LinkedIn
Twitter
Hey everyone,
Weโre excited to announce we are now previewing our new visual design for applications that are accessed on desktop browsers.
Currently, your AppSheet applications tend to follow mobile design patterns even when your users have large screens and these patterns can be confusing to desktop users. The new design lets these desktop users navigate their apps more easily and access information in context, and provides an efficient way to create and update records without losing context. App creators can also present more information by leveraging the larger screens but still keep it organized.
Here are some before and after images that better illustrate the design changes.
Legacy Design - Screenshot #1: Sifting through a collection of records grouped by City and State after selecting a State (Deck View)
Legacy Design - Screenshot #2: Looking at a specific record after selecting that record in the screen above (Detail View)
Legacy Design - Screenshot #3: Editing an existing record/Creating a new record (Form View)
New Design - Screenshot #1: Seeing your data in context (Deck View + Detail View)
New Design - Screenshot #2: Focusing on a specific record (Detail View)
New Design - Screenshot #3: Editing in place an existing record
New Design - Screenshot #4: Creating a new record (Form View)
Whatโs next? Well, this is still a work in progress. Weโve been gathering feedback from a number of design partners, including some of you in the AppSheet Community, and we know there is more to do before it can properly support all of your applications. At this stage, we feel that it would be good to let you play with the new design and to give you an opportunity to share your feedback - what you like, what doesn't work, what you think could use some improvements. This represents a significant change and your feedback will help us guide our next steps.
As this feature is in Preview, you may see visual changes in your apps as we work to improve the new desktop design in real-time. We don't recommend using the new desktop design in your production apps.
Thank you
The AppSheet Team
FAQ
How do I get access to this new desktop design?
We are currently slowly ramping this new experience over the next week or so, so you may not see this option in the editor immediately.
For each application, you can opt-in to use the new desktop design. You can toggle between the new and legacy desktop modes, as desired.
Follow these steps to enable the new design in your app:
- Open the app in the app editor
- Navigate to the UX > Options pane
- Enable the Desktop mode (Preview) option - see screenshot below
- Save the app in the Editor
All users of this application that access the app on a desktop browser will then see the new design after their next sync.
How do I configure the design of my app? I donโt see any new settings in the Editor!
There are minimal changes to the Editor for now. Mostly, the same settings are leveraged to specify the desktop and mobile designs. Let me give you an example.
Your apps have โprimary viewsโ and โmenu viewsโ. With the new desktop design, all of your views will be accessible from a side menu. That menu will list first the โprimary viewsโ and then the โsecondary viewsโ. In the future, we will adjust the configuration settings and in particular the language so that it makes sense for both mobile and desktop apps. For example, position values of "left most" and "right most" don't make sense for the new desktop design with its vertical menu structure.
Weโll be giving app creators more controls over some features that are currently set by default.
Is there some documentation or more information on what changed?
See Optimize the user experience using the new desktop design (Preview). Weโll update it over time.
Is there a list of functionalities that are known to not work with the new design?
Yes.
First, here is a list [as of July 31st] of (high-level) issues and requests that were reported to us and that still need fixes or assessments. Some of them are independent of the desktop mode, but we're still listing them here since people may want to know about them and so they don't need to report them unless it was reported for different app configurations :
| General theme | Issues |
| Form View |
|
| Navigation expressions: LINKTOROW(), LINKTOFORM(), etc |
|
| Format rules |
|
| Detail View UI |
- In some configurations, showing the wrong display names in a Detail tab - Edit-in-place in Dashboard view - Sync gets the app user out of Editing mode in a Detail View |
| General UI |
- Improvement requests on the subnav bar (e.g. larger text button, better responsiveness w.r.t. title, actions, text) - Clicking in grey area around onboarding view should not navigate the app in the background - Filtering on Dashboard - Tooltip for icon action buttons - Chart Views do not behave like other views |
| Localization of strings | Some strings are missing |
| CSV import/export |
|
| Other app functionalities |
- Missing Share, Feedback buttons - App Gallery behaving differently - Support of Amazon Cognito (missing account icon) - OCR not working on Desktop |
| Functionalities for app creators | โPreview asโ is not available for the desktop emulator |
Second, here is a list of some issues and feature requests that we know we are not going to tackle, at least for now.
| Supporting multiple navigation actions in a grouped action |
This is not something that we support. The team very intentionally did not want to support this. App creators should not rely on it and it wonโt work in desktop mode. |
| Multiple requests to improve the Table View UI |
We got requests to improve the Table View in general. The requests are valid, but that is out of scope for desktop mode. Changes we would be making would also impact the legacy UI and mobile apps. |
| LINKTOPARENTVIEW() not supported | For desktop users, there are better options to navigate back: the browserโs back button and the breadcrumbs. |
| Font size changes (via app settings) lead to layout issues | Generally, we recommend using the browserโs zoom which does a better job at resizing the app. |
| Background image |
See also Limitations and known issues.
