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

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.

Create an 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

Data

Actions

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

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

Define the Data Model (for data handling)

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.

Appfarm Create has a comprehensive toolbox for delivering everything from simple web forms to complex multi-user business applications.

Learning Appfarm can be done in multiple ways. Some people want to really learn Appfarm Create, with the purpose of becoming a skilled Appfarm Developer. Others just want to explore.

This article collects 3 paths to quickly get started with Appfarm, depending on your time, purpose and preferences!

Speed intro

Get started with Appfarm Create in 3 minutes!

Step-by-step guide

Create your first App following our step-by-step guide for setting up a Task manager application.

Take our intro course

Follow our video-based Appfarm Appcademy Intro Course. Approximately 90 minutes of videos, and a series of assignments to be done. This intro course normally requires 4-12 (well-spent) hours of effort. Click the page link below for more info.

New to Appfarm?

Explore Appfarm Create

How-to guides

Support

Appfarm is a full-stack no-code development platform. With Appfarm, you can create and distribute cross-platform web applications in a single interface without writing a single line of code.

The entire development lifecycle, from design and development, through to testing and deployment and ultimately hosting and maintenance, is handled in a web-based tool called Appfarm Create.

Appfarm enables anyone to be a full-stack developer by taking care of the complex, technical aspects of software development for you. Instead of having to worry about security, browser compatibility, and DevOps, you can simply combine flexible building blocks to create complete web applications. This creates the opportunity for more people than ever to solve problems with software.

Appfarm aims to deliver a true no-code experience, without any compromises. That means Appfarm can be used to develop a wide variety of software, from a classic todo app through to business-critical enterprise solutions.

As a developer in Appfarm Create, you have full flexibility to express complex visual designs and functionality, tailored to your unique needs and circumstances. In this sense, Appfarm can offer the almost limitless possibilities of more traditional programming techniques while making development far easier, faster, and more efficient.

Appfarm Create in 10 minutes

Let Thomas give you a short intro to Appfarm Create.

There are a number of foundational concepts that you will come across as you develop and deploy apps on the Appfarm platform. You will find that development is easier and faster if you first understand how these concepts fit together.

Solution

Global data model

The global data model is where you define all your business objects, or object classes. The global data model is shared across all the apps and services in a solution. This enables different views into your business data by creating applications tailored to different roles and use cases.

On top of the global data model, you can define a granular security layer controlling who can create, read, update and delete data.

App

An app is a web application composed of a user interface, data sources, and actions. Data sources provide access to the data in the global data model as well as other application-specific data. Actions enable application flow and business logic. The user interface is connected to data sources and actions to display data and collect and respond to user input.

Apps can range from advanced desktop business applications to lightweight mobile web apps.

Service

A service can be thought of as an app without a user interface. A service is composed of one or more endpoints, data sources, and optionally actions. An endpoint acts as the external interface of the service, facilitating which data is returned and what actions, if any, are triggered.

Services are triggered by external web requests, by schedules, or by other services and apps.

Data source

You define which objects from your global data model you want to use in an app or service by creating data sources. A data source may hold one or many objects. This is referred to as cardinality. A data source with a cardinality of many can be configured with a filter to contain a subset of objects. You can create multiple data sources that point to the same object class.

Action

An action is where you define application flow and business logic such as navigation, data manipulation and iterations, conditional logic, file import/export, web requests to external APIs, and more.

In apps, actions are triggered by events such as when a user first loads an app, clicks a button, or uses a keyboard shortcut. In services, actions are triggered when an endpoint is called.

An action consists of one or more action nodes, which are pre-built logic and function blocks that you can easily combine and configure. Many action nodes are common for apps and services, but some are only relevant for one of them, such as navigation logic for apps.

Users, roles and permissions

Appfarm implements a layered approach to security through users, roles and permissions. For a user, whether they are a human or an external API, to access and use an app or service, they must be assigned a role that has been granted the necessary permissions.

A user exists at the solution level and spans all enabled deployment environments. Each user can be assigned one or more roles, for example Administrator or Editor. Each role is granted permissions, which are granular definitions of what environments, functionality, and data that role can interact with. The sum of the permissions granted to a user's roles determines their access.

