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Empowering Citizen Developers | Construction App Suite
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Businesses now more than ever are relying on Citizen Developers to create efficient and effective workflows for various business processes.
There are many different types of business processes that help create a cohesive system for any given organization. A few examples include: project management, business development, marketing, sales, and operations. When all of these systems are fully integrated and working together seamlessly, any company has the ability to grow and thrive.
So, today we are going to look at how we can create the start of a fully-integrated process for a construction company by building an App Suite with AppSheet. Let’s get started!
Use Case
The main purpose of our application is to create a launchpad or an app portal that will host a suite of applications for this construction company.
The business process that this application will digitize is: to manage all business processes through AppSheet.
Functionally, this application will need to have the ability to add team members and access all company applications.
How to create an App Suite in AppSheet
AppSheet makes designing an App Suite super easy! All you will need to do is follow the three steps listed below and you will be on your way to designing an impactful and efficient App Suite for your business.
- Create an App Suite Database
- Launcher Table
- User Table
- Connect Database to AppSheet
- Begin customizing the Application
Database Design
The first step to take when designing an application is to define each entity according to the project’s requirements. Since this application's primary functionality will be to host a suite of applications of the company. Designing the database will be quite simple. We will only need two tables: a Launcher Table and a User Table. Our Launcher Table will be used to host all of the data that will link to other applications for this organization. Next, our User Table will collect all the information for the company's employees and be the sole table that is link to other company apps.
Connect Database to AppSheet
Now that we have set up our database, our next step is to connect our database to AppSheet. To do this in Google Sheets, simply go to Extensions→ AppSheet→ Create an App. From here, AppSheet will be creating an application from your Google Sheets Data. It’s that simple!
Customize the Application
Okay, so you might be wondering, where do I go from here? My app is connected, but now it's not connected to any other apps and the overall User Experience isn’t working, as expected. No worries, AppSheet makes UX design and customization easy as well!
UX Design
To create a Guided User Experience in this App Suite, navigate to the UX tab in the AppSheet Editor. From here, create a new view and follow the settings shown below.
Description: For our Launcher view, it’s important to note that we typically use the Gallery View for these apps. For the Event Actions, use the App Link behavior to navigate Users to another app.
App Navigation
To create the navigation between apps that will be used throughout the organization, create a new action from the Behavior tab. Take a look at the example below:
Description: This action is using the LINKTOAPP() function to create the navigation between different apps that are listed in our App Link column. Now that this action has been established, we can add this to the Gallery View that was created in our previous step.
Final View
Copy & Customize: Construction App Suite
Let’s Review
Overall, this app will empower this organization to complete all business processes seamlessly through AppSheet. Using a fully integrated workflow throughout your organization is key to helping your company grow in the most efficient way possible.
What do you think?
Comment below and let us know what you think about this app and how you can use it to empower your organization.
Let’s Connect
One-on-One meeting
Book a free online appointment with us to talk about your AppSheet App! Get expert advice, a customized use case guide, and next steps on how we can help you build out your App.
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Happy Developing!
Austin from AppSheet Training
