Note
App Builder is a new and evolving product available with the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform. Functionality is subject to change without notice as we continue to refine and enhance your experience. We appreciate your understanding and welcome your feedback on Alteryx Community as we continue to improve App Builder!
The App Builder user interface consists of the Orchestrate and Design canvases, where you can access tools and components to build and design your app.
The App Builder canvas is the area where you build your app. An app consists of a data flow, or a series of tools and variables, and both static and interactive components that are combined to create an interactive web application. App Builder is broken out into 2 separate canvases: Orchestrate and Design.
Orchestrate: Integrate your data and add tools and variables, which then become available to add to your app.
The Orchestrate canvas displays error messages when tools fail to connect to datasets. This helps to troubleshoot and resolve issues within the data flow.
The Orchestrate canvas empty state shows a link to the 8-step Build Your First App tour when a user has five or fewer apps across all workspaces.
Design: Edit and design the app itself. Add tools and variables from your orchestration, add visual components like headings and images, and change the colors of the elements in the app.
The Design canvas provides immediate feedback when a tool fails to retrieve data. This helps to address issues early during the app design phase.
View your data in App Builder in the Interactive Results Grid, located below the canvas. To view data, select a tool or anchor in the data flow. The data from the tool or anchor is displayed in the Results Grid.
To view messages about your data flow tools:
Select a tool on the canvas.
In the Results Grid, select Messages to access the message view.
Select a message type.
Each message displays the name of a tool and the tool ID in parentheses. Each tool in the data flow, including tools that have been removed, is numbered. Tool ID indicates the tool number in the data flow. Select the link to the tool name in a message to select the tool in the data flow.
The Results Grid displays 2 message types:
Warning: Warnings do not cause data flow failure, but you should review them.
Error: A tool was not configured correctly.
Use the keyboard to navigate and make changes to apps in App Builder. For a full list of keyboard shortcuts available in App Builder, go to Keyboard Shortcuts in App Builder.
To rename your app, select the textbox with your app's current name, then enter a new name. Select the Enter key to save your new name.
To see how your app looks on different devices, select the screen icon, then select a device. The canvas size will change to match your selected device. To edit the device settings, select Canvas Settings from the Edit menu.
Select the eye icon 
to save and preview the app. If your app has been published, you can choose to preview the published app or the Sandbox app. Your app opens in a new browser tab.
The Preview shows error messages if there are any issues with data loading. This helps users identify and address problems before publishing the app.
To share your app with someone in your workspace, select the share icon 
. If this app has been published, select which version of your app to share. You can share your app as an embeddable iframe HTML tag or as a link. Select the copy icon next to your selected sharing method to copy the tag or link. Interacting with shared apps requires access to all related assets using the Library.
Important
You must share all relevant assets with the app (for example, workflows and datasets).
App Builder now offers visual indicators to show data loading progress across different canvases:
Orchestrate: The Orchestrate canvas displays loading indicators for all the tools that are in the process of loading data. These indicators disappear once the data is available from the tools' output anchors.
Design: The Design canvas displays loading indicators for Interactive Design tools that are retrieving data, such as dropdowns and tables. They disappear once the data has been completely loaded and displayed.
App Creators can now publish an app to indicate it is ready for others to use. Note that publishing an app does not post the app publicly anywhere, but only creates a published state of the app within App Builder. Changes to the app can be made, tested, and reviewed with others in the Sandbox environment before publishing or republishing the app. Any changes made in the Sandbox environment do not appear in the app until it is published or republished.
Caution
When an app is deleted, all versions of the app, either published or unpublished, are deleted.
A Creator in App Builder is able to develop Sandbox apps and promote a completed app to a published state. Saved changes made in Sandbox apps do not appear in the published app until they are published.
To save and publish an app for the first time, select Publish to open the publishing dialog.
Optionally, enter a Customized Path for your app. The custom path updates both the sharing link and the iFrame URL link. Changes made to the custom path are saved within your app.
Note
The Customized Path can only be changed by unpublishing and republishing an app.
Select Publish to publish your app.
Republishing an app overrides the current version of the app in production. To republish an app, select Publish to open the publishing dialog. The last date and time your app was saved is shown for reference. Note that you can't change the Customized Path unless you unpublish your app. Select Publish to republish your app.
When you unpublish an app, the publish link is unavailable to users until it is republished. To unpublish an app, select Unpublish from the File menu. Select Unpublish from the dialog to confirm you want to unpublish the app.