Environment

A solution can be deployed across four environments: Development, Test, Staging, and Production. The environments available in a given solution depend on your solution tier. The Development, Test, and Production environments each have their own separate databases. The Staging environment uses the Production database.

All changes are automatically deployed to the Development environment as you make changes in Appfarm Create. In order to push changes to another environment you must manually deploy them.

Welcome to the Appfarm Fundamentals Intro Course!

This is an interactive, self-paced course to help you learn how to build apps in Appfarm Create. The course includes a combination of instructive videos and assignments for you to complete in your own solution inside Appfarm Create.

It is also possible to view the videos without access to Appfarm Create (in that case, skip step 1 and the .

Step 1: Log in to Appfarm Create

2. To get the Intro Course Apps: Go to menu Apps -> New App -> Browse all apps, locate the Intro Course Apps and click Get App. Two apps My Projects and My Projects (Complete version) is added to your solution.

Step 2: Watch general intro videos

We have 8 short videos to give you a high-level, theoretical overview of Appfarm Create.

Click the link below to navigate to the first video.

Step 3: Watch video tutorials and perform assignments

Videos 9–16 provides a guide to various features to help you complete a series of assignments.

2. Watch video 9 and 10 for introduction, then start with the assignments from video 11. Click link below for video 9.

Step 4: Take the quiz

Finally, there is a multiple-choice quiz where you can test your knowledge of Appfarm Create.

Next steps

You are now ready to start experimenting and building your own apps! Feel free to create new apps in your solution.

If you are on a 30-day free trial, with solution name starting with Appcademy in the top left corner: Your Appcademy solution is just like any other Appfarm solution and can be used to build whatever you would like. Please note, however, that the access period to this training solution is limited, and the whole solution will be reset unless you contact Appfarm upon expiry for further access.

Complete the Appfarm Fundamentals learning path

To continue learning and to prepare for our Appfarm Fundamentals Certification, you should explore the other Appfarm Fundamentals modules:

Get certified

Why should I choose Appfarm for my project?

Appfarm enables you to launch your applications faster, with higher quality, and lower cost. All without leaving a trail of technical debt.

Can I integrate with external applications?

Can you build my app for me?

Does Appfarm scale?

Yes. Appfarm is hosted on enterprise-grade cloud platforms with scalable resources. We have customers that serve high volumes of active users and process large datasets.

How do you ensure platform security?

Where is my data stored?

Appfarm stores data in data centers located in the European Union.

Can I build native apps with Appfarm?

No, it is not possible to build native apps for iOS or Android with Appfarm. Instead, Appfarm support Progressive Web Apps (PWA) which enable painless cross-platform distribution and support much of the same functionality that is required for business applications. However, there exist several PWA wrappers that let you make PWAs into native applications, thereby enabling you to publish the app to App Store/Play Store.

We have created a dedicated Appfarm solution for demonstrating various example setups, and providing some templates.

This solution, named Appfarm Showroom, requires login.

Once signed up, you will be added as a user and receive an email with info on how to access the solution in Appfarm Create.

Appfarm Showroom consists of 5 Apps, to be explained below. Note that all Apps are "Work in progress", meaning more examples and templates will be continuously added to them.

Action Nodes Examples

The left menu lists some of the Action Nodes available when creating Actions. Click a menu item to open a screen in order to test the action node (menu item naming is 1-to-1 with the name of the action node it demonstrates).

Inside create, navigate to this App. You will find the same views and actions set up, and you may view how these examples are set up.

UI Components Examples

The left menu lists some of the UI Components available when creating user interfaces. Click a menu item to view how it works (menu item naming is 1-to-1 with the name of the UI component it demonstrates)

Inside create, navigate to this App, and locate the view to see how the UI component may be set up.

UI Templates

This app contains various templates for views and dialogs. Some of them are quite simple, whereas other are more complex.

The purpose of this App is to have some templates to copy over to your own solution.

Inside Create, navigate to this App. You may right-click and select Copy to Clipboard on any UI component (or on the top-level view or dialog) in order to copy it.

Note that all content inside the UI container will be copied, e.g. when clicking a top-level Container, all children will be copied. Data bindings (i.e. connection to data sources and conditions) will not be copied, and must be set up manually in your own solution.

Use Cases

This app contains example setups of various functional use cases that not exists as a single action node or UI component in Appfarm Create.

