September 27, 2023

lizlynch · September 27, 2023

Deployment Time: 12:00 PMDeployment Time: 11:30 AM PST

Features & enhancements

Item

Description

Feature

GA release of organization governance policies

AppSheet organization admins can now define governance policies at the organization level, that apply to all teams within their organization. Team root, team admins, and team members can view but not modify organization policies. For more information, see Define governance policies.

Note: Organizations and organization policies are only supported for Google Workspace users with AppSheet Enterprise accounts.

Bug fixes

None

Rollout changes

Item

Description

Enhancement

AppSheet types respect multi-color formatting icons

Previously, across all types, AppSheet would only allow a single color to apply to all icons rendered by format rules. Now, we are moving towards supporting color granularity as defined within each formatting rule so each icon can have its own color.

With this change, for desktop UI (preview) only, all types will now respect individually colored icons.

New: Deployed to 100% of free users and 75% of paid users.
Previous: Deployed to 100% of free users and 50% of paid users.

Enhancement

For the app preview in the app editor, enable visual editing for more elements (including list menus, deck view, side menu auth section). This update also fixes an issue with the layout that shifts when toggling Edit mode.

New: Deployed to all users.
Previous: Deployed to 100% of free users and 75% of paid users.

Preview announcements

Preview feature releases enable you to try out new app features that are not yet fully supported. See Product launch stages.

No new preview features were released today.

What's currently available in Preview?

The following tables summarize the preview features that are currently available.

Item

Description

Feature

AppSheet apps for desktop users (Preview)

The new desktop design, currently in preview, is optimized for desktop browsers, presenting a more complete view of information with a consistent organization and structure. The new desktop design lets users navigate their apps more easily and access information in context, and provides an efficient way to edit existing records without losing context. The legacy desktop design, enabled by default, provides an experience similar to the mobile and tablet device.

For more information, see:

The following features require opt-in to the AppSheet preview program. The AppSheet Preview program lets app creators try out new app features that are not yet fully supported.

*Item*	*Description*
Feature	Table view Table View now supports freezing the first column while scrolling horizontally. For details, see Freezing the first Column of a Table View - in Preview Program.
Feature	Chart Editor App Creators can now make use of our new chart editor and the new and improved charts it can create. Learn more.
Feature	Detail views Rich text formatting is now available in Detail views. For details, see this announcement in the community.

Koichi_Tsuji · 09-27-2023 10:46 PM

@lizlynch wrote:

FeatureGA release of organization governance policies

AppSheet organization admins can now define governance policies that apply to all teams within their organization. Team root, team admins, and team members can view but not modify organization policies. For more information, see Define governance policies.

Note: Organizations and organization policies are only supported for Google Workspace users with AppSheet Enterprise accounts.

@lizlynch

We have been using AppSheet Policy for years, but I could not fully understand what is "new" with this release? What exact feature is actually added to the existing feature and what is actually GAed? Can you elabrate? thank you.

@takuya_miyai

Denzil_Snyman · 09-28-2023 12:48 AM

@lizlynch

For enhancement rollout change - Would this address the issue for all views on multicolored icons.

Screenshot_20230928_094650_com.android.chrome.jpg

Aurelien · 09-28-2023 01:19 AM

@lizlynch wrote:

AppSheet organization admins can now define governance policies that apply to all teams within their organization. Team root, team admins, and team members can view but not modify organization policies. For more information, see Define governance policies.

Thanks for the update.

Now we can have multiple teams within organizations? I thought this was still not possible?

lizlynch · 09-28-2023 06:18 AM

@Koichi_Tsuji - You can now define a policy at the AppSheet organization level that will apply to all teams within that organization. I've added a figure above. An organization is not provided by default and is not required. So this update may not apply to you in your existing environment. Does this help?

@Aurelien - You can have multiple teams in an AppSheet organization. I'm not aware of any restrictions with this. (AppSheet organizations are different from a Workspace organization.)

Here is some additional information on AppSheet organizations, in case it helps! Organization and teams: The Essentials.

Thank you both!

@Denzil_Snyman - I am getting clarification! Stay tuned. 🙂

Aurelien · 09-28-2023 06:27 AM

@lizlynch wrote:

Here is some additional information on AppSheet organizations, in case it helps! Organization and teams: The Essentials.

Thank you @lizlynch for this link. I'm just discovering all this, I've been busy over the last month and was not able to track everything. I just opened every release note of September, I did not see a mention of it.

Since when is there the possibility to have various teams inside one organization? From my perspective, the highest level used to be Root administrator, not organization administrator.

Aurelien · 09-28-2023 06:38 AM

Something attracts my attention @lizlynch

Let's assume this scenario:

1) Suddenly I need to implement a new policy.

2) Of course, at this time some apps are not compliant. But, I don't want these to be blocked as they are critical by now, and wish to bring some changes immediately before implementing my policy, so that my apps keep working smoothly for my users.

3) Because of the urgence, I'm able to identify such apps but not to reach the app owner or co-editor.

According to the document, no administrator have the privilege to change the app despite being able to look under the hood.

Is my deduction correct?

Thanks in advance for your reply and assistance on this question.

lizlynch · 09-28-2023 06:56 AM

@Aurelien AppSheet organizations were GA in July. See: July 27, 2023 release notes.

Are you referring to policies that are set by an AppSheet organization administrator in this scenario?

Aurelien · 09-28-2023 06:58 AM

@lizlynch wrote:

Are you referring to policies that are set by an AppSheet organization administrator in this scenario?

Exactly.

lizlynch · 09-28-2023 07:52 AM

@Aurelien Thank you for the question!

App transfer permission by organization admin is coming soon. In the meantime, individual team roots have this permission. Alternatively, you could make the policy a warning until app creators have the opportunity to adjust the apps to meet the new policy restrictions.

Aurelien · 09-28-2023 08:27 AM

@lizlynch wrote:

Alternatively, you could make the policy a warning until app creators have the opportunity to adjust the apps to meet the new policy restrictions.

I get it. My question is: is it possible for an admin to directly edit someone else's app? If so, which admin can do it?

lizlynch · 09-28-2023 09:36 AM

@Aurelien - This is not supported. A team root can transfer an app to themselves to modify it, as a workaround. Hope this helps.

lizlynch · 09-28-2023 11:02 AM

@Denzil_Snyman - My apologies! I just learned that this change is being made on the desktop UI (preview) only, at this time. I have clarified the release note (and will update the previous notes as well).

Denzil_Snyman · 09-28-2023 11:32 AM

Thank you for clarification.

Strange that it's only desktop. I imagine it not to be that hard to have on mobile. Sad as we use colours and iconography to alert users to specific statuses, it's visually faster than text when throwing an eye over many rows of data.. I hope this will be sorted on mobile too...

Adam-google · 09-28-2023 12:18 PM

@Denzil_Snyman Initially the fix targeted mobile as well, but it elicited support issues from some that considered it a breaking change because they had relied on one format rule to apply color to all their icons. I think it will eventually be made available for mobile as well, but needs some further attention to address backward compatibility.

Denzil_Snyman · 09-28-2023 12:37 PM

@Adam-google

That makes sense, I do beleive that allowing an option in settings for formatting to turn this on and off can solve these types of situations.... It Allows configuring our apps for both scenarios and customers get the choice instead of having half customers catered for and the other half not. Just something I learnt in building my apps, I allow users the choice rather than force them one way or the other.

I hope this is considered and thank you for bringing this to the desktop at least, we do appreciate your teams work.