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This documentation is for version 4 of App Builder, the new name for Vinyl. Access the Vinyl documentation here.

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Jitterbit App Builder

Introduction

App Builder is Jitterbit's web application for building web and mobile applications. If you're licensed for App Builder, you can click the tile on the Harmony portal to access a configured instance:

Harmony portal tile

An App Builder app can access data in local or remote sources, store, process, and show the data to your users in various ways. App users interact with the data in pages using familiar UI (user interface) controls (menus, forms, buttons, tables, lists, images, and many others).

Because of its flexibility, there is no set approach for developing an App Builder app. You can start with how the data should look in the UI, then design data structures for them; or you might start with the data you have, and design the UI around them; or you might ask an AI chatbot to build an app, then use it or refine it further. However you do it, you won't need any programming knowledge to build an app. You build apps not with code, but with description and configuration.

Almost everything about an App Builder app is customizable and configurable. To avoid being overwhelmed by the numerous possibilities available to you, App Builder's structures its interface around the following key ideas and tools:

  • Layers: Web apps generally consist of a front-end, the user interface that users see and work with, and a back-end, where data is stored and processed. App Builder takes these distinctions further by defining the following app layers:

    • Data: Where the app stores or gets its data from.

    • Business: The logic and business rules underpinning the app's functionality.

    • UI: How the app appears to users—its pages, panels, menus, and other UI components.

    • Security: Who can access which pages and what data in an app.

  • Menus: Wherever you are in App Builder, you'll always see the icon in the top right of the screen. Click it to open the action drawer:

    Action drawer

    The action drawer is a dynamic menu of shortcuts to pages such as the following:

  • Shortcuts: With the following shortcut groups, you can open app configuration pages from different places within App Builder:

    • IDE: A page of shortcuts to global configuration settings, arranged in panels named after the design phases for apps (Connect, Build, Deploy, and Runtime):

      IDE

    • App Workbench or Workbench: A top panel or toolbar of shortcuts to all possible configuration settings for the app you're working on, arranged in panels according to app layers (Data, Business, UI, and Security):

      App Workbench

    • Design Center: A dialog box of shortcuts to the most commonly used configuration settings for the app you're working on:

      Design Center

    • Look & Feel: A shortcut to the app's theme and style configuration page:

      Look & Feel

  • Wizards: For some tasks, such as creating a new app, a wizard takes you through the process step by step.

  • Hidden settings: Many advanced or seldom-used configuration settings are kept out of view. You'll find them under the More or Edge Case menus present on many app configuration pages.

The best way to see some of these and get started with App Builder is to set it up and build an app yourself.

Note

App Builder is subscription-based. To add it to your license or upgrade from Vinyl, contact your Customer Success Manager.