Some of these use cases will also be linked to from the documentation found How To section.

UI/UX Design Guide

This is an interactive tutorial on our best practices for UI and UX, in other words - how to make things look good and user friendly.

This is the entry-level Learning Path to Appfarm Create. You will learn to master the basics of Appfarm, in order to create your first App, or participate in an ongoing Appfarm project.

Appfarm Fundamentals contains the following Modules. Each module finishes with a short multiple-choice quiz so you can test your knowledge.

Intro Course

This Module contains a series of videos as a basis for the Appfarm Fundamentals Intro Course. The series of videos has 2 parts: Part 1 is the General Introduction to Appfarm Create, and Part 2 is a practical walkthrough of several use cases.

User Interface Fundamentals

This Module covers some important features and UI Components frequently used in Appfarm Apps.

App Data Fundamentals

This Module covers some important features of Data Sources and other App Data.

Actions and Logic Fundamentals

This Module covers some important features of Action and Logic.

Services Fundamentals

This Module covers the basic concepts of Services and Schedules.

Integration Fundamentals

This Module covers the basic use cases for integrating with external systems.

User handling and permissions

This Module covers user management within Appfarm Create and apps, as well as the configuration of roles and permissions.

Whether you are new to Appfarm Create or an experienced user, our tailored learning paths should help you achieve your learning goals faster.

Each Learning path contains a set of Modules. A Module includes a set of Topics. A Topic may be covered with videos, links, or a combination of relevant examples and documentation.

The current learning paths of Appfarm Create are as follows.

Appfarm Create Intro Course

At Appfarm, we believe in empowering our community with knowledge and skills that drive innovation. With our immersive Intro Course, you can get hands-on experience with Appfarm Create and learn directly from experienced professionals with deep insights into the latest no-code technology and industry practices.

Certifications

Having completed an Appfarm learning path, you are ready to take an exam to receive the corresponding Appfarm certification.

Background,

Are you new with the concepts of databases and data modeling? Take a look at the Data modeling 101 article below.

Data modeling 101

1. Create a new app

Get started by creating a new app (Blank App) and choosing a name and icon.

2. Define a data model

Once your app is created you will be taken to the UI designer. Before we start building the UI though, we will define a data model.

In the global data model you define object classes which represent the data you want to store in your database. For example, if you want to store all the products in your inventory you would need an object class called Product. Object classes are equivalent to tables in relational databases or documents in document databases.

3. Design the user interface

Now we can start designing our user interface (UI) using the pre-built components from the library. The UI is made up of views which contain the UI components. The UI components are visualized in the UI designer and are also listed in a tree-like structure in the neighboring Views pane.

4. Configure data sources and bind data to the UI

To connect the app to our data model we first need to configure data sources. A data source provides create/read/update/delete access to one more objects of a specific object class.

Now that we've configured our data sources, we can bind data to the UI.

5. Trigger actions to run logic

Most of the UI components have predefined event handlers, such as On Click, On View Load or On Value Changed. Each one can be configured to trigger an action when the event occurs, allowing you to dynamically execute logic based on user interaction.

6. Collect and save user input

The most common way to collect and save input from a user is to first add it to a temporary, runtime object and store it the database when the user clicks a "Save" button. This approach is very efficient since it only interacts with the database when the data is actually saved.

As you make changes in Appfarm Create, they are instantly deployed to the Development environment. This means you can access a functional, live preview of your app as you build it.

If you have access to additional environments, you can deploy to them under Deploy in the main menu. Press the blue button to deploy your app to a given environment.

Next steps

Now you have a foundation for adding further functionality such as managing Tasks within each project. While we have already developed a fully-functioning app, we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible with Appfarm Create.

As a next step, we recommend spending a few hours on our interactive Intro Course.

Learn how to apply different styling dynamically, based on conditions or events (such as On Hover).

Video

You may see a video on Conditional Styles below:

Examples

You may find examples of Conditional Styles in our Showroom:

Documentation

Relevant articles in our documentation:

The Container is multi-purpose UI Component, and may be used for partitioning a screen into sections, control alignment and padding/margins of content, create custom clickable graphics, or custom lists or tiles. The Container also controls which part of a screen should be scrollable.

