Also, the Toolset builder can be very clunky. Fortunately, you have good integration with Beaver Builder. Creating forms with Toolset (from a style standpoint) is not fun and pretty time consuming. And you are sort of wedded to using the Toolset form application because connecting user-submitted form content to your backend Toolset applications generally requires this. This goes back to the disconnect between, let’s say, Gravity Forms and Toolset.

So if I were to synthesize, I’d say the 1) User Interface needs to makeover, 2)there needs to be clearer and simpler clues to how things flow together 3) there needs to be better integration with other add-ons, especially data coming from them (seeing how Toolset is basically CMS) and 4) Views should be easier to understand and navigate.

Overall, I still give it four stars. It does more than most applications, and while I ended up not being able to use it how I wanted to, I am still going to be able to use pieces of it.

It is all THE ABSOLUTE BEST way to learn about WordPress data management. Because you will be forced to learn about it. You are not going to walk away from Toolset with a finished product knowing just as much about how WordPress content is set up than when you started. It is a baptism by fire.

Hi @dcrunningguy.

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback.

While I can logically not make it all happen at the moment, I pass this feedback on to different projects and developers.

I can as well confirm that most of the points you touched are “on our table”.
We are working on them, not only thru the new Many To Many updates (which also enhance the GUI in general) – but also in questions of integration and compatibility.

It is interesting that of all the Toolset, Views has been the most complex for you.
It was the same for me back in time.

I will discuss this detail with my colleagues in Support and we will see what we can improve.

Thank you once again for the feedback.

It is not unheard here.