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Hi everyone,
AppSheetโs desktop user interface is officially graduating to Generally Availability (GA).
Some of you have been following this project since its beginning a long while ago, but others among you may be newer to the community. So let me quickly remind everyone what this is about with two screenshots from an AppSheet app in a desktop web browser:
(more pictures in our Preview announcement a long time ago)
In short, weโve made significant changes to the user experience for users on desktop browsers (compared to the legacy design, not necessarily compared to what most of you have been seeing in the past year):
- Sleek, Modern Look: When accessed on a desktop browser, your apps will show a design that better uses the available space and leverages desktop patterns โ think side navigation menus, split layouts, and tabs for an easy navigation.
- More Information, Better Organized: You can now display more information while keeping everything in context.
- Snappier Interface: App interactions tend to be smoother and more responsive.
You can find more info in our documentation on specific changes.
Additionally, there are a number of major changes under the hood. We significantly changed our architecture and data handling and we also upgraded our tech stack, all to put you and ourselves on better footing for future development and to provide better maintenance.
So, what changes?
This launch means this new design is official and fully supported. As this project has been going on for a long while, some of you had expressed concerns whether the new design would make it to GA (โGeneral Availabilityโ) and could be removed from the platform. As a result, some of you were hesitant to use it but this announcement reaffirms our commitment to this new user interface for desktop users.
It also means the team will now support this as any other production feature. In terms of process, you can report bugs through our existing support channels.
What Do You Need to Do? Explore and Enable
While we are not making any changes to your existing apps, we encourage you to turn on the new design for your apps still using the legacy user interface. Take some time to explore the differences and test how users prefer the new design!
Many thanks to our community
This update has been a big long-running and collective effort. Weโve been previewing the new design with you and we wanted to thank you all for your support, your ideas, and the issues you reported.
I want in particular to mention a few names, in no particular order: @Marc_Dillon @Karimmc2 @Suvrutt_Gurjar @Koichi @KON_TROLL @SkrOYC @Axel_Pro @scott192 @Skip2MiLu @PocketDragon @Denzil_Snyman @checktheclaws @Rifad @kvngo94 @WillowMobileSys @dbaum @Aurelien @JPAlpano @hien_nguyen @gscriptTR @thematgallery @Izzat_Safrah @armstrob88 Many more contributed, so my apologies for not mentioning them/you here. These same AppSheet creators are also going to call us out and push us to keep on improving!
- Arthur, for the AppSheet team
FAQ
Q: What are the changes that this new design brings? Are there known issues or limitations?
A: See more info in our documentation on specific changes. On that page, youโll also find a list tracking limitations and known issues.
Q: Iโve been using this (new) user interface design for quite a while. What really changes for me?
A: The majority of creators may not notice a significant difference. Weโve made a number of changes but aside from specific issues, many of them in the past 3-to-6 months were under-the-hood improvements. Weโre very happy that youโve been using the new design and hope you like it!
Q: I donโt see this new design in my apps. How do I get to use this new design?
A: All new apps are created with the new design enabled with a few exceptions:
- Copies from our gallery of app templates may still show the legacy user interface (depending on the app being copied) until we update them in the near future.
- Copies from an existing app will show the user interface design that was chosen in the existing app. If you copy an app showing the legacy user interface, then the copy will also show the legacy user interface until you turn on the desktop mode.
Q: I reported an issue related to this desktop design, but it did not get resolved.
A: We appreciate you taking the time to report any issues you've encountered. We tried to internally log and discuss all reported issues (and Iโm not talking just about those reported through the community website).
However, there are instances where we were not able to reproduce an issue, others where fixing the issue would have required us to make changes to both the mobile and desktop user interfaces, and yet others where we decided to address the underlying problem differently or later.
We also received some (good) ideas of improvements or feature requests that we could not prioritize for this launch. Beyond this launch, we will continue to improve the experience for desktop users.
From now on, you can report any new issue (or issue that we did not respond to) through one of our support channels and weโll take a look at it. Please check first the list of known issues and limitations in our documentation.
Q: Will you make the legacy user interface unavailable on desktop browsers?
A: There are currently no plans to turn the legacy user interface off. If that changes in the future, weโll make an announcement. If that were to happen, the legacy user interface would then remain available for an extended period of time after such an announcement (think of the order of 12 months or more).
I believe this should be labeled as 'Form Type' instead of 'edit in place,' allowing us to navigate to full-screen editing in the 'detail' view of the form. Currently, the form opens a sidebar instead of going full screen, and we could use linktoform or linktorow for direct editing.
The current edit-in-place feature lacks distinction, offering only a 'save' button at the top. In detail view, where 'quikedit' is enabled, users may struggle to identify and click the small 'save' button or even understand he in an 'Edit' mode.
Here's how 'Edit in Place' looks, but AppSheet calls it a 'form.' ? or keep it next to open form. In reality, it's a detail view. I assume this is intended to be a full-screen 'form' view. If it were renamed to 'full-screen form,' we could utilize linktorow and linktoform since 'Edit in Place' seems to represent both a 'form' and 'detail' view, which is confusing. Because when I click on edit in place i am still in detail view itself.
Regarding your question: I didn't intend to edit something nonexistent; I meant to move 'Edit in Place' entirely from the detail view to a new view type or subtype of 'form' view. @Steve
We have enabled the new desktop mode for a public app. When a user clicks the URL, the app opens in the old desktop UI within 1-2 seconds, then reloads to the new desktop UI.
This behavior is unexpected and unprofessional, as the webpage loads multiple times intially, confusing mostly one-time users who see one view disappear and another load. Please address this issue, especially with 'Sync on start' turned off. The new UI should be displayed by default if it is generally available. We dont ever want to see the old UI at all. Its just 1-2 or upto 5 seconds depending on the network speed before it switches to new UI. Which is not at all ideal.