Video

You may see a video on screen sectioning below:

Examples

You may find examples of using the Container for creating a custom listing of "tiles" in our Showroom:

Documentation

Relevant articles in our documentation:

Motions allow you to animate whole UI Components, typically to animate them in or out of the View, or to rotate them. Not all UI Components allow Motions. The typical use case is to animate Containers in and out (expand / collapse), or to rotate Icon Buttons.

Examples

You may find examples of Motions in our Showroom:

Documentation

Relevant articles in our documentation:

This Module covers some important features and UI Components frequently used in Appfarm Apps. The Topics of this Module are not related to each other, meaning that you do not have to go through them in the suggested sequence

Topics in this Module

This Module covers some important features of Data Sources and other App Data.

Topics in this Module

This Topic covers the setup of a step-by-step workflow, allowing users to fill in information in a step-by-step sequence.

Creating a step-by-step workflow involves combining a few UI Components (Visibility Group, Containers, Buttons), some Conditional Styles, and interaction with your App Data. In other words: Step-by-step workflow is not a single UI Component or Action Node.

Step-by-step workflow is best explained through an example. We have created a simple example in our Showroom (see link below). You may test this example, and view the setup in Create.

Responsive Design, or Responsive Layout, allows you to create 1 App targeting different devices. In other words, the same App may have a different look-and-feel on a mobile device and a PC. The UI Designer in Appfarm allows you to enable Responsive Design, allowing you to define different settings on UI components for the different devices.

Guide and Example

You may find a Guide on how to set up a Responsive App in our documentation:

The above guide is a walkthrough of a Responsive App found in our Showroom:

Other Documentation

Other relevant articles in our documentation:

This Topic features some important and powerful UI Components. Many UI Components could be featured, but in this Topic we focus on those we find most useful for many use cases, and that could require some examples in order for you to see the possibilities or to make them work as intended.

Table

Build “excel like” web tables with built-in support for sorting columns, adding/removing columns, search and download to CSV.

Tabs

Use Tabs for controlling which Container should be visible. This is done by a combination of the UI Components Tabs and Visibility Group.

Visibility Group

The Visibility Group makes sure only one of its children is visible. You may e.g. put 3 containers inside, and let the Visibility Group control which one should be visible.

Data Source Filters are used to limit what Data is read into your App.

Data Source Filters are important when the amount of data is large, since a large amount of data read could impact the loading speed of your App. In many cases, you also would want to limit the data due to sensitivity - e.g. for a customer portal, only read the data belonging to the logged in customer.

This topic gives you an overview of some ways of setting up filters on Data Sources.

Video

You may see a video on Data Source Filtering below.

Documentation

Relevant articles in our documentation:

In most Apps you will need some variables that are not part of the data saved in the database. For example, if you want a search box in a User Interface, the search text needs to be saved somewhere (and used for filtering the data to be displayed).

Variables are called Runtime Properties in Appfarm.

Runtime Properties may be added to a built-in Data Source called App Variables (for holding single variables to be used in your App), or they may be added to Data Sources.

A Runtime Property may be of type Value or Function.

• Value is used whenever you want to set that value yourself (e.g. from a User Interface, or from an Update Object Action Node)

• Function is a calculated property. E.g. you may have a Runtime Property Full name with a function return firstName + " " + lastName

Video

You may see a video on App Variables and Runtime Properties below.

Documentation

Relevant articles in our documentation:

URL Parameters is a built-in Data Source in Appfarm for adding variables to be used as parameters of your App url. The use case for this is typical to maintain some App State when e.g. the App is refreshed.

A good example of this is when you have selected a Project from a list of Projects, and navigated to the Project Details view: You would like that same Project to be selected and displayed when you refresh the page. Adding a URL Paramenter for holding the selected Project ID solved this.

Video

You may see a video on URL Parameters below.

Documentation

Relevant articles in our documentation:

This Module covers some important features of Actions and Logic.

Topics in this Module

Event Handlers are used to trigger Actions. In general, Event Handlers are what connects User Interfaces to Actions.

This Topic gives you an overview of the different Event Handlers, and how to use them.

Video

You may see a video on Event Handlers below.

Documentation

Relevant articles in our documentation:

This Topic features some important and powerful Action Nodes. Many Action Nodes could be featured, but in this Topic we focus on those we find most useful for many use cases, and that could require some examples in order for you to see the possibilities or to make them work as intended.

