I actually reported this privately to Coda prior to 2020, and specifically requested at that time for a toggle to turn the search bar on or off.
Their response to me was one of confusion at the time, not seeing understanding its value or use case and commenting that it wasn’t likely that feature would ship because no one else has asked for it.
Clearly more people are asking for it now!
But to be honest - I’ve changed my opinion and I don’t necessarily think that the search bar should be toggled off.
“Hiding” data securely can only be done at the api level. Meaning that different data is loaded to the clients browser dependent on who they are and what data they are authorized to view. This is a fundamental principle when building web applications.
Coda was not meant to be a web app builder
In fact, their website doesn’t mention power like an app anymore excerpt for a few places, and then only farther down below the fold.
Can you make one as powerful and secure as an app? Sure! Filter at the api level which can be accomplished with Cross doc.
Or, build a doc truly as powerful as an app where security is not of any concern because it’s an app used internally by a trusted team.
Codas Headline Now
Your all-in-one collaborative workspace. Coda brings teams and tools together for a more organized work day.
Coda fits very neatly as a collaborative workspace bringing teams and tools together
So should we hide the search bar?
Now let’s all be honest - those in this thread are the minority - pushing coda to its limits in nearly every way.
Shoot - our team just launched the Xano pack to let you use Coda as your front end without any fear of out-scaling coda with row limits!
And there’s many times where I personally would still like that search bar gone. But I don’t know any longer if it should be a priority?
Right now, the best method is as @Agile_Dynamics explained - making sure the base table has all of its columns hidden, and you impose filters and locking. (And then follow all the principles of access tables as referenced earlier!)
The search bar exposes all display column items in your doc, and then when you hover over those items, it shows you the visible column information from the base table. So if you hide all columns in the base table - the search bar doesn’t expose actual cell data
Or you can actually hide the search bar if you publish a doc and use top level navigation.
All in all, I’d still like to hide the search bar but think it’s good to remember that **
hiding the search bar is just a band-aid in the quest for secure apps
**.
Secure apps only come by filtering at the api level - and cross doc is your only “coda” solution. There are other solutions but you must pair coda with other tools and that’s not always ideal.
Will coda one day launch this feature? No idea. But if they don’t or drag their feet hopefully that brings some context to possibly why.