Overview

This topic explains how to build interfaces in Design Mode.

Design mode offers drag and drop functionality to accelerate the layout and configuration of an interface. For more information about editing interfaces as an expression, see the expression mode section of the Interfaces page.

Using the palette

In the palette, there are two types of building blocks for you to use in creating an interface: components and patterns. Components are the fundamental building blocks for Interfaces. These are organized in the palette by component type: Layouts, Inputs, Selection, Display, Action, Grids, Charts, Pickers, and Browsers. Patterns are combinations of components that represent common interface features. For more information, on patterns see the Patterns section below. From the palette, you can drag & drop individual components and patterns into the live view.

Layouts first

While any component can be dragged over to the live view, typically layouts are the first thing to start with for a new interface.

Drag and drop is pretty straight forward. Let's go ahead and drag over a columns layout.

As soon as the columns layout is dragged over, we have notice the live view changes with that layout.

Layout components appear with their own drag and drop areas where other component can be dropped.

Adding components to a layout

You can find out where the component will drop by where the pink highlight bar is located. The dotted gray outline and label tells you which area of the interface your component will drop into.

From here, we can continue to drag more components until we have the framework of our interface complete.

Handling errors with drag and drop

Drag and Drop is designed to let you know when an interface doesn't work out quite right. For example, section layouts should not be nested within each other. So if we accidentally dragged over a section into another section, the interface would let us know about it.

Fixing the issue is as easy as clicking the undo button or using the CTRL+Z keyboard shortcut.

Component plug-ins

If there are any component plug-ins installed, they will appear at the bottom of the Components tab of the palette under Custom Components. Each custom component includes a link in the palette to view more information about the component vendor, whether the component is supported by the vendor, the support contacts, and the available languages and browsers/mobile clients. This information is also available in the component function documentation in expression mode.

Patterns

Patterns are combinations of components that represent a typical design of component arrangement and appearance with UX best practices already accounted for. But they are more than just a pretty face! Patterns also come with handling for basic interactivity out of the box where applicable. As such, utilizing patterns can really accelerate the creation of rich interfaces.

Patterns use hard-coded data to showcase the component appearance and interactivity. To use a pattern in your interface, you'll need to replace the hard-coded data with data from your application. In each pattern, the underlying expression has helpful comments to guide you on which variables should be updated for customization.

Defining variables and configuring components

Once we've got our components laid out in our live view, we can start to define the data inputs and configure the components using the Rule Inputs pane, Local Variables pane, and Component Configuration pane on the right.

Defining rule inputs

Before configuring the interface, it's important to know where we're getting or sending our data. The Rule Inputs pane allows us to define a variable for a specific data type and value and reference it in our expression.

Each rule input must have a name and data type. If the rule input has multiple values select the Array (multiple values) checkbox.

For this interface, it is assumed that Appian is passing in a rule input to retrieve data. However, this can also be handled via local variables.

Adding test values

After creating some rule inputs, it's useful to set default test data. To get a more accurate representation of what our users will see, we can add test values to the interfaces by clicking the TEST button to open the Test Inputs window.

Defining Local Variables

You may need to define a specific type of variable that is only available within a particular expression and function. Local variables allow you to define and store data for this specific use case. See Defining Local Variables for more examples.

All local variables defined using the a!localVariables function display in the local variables grid, which appears between the Rule Input pane and the Component Configuration pane. This grid displays both the name and the value of each local variable.

By default, all local variables are flattened in a list and ordered according to their definition in the expression rule. Similar to rule inputs, a local variable defined as a list, dictionary, or CDT is initially collapsed in the grid. You can click the plus icon next to the variable name to expand the local variable and view the values.

Additionally, each local variable value has a link that allows you to open a modal, which provides more detail including the local variable name, the line number of the variable definition, the variable type, and the full variable value.

Component configuration

Now that we have some data to work with, we can start to configure each component. To configure a component, we have to click on the component view in the live view. Whichever component appears highlighted in the live view.

Once you've configured all the fields in the Component Configuration pane your interface is ready to use with other objects in your application.

Testing and troubleshooting

As you configure your interface, the interactive live view immediately updates, allowing you to test the dynamic behavior of its components. The current values of all rule inputs are displayed in the Rule Inputs pane and the current values of all local variables are displayed in the Local Variables pane, so you can see how the data changes as a result of an interaction in the live view. You can also simulate different scenarios using the Test button in the top right corner.

Change the value of a variable

You can change any component label by clicking directly on it (while on the Edit tab of Design Mode). The value of other variables can be changed by interacting with the component in the live view that saves into that variable. However, you may wish to change the values of these variables outside of interactions with the live view. There are three ways to do this:

• Change input values individually (including indexes of an array and CDT fields) by editing the value in the Interface Inputs pane.
• Reset local variables to their initial values as defined in the expression by clicking the Test button in the top right corner.
• Set the default values of inputs to simulate the user loading the form for the first time. To do this:
  1. Click the Test button in the top right corner.
  2. Enter default values for inputs in the Test Inputs dialog, as shown below.
     1. As you enter an expression for an input, the Value column displays the evaluated result that will be used when testing the expression.
     2. For many types, you can simply enter a value directly in the Value column.
  3. Click the Test Interface button to evaluate the interface using the provided values.

Save default test values

Developers have an option to save a set of default test values with the interface. This allows you to save a common test scenario that can be used by any developer who modifies or tests the interface.

Test values may be expressions or literal values. All expression or text values have a 4,000 character limit. Additionally, the developer must have access to all selected users, groups, documents, or folders to save as a test value.

To save a set of default test values, enter the values in the Test Inputs dialog and click the Set as default test values link below the grid. Once set, the default values will be saved with the interface.

Previewing interfaces for mobile

While the default live view displays your interface exactly as it would appear on a desktop web browser, you can also toggle between mobile views while editing in design or expression mode. To preview your interface on a tablet or phone, use the form factor preview options for those devices on the upper right of the Edit and Preview tabs (below the Save Changes button). You can drag and drop components directly into the phone and tablet views to see the changes to the interface as you make them.

Please note that while the tablet and phone options do show an accurate representation of the interface's layout, they do not show a pixel perfect (native) rendering of the individual components. For example, a dropdown menu in the live view will not have the same appearance as an iOS dropdown, but will have the same layout and stacking behavior, allowing you to create your interface for mobile use.

Differences between the live view and Tempo

In general, most components behave exactly the same in the interface live view as they do on an interface in Tempo. However, there are a few exceptions listed below:

• Links to internal objects, such as process tasks or record types, open in the same tab by default when clicked in an interface in Tempo, but open in a new tab when clicked in the live view.
• The Submit button on a process form submits the form and navigates away from the form (either by going to the next task in an activity chain or by going back to the Task or Action list) when clicked in an interface in Tempo, but does not navigate away when clicked in the live view. All other behavior of the Submit button is the same.

Exporting and importing default test values

Default test values are always exported with the interface, but can only imported if the destination environment has the Allow Test Values to Be Imported with Design Objects setting enabled. For more about this configuration, see the Deployment section of the Appian Administration Console page.