Update Object

Update Object is used for updating properties of Data Sources or App Variables. You may use Update Object to update a single Object, or to batch update multiple objects.

Read Objects

When using Database Connected Data Sources, you do not need to use Read Objects, since the data is automatically read.

But in many cases, you may want to e.g. read data into a Runtime Only data source.

Read Objects allows you to read from another Data Source, or from the Database directly.

Open Confirm Dialog

Open Confirm Dialog is an Action Node that offers a built-in (modal) dialog for prompting the user. It is typically used for collecting confirmation from the user before e.g. some data is to be deleted (non-reversible operations).

Import Data

You may import data from CSV files using the Import Data Action Node.

Context Parameters is a concept of having parameters that are not defined in the App Data section. For instance, when iterating some Data Source, you may want to access to iteration number inside the For-each Action Node.

There are 2 types of Context Parameters: Action Parameters and Iterator Parameters.

Action Parameters

Action Params are parameters that may be set up per Action. These Parameters may be used for the logic inside an Action, and you may send values into these Parameters when the Action is triggered (e.g. from Event Handlers in the User Interfaces).

Video

You may see a video on Action Parameters here.

Documentation

Iterator Parameters

Iterator Params are built-in parameters available for expressing logic inside iterating construction - such as inside the For-each Action Node, or inside an iterating Container in your User Interfaces. For instance, you may set up a Visibility Condition inside an iterating Container to only display an UI Component in the first iteration (for the first row).

Video

You may see a video on Iterator Parameters here.

Get an overview of the basic concepts of a Service, as well as understand how to test and debug a Service.

Video

Documentation

In this Module, you will learn the basic concepts and setup of Services, as well as how to schedule a Service.

Topics in this Module

Set up a Service to be automatically executed on a given schedule.

Video

Documentation

An example setup of a Service for sending reminders.

Video

This Module covers the basic use cases for integrating with external systems, using the Action Node Web Request. Web Request is used for integrations, and you may use it to push data to an external endpoint (POST/PUT requests) or get data from an external endpoint (GET request).

The Web Request Action Node may be used both from Apps or from Services. E.g. you may have an App with a Button for looking up a company organization number from an external endpoint, or you may have a Service that runs nightly for fetching all new/modified customers from an external endpoint (and saves them). Both of these scenarios use the Web Request action node, and the technical setup is in general the same - regardless of whether the Web Request is triggered from an App or a Service.

Topics in this Module

The code used in this video can be copied from below:

rawResponseData.list.forEach(data => {
    data.dt = moment.unix(data.dt).format()
})
return rawResponseData

Link to Swagger-documentation mentioned in the video:

This module explores user management within Appfarm Create and how to configure roles and permissions to ensure a solution is secure. We also look at how to implement user manipulation within an app so that client users can add, update, and delete users. Finally, we look at implementing unauthenticated access to open up an app to the general public.

You should have completed the Intro Course, as well as the App Data and Actions & Logic modules, before starting this module.

Topics

Using a dedicated action node in combination with the right permissions, client users can create additional users and assign roles from within an app.

References

Dedicated action nodes are available for updating and deleting user accounts from within an app.

References

If you need to store more information about a user you can extend the User object class.

References

Users and roles are foundational concepts when it comes to the security of your solution. Learn about how they can be configured within Appfarm Create.

References

Appfarm uses fine-grained permissions to determine what users can access and modify. Learn about the different categories of permissions that you can configure for your solution.

References

In this Module, we present some important UI Components to be familiar with. The main usage areas of each of them are explained, and we also provide a link to the relevant article as well as an example setup / usage in our Showroom.

We assume familiarity with all basic UI Components such as Text Edit, Text, Date and Time Picker, Container, List and Tabs.

View Container

Reuse Views across other Views, or design your App with 1 main view (with menu) and multiple sub-views for the various pages.

Popover

Popovers are small popups, custom snackbars or rich tooltips, that may appear when the user clicks something. A good use case is a small help icon, opening a Popover on click such as this. The Popover UI Component is opened/closed by using the Action Nodes Open Popover and Close Popover.

Radio Button

Let the user select a single Enumerated Type. The "Allow null" setting allows you to apply a selection "All" or "None" visible to the user.

