Speed intro

Eager to just get started with Appfarm Create? Check out this short intro to Appfarm Create.

But first: Log in to Appfarm Create with your email address.

Solution & navigation

When logged in to Appfarm Create, you are inside a Solution. You, as an Appfarm Developer, might have access to several Solutions. You see the name of your Solution (and might switch between Solutions) in the top-left menu.

A Solution has its own database and may have one or more applications (Apps). An end customer (company) typically has 1 Solution. You may read more on the Key concepts here.

Create an App

Click the + New App. You may start from scratch by selecting Blank App, or get a kickstart by selecting one of the Apps from our Farmers Market.

You may target different devices (or let the App be responsive) by selecting App Settings in the top-right corner of your App.

Adjust User Interfaces & Logic

An App consists of User Interfaces, Data and Actions. You may switch between these in the top menu.

User Interfaces

Create User Interfaces visually by dragging UI Components from the library to the left, onto the designer window. When selecting a UI component, you find settings for the visual appearance, data binding and event handlers in the pane to the right. The 3 first tabs in the screenshot below are the main properties, styles and conditional styles.

Data

Add Data Sources or Variables to be used in your App. For instance, you may add Tasks as a Data Source, and specify a Filter to tell the database which records should be read (or tick Read all to read all entries). Data Sources and Variables are shared between User Interfaces and Actions.

Actions

An Action may be everything from simple navigation between two Views to complex workflows. Actions are triggered by events in the user interfaces, such as the On Click Event of a Button added to your UI.

Actions are created and orchestrated by dragging Action Nodes (logical building blocks) from the library to the left. Actions are executed from top to bottom.

Preview your App

To test your App, just click the Play button (Preview App). This is the same as testing your App in the Develop environment. Everything is deployed to Develop automatically.

When testing your App, you may use the bottom right Blue Rocket to open the Debug tool.

Define the Data Model (for data handling)

If your App should collect data, or display data from a database, you need to define the data structure in the menu Global Data Model. Defining the Data Model in Appfarm Create is the same as defining the database. You may add Object Classes (=database tables) and Object Class Properties (=database table columns) with different data types. You may add references between Object Classes by setting the Data Type of an Object Class Property to a Reference

The Object Classes in the Global Data Model may be shared and used across multiple Apps. For example, you may have one App for administrators and another App for end users, both using the same Global Data Model.