An app's build page

An app’s build page is where the people who edit an app shape it, build it and open new versions. Open it from its row on App builder, or with Edit app on the app. Only the app’s editors can see it.

The brief’s own chat sits on the left, beside every tab. Under its latest message it shows how far the next build has got. You see Emargen reading the brief, the decisions it needs from you, and the build as it runs. The tabs on the right appear as the app comes along. At the end of the tab strip, Build version starts the next build. While you try a version, its buttons sit on Try instead. The ⋯ menu has Open app once a version is open, and Share.

Brief

Brief is the app’s brief, the document Emargen writes with you. Its sections cover:

• The app’s purpose, its roles and permissions, and its records.
• What it reads from Emargen and what it changes outside.
• The screens, the journeys through them, and its flows.
• What’s not in it.

The brief is the only tab until the app has a version. You need a sketch first. The first build uses its screens as the spec.

Build

While a build runs, Build shows it. Emargen first reads the brief and writes the requirements into it. It asks about anything left open as decisions in the brief, and the chat shows each one with the answer Emargen recommends. Then it builds slice by slice, and each slice’s row says whether its demo passes. When it’s done, the version is ready to try, or the tab says why it couldn’t be built.

Try

Try opens the new version on a copy of the app’s data, before anyone else sees it. Open for everyone gives it to everyone who uses the app, and Emargen brings the brief up to date with what was built. If the version leaves part of the brief out, or changes data the current version uses, Emargen says so first. Discard drops the version and its copy of the data, and Fresh copy gives the try a new copy of the app’s data.

Versions

Versions lists each version with what changed, and marks the one In use. Go back on an earlier one makes its code the next version, ready to try first. Your data isn’t rolled back.

Structure

Structure shows what the open version is made of, a part at a time. Screens has each screen with its address and pictures in light, dark and on a phone. Journey is the way through them. Data has the app’s tables and how they relate. APIs lists the app’s own reads and actions, and Integrations the outside services it calls and what it reads from Emargen.

Access

Only the app’s editors: the people it’s shared with to edit and its owner. Building a new version takes the App builder role.