Multi Select

Allow the user to select one or more entries in a droplist. The UI Component is connected to a Data Source and the Selected flag of the entries is toggled on/off when the users select the items in the Multiselect.

Chip Group

Same principle as a Multi Select, but the user may select one or more "Tiles" or "Chips" in a horizontal or vertical list. You may have "On Click" or "Delete" event handlers, and conditional styles. Works best for a small number of options.

Table

Multi-purpose UI Component. Much used in "internal" applications and administrative applications. It is an Excel-like UI Component with built-in features like search (in table), column-selector, filters and CSV-download. It also has a lot of setting for styling per column/cell, as well as conditional edit-mode.

Drawable Canvas

Draw signatures or draw freely using the Drawable Canvas. Much used for allowing users to store their signatures (as image files), in order to merge them into PDFs or Emails later.

Animated Component

A very simple way to add animations to your Applications. Should not be overused, but gives a nice touch to any Application.

Coded Component

Coded Component is an escape hatch when Appfarm Create does not provide you with the desired UI Component. You may use Coded Component for almost "anything". In fact, your whole App may just be 1 View with 1 Coded Component if you would like to code your whole App, but that is of course not recommended - it just highlights the possibilities.

We do not assume familiarity with the Javascript coding inside the Coded Component, but you should familiarize yourself with the possibilities and concepts.

Charts

Many charts exist in Appfarm Create, both Basic Charts and Advanced Charts. The general setup is much the same, but each chart comes with different settings. The settings will not be questioned in the Appfarm Professional Certification, but familiarity with the general setup of a Basic Line Chart is recommended reading and knowledge, as well as familiarity with the available Charts.

In this Module, we present some important UI-related concepts to be familiar with. The main usage areas of each of them are explained, and we also provide a link to relevant articles as well as examples in Showroom.

Container usage: Scrolling, Hover-events and Loaders

The Container is a multi-purpose UI Component. In fact, it's a <div> tag in HTML. First of all, it is used to divide the view into sections and control margin & alignment. It may also be used to create custom buttons or styling elements, and it may be used to create slidable lists/tiles or repeating constructions such as rows, tiles or multidimentional matrices (such as a calendar). All scroll settings are done on the Container as well.

Articles:

Showroom examples:

Container usage: Multidimentional tables and swipeable lists

You may use the Container to create custom multidimentional tables, such as a Calendar or Data grids with repeating columns. You may also change the iteration variant of the container to allow for Swipeable lists or Recursive tree structures.

Articles:

Showroom examples:

Drag & Drop

Drag & Drop is a nice feature in some contexts, such as when creating a Trello-like kanban.

Articles:

Showroom examples:

Unauthenticated access opens your app to the general public and allows users to access your app without logging in.

References

This Learning Path contains the following Modules. Each Module contains links to relevant articles, videos or examples.

Each Module covers Topics that are relevant to the Appfarm Professional Certification. The content of each Module also serves as a list of relevant topics in order to boost your knowledge from a Beginner level to a Professional level - if your goal is simply to improve your Appfarm skills and knowledge.

User Interfaces

This Module covers advanced UI components and constructions.

Data Structures & Data Handling

This Module covers Data Modeling and Data Structures, advanced features of App Data and handling of data.

Logic & Flow

This Module covers various logical features as well as featured action nodes, action flow and contextual parameters.

Login & Configuration

This Module covers the most important configuration settings in Appfarm Create.

Security & Operations

This Module covers Security concepts, Permissions & Roles and Deployment.

Performance & Optimization

This Module covers Performance principles as well as how to optimize your Apps or Services in Appfarm Create.

This module covers some important or more advanced UI Components, as well as various UI constructions.

Topics in this Module

This module covers some important features and concepts regarding application data, data modelling and structures, and handling of data.

Topics in this Module

GraphQL is a query language for APIs, allowing for querying your data through built-in endpoints. The Appfarm platform has a built-in GraphQL query tool for querying your GraphQL-enabled Object Classes with a query language. You may also Create, Update or Delete data.

You do not need to learn all syntax, but be familiar with the possibility and how to use the tool and the query examples in the documentation.

Article:

Server-side vs Client-side filters

Filters on Database Connected Data Sources are Server-side. Also, read objects (from Database) with some filter is done Server-side. All other filters are Client-side, and performed in your browser. Read more in the article below.