How do I provide feedback?
Please share your feedback in this thread below this message!
I have parent Child tables where the parent totalize price of the child records with the same ID.
On the old desktop it sums correctly. On the mobile preview on the editor does the same (Correct) On the new desktop doesn't sum. Its always zero (Doesn't refresh the value)
Hi!
I noticed several significant differences in the work of the new desktop view from the old version:
1. The data entered in the main search affects all views (not only the view in which the search was performed):
In this example, a CRM application from templates is used. Enter appsheet.com to search for an AppSheet company (area 1 in the screenshot), and we want, for example, to view company-related contact records (area 2 in the screenshot), but as we see, the associated data card is empty (area 3 in the screenshot).
Because the contact card does not match the search query appsheet.com
If we clear the search bar, we can see the related data:
In my opinion, the main search should "belong" to the view on which it was entered (in the old design, this is exactly how it works)
2. When a linked record is changed, it "disappears" from the viewport.
Let's say we want to change the contact associated with the AppSheet company
Click edit and select another parent entity:
Another company was selected, and the form for editing disappeared, because the linked contact no longer belongs to the linked parent view
We get a blank screen:
The same thing happens in the "full-screen" presentation format
Click edit and select another parent entity:
We get a blank screen:
3. The situation is similar with groupings. Let's say our records are grouped by status, when the status changes in the record card, we get a blank screen, because the record now does not belong to the currently viewed grouping
==========================================================================
I would like to "Hold" the entry in the edit window for any changes (in the old version it works fine)
Please consider making appropriate changes. Thank you in advance!
Hi!
In continuation of the topic, I recorded a video.
When working with records grouped by criteria, when the grouping criterion is changed (for example, status), the card disappears from the viewport.
The standard Kanban Board template is used.
Creating a new "Table" view:
We switch to the "desktop" mode, and try to change the "Status" from the card - as you can see on the GIF, after changing the status, the open card closes:
Hi!
I will supplement the previous information with visual GIFs
1. The data entered in the main search affects all views (not only the view in which the search was performed):
2. If you edit the associated record - change the parent, it disappears from the viewport (there is no way to save the form).
For example, you need to "transfer goods" from one order to another, we search for the original order, then select a new one from the desired product. It is not possible to save changes in the new design, because the form will disappear from the viewport. Everything works correctly in the old design.
ps. These are the only restrictions to date that do not allow me to use the new design and its advantages for the application.
I hope for the solution of the surveys set by the AppSheet team )
Hi!
Thanks to the AppSheet team!
Now the long text in Enum and EnumList is displayed correctly (with truncation), and when you hover the mouse, the full text pops up.
I confirm the elimination of the problems described here:
Hi!
Created a test dashboard on the same standard CRM template:
1. On the left "Contacts", on the right "Detailed representation of contacts"
2. The "Company" column is set to "Quick edit columns"
The result is displayed correctly:
Perhaps you are using "Format rules"?
===========
And indeed, when placing "Format rules" in the editable column, only "Format rules" is displayed, and the text itself is completely truncated. This is A Bug.
Moreover, this has nothing to do with the "dashboard" or "form" representation itself. The question is solely in the processing of "Long Text" + "Format rules"
@Arthur_Rallu , @lizlynch Please pay attention
Hi,
The following issue was fixed in the February 14, 2023 release:
| Item | Description |
| Bug | For desktop UI (preview), we now limit inline view titles to 2 lines and add spacing below for readability. For example:
|
Hi,
There was an additional enhancement included in the February 14, 2023 release:
| Item | Description |
| Enhancement | For desktop UI (preview), there is an update to detail views. For some backgrounds, we wanted to follow UX best practices around legibility for out-of-the-box detail views, and also provide some consistency and better alignment with detail views that are organized with SHOW type columns.
There are two main changes:
If you have any comments on these changes, please let us know!
|
Yes that's correct! You can include Show Page Headers if you would like more sections than what is formed by the Ref lists in your view. Ex: it's possible for only 1 section to get rendered if your view has no headers/prominent actions or Ref lists specified - in which case you might want to use Page Headers.
Thank you for the excellent work on the Desktop View.
One issue that does not seem to be mentioned is that the formatting rules are ignored in the Quick Edit Columns of the Detailed view. The following is the example:
Tablet View:
Desktop View:
The formatting rules make it very convenient to identify the status, it would be really nice to have them work in the Desktop view.