Article:

Filter/search with String operators

A special set of operators exists when you set up a Filter with a string as the left operand. This can be used to implement search. The operators may also be used for Conditions.

Article:

Example in Showroom:

This module covers some important features and concepts regarding application logic and flow.

Topics in this Module

A few Action Nodes are relevant for data handling, all of them are grouped in the top section in the list of Action Nodes, such as Create Object.

Duplicate Objects

This Action Node will duplicate all objects in a Data Source.

Article:

Set Data Source Attributes

Some of the attributes of Data Sources may be manipulated runtime. This is relevant in many cases, such as when implementing "lazy loading" of data.

Article:

Sort objects

You may sort Data Sources runtime using this Action Node. This is relevant e.g. if you have created a custom list of data, and would like the user to be able to change sorting.

Article:

Update Object

Update Object is part of the Fundamentals skillset, but at the Professional Level, you should be familiar with how to perform batch updates.

Article:

This module covers some important features and concepts related to App Data, Data Sources and Global Data Model.

App Data

Client Filters

Add one or more filters to a Database Connected Data Source, that can be enabled or disabled runtime.

Article:

Data Source Object Properties & Object State

Data Source Object Properties are built-in properties available for each object the data source. You should be familiar with these properties, as well as the Object State properties of Runtime Only Data Sources.

Article:

Data Connectors

Data Connectors are special types of Data Sources. They may not contain data (i.e. you cannot read data into them), but you may do Create, Update or Delete directly towards the database through Data Connector Data Sources.

Article:

Calendar Data Sources

Calendar Data Sources are special types of Data Sources that will populate a list of hours, days, weeks, months etc. between two dates when the App loads. This is very handy for calendar-related UI and logic.

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URL Path

A built-in Data Source exists in all Apps: URL Path. Learn what it is, and how to use it.

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Global Data Model

Boolean Labels

Useful for giving a meaningful name to Object Class Properties of boolean data type.

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Many-to-many relationships

Many-to-many relationships define the relationship between two Object Classes, where either Object Class may have multiple relations to each other.

Many-to-many relationships can be represented in two ways in Appfarm Create: Either using a multi-reference property (an Object Class Property with cardinality Many), or using a separate Object Class. Read more in the article below.

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Sequential and random identifiers

Object Classes come with two build-in Object Class Properties that may be enabled per Object Class. When enabled, the objects are assigned a random identifier and/or sequential identifier upon creation.

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Concurrency Control / Strict object versioning

By default, when 2 different users update the same object, the last write wins. Object Classes have a built-in feature to avoid this, to have a "first come, first served" approach (first write wins) to updates on the same record.

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Value Processors

The Value Processor is a tool for simple data manipulation and formatting operations that are run client-side. For example, add 1 to an integer App Variable, or invert a boolean property.

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Advanced Functions

The Function Editor allows you to write Javascript. Although Javascript is not a required skillset, you should be familiar with a few important functions - such as creating concatenated strings and aggregation of data from an array.

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Markdown

Markdown is a syntax for formatting plain text with basic formatting. It requires some simple syntax, and Markdown interpretation may be enabled a few places (see the article below).

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Timers

Timers allow an action to be executed client-side on a schedule, e.g. every second. It can be used for creating automatic carousels or other dynamic behaviour.

Timers are defined in the App Settings.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts may be defined per view. In other words, Actions may be executed when the user navigates with arrows or enters the Delete key on the keyboard.

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Offline support

Appfarm comes with support for creating offline apps. In other words, Apps that work and operate in offline environments.

In the Appfarm Professional learning path, we do not require full knowledge of this topic, but you should be familiar with the Rules and Settings section of the below article.

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Appfarm Create comes with a vast amount of configuration possibilities, and some of them are very useful for many use case.

App Settings

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Environment Configuration

You can configure each Appfarm Client environment in your solution separately. These are high-level settings, such as whether Schedules should be enabled or Content Security Policy (CSP) settings for each Environment.

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Internationalization

All Apps built with Appfarm Create supports multiple Languages and Regional settings by default. You may define this from the Internationalization menu.

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This module covers all features related to high-level settings of Applications, Environments and Language Support. It also covers the setup of Login and Authentication.

Topics in this Module

In complex use cases, typically with a lot of integrations or important services running on a schedule, errors are bound to happen at some point.

The action node Catch Exception may be used for catching exceptions and handling them. In some cases, you may even want to re-throw your own custom exception using Throw Exception action node (and catch them somewhere else).

In this Topic, we refer to the documentation of the Catch Exception action node. We also refer to an article (and Showroom example) of an Event Log design - where an Event logging and monitoring system is created.

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Working with Date and Time sometimes requires complex manipulations (end of week etc.) as well as dealing with various formats of Dates.

Appfarm Create natively supports storage of data and time values, and provides tools to format, manipulate and localize these values.

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This Topic features some nice-to-know Action Nodes relevant to logic, functionality and flow.

Actions Flow

While

The While action node runs a block of action nodes as long as a condition evaluates to true.

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Foreach & Next Iteration

The Foreach action node loops over objects in a data source and runs a block of action nodes for each object. You may exit a Foreach-loop (prior to looping all objects) using the Next Iteration action node.

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Example in Showroom:

Block

The Block action node has a few settings allowing for either parallel or "first-to-finish" execution of the action nodes inside it.

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Sleep

Adding a Sleep action node to an action will allow the Action to pause for a given number of milliseconds. Can be useful e.g. if collecting data from an external system fails, and you want to retry automatically 2 seconds later.

Other action nodes

Run Code

Allows you to run Javascript code.

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Example in Showroom:

Export Data

Export data to a CSV file.

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Generate Document

Generate a PDF file using HTML and your data.

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Set theme

Change the Theme of your App runtime. Useful e.g. for changing to Dark mode, or when creating a white-label App with different Theming per customer.

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Appfarm comes with a built-in Login page and Authentication options, as well as the possibility to configure your own login and sign-up pages, as well as adding third-party Authentication options such as Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD).

This topic is all about these possibilities.

Login Configuration

Login configuration is done from the Login menu in Appfarm Create. You may read more on the settings and possibilities below.

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Third-party Authentication / Custom Auth Providers

Appfarm supports third-party authentication by integrating with authentication providers using OAuth 2.0. You can read about the settings and find a step-by-step guide on a few use cases below.

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Custom Login App

Custom Login Apps may also be a combined Self Sign-Up and Login app. You have full flexibility to define the functionality and design of this App.

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Appfarm Create has one-click deploy, meaning you can push your changes to Test or Production with a click. You may also rollback to previous snapshots of your solution, or take manual snapshots.

You should understand the features of Deployment, as well as the concepts behind it (deploy new functionality with or without version upgrade).

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Appfarm comes with enterprise-grade security, and with that - also a lot of settings related to security and permissions.

Roles and Permissions

At the Appfarm Professional level, your should be familiar with the Built-in roles vs Custom roles, how Users and Service accounts are assigned to Roles and inherit their Permissions from the Assigned Roles.

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Security & Go-live Checklist

It is important to know about the common pitfalls (with regards to security and permissions) when going live with your solution.

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The ability to debug is what differentiates a professional from a beginner. But it is difficult without the correct tools.

Appfarm comes with Debug Tools for both Apps and Services. It also comes with a tool inside Appfarm Create for validating your App setup: App Health.

Testing and debugging Apps: Debug Tool and App Health

This article summarizes how to test and debug your Apps:

You may also jump straight to our articles on the Developer tool and App Health:

Services

Topics in this Module

This module is about App and Service performance, finding the bottlenecks, and how to optimize with regard to performance. This module also covers some concepts of optimizing app functionality.

Topics in this Module

In Appfarm Create, you may set up your Services to be executed on one or many Schedules.

The execution log of Schedules and Services may be seen in the Logs menu.

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This certification is specifically designed for companies that are currently in the onboarding process of becoming an Appfarm Partner. It will equip you with essential tools and knowledge to maximize your partnership with us.

To begin your certification journey, please contact your Partner Success Manager directly. They are ready to guide you through each step of the process.

Large amounts of data or many visual components in your user interface may at some point affect the performance of your Apps and Services.

This article is all about how data is loaded in Appfarm, how to locate bottlenecks, and how to optimize them.

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Enhancing functionality is a very broad term.

In this topic, we link to an article with subsections that cover some general functional concepts that all Apps would benefit from having implemented.

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