Intro

This tutorial is about

How to create and publish an app in PIPEFORCE.

This tutorial is relevant for

Low-Code Developers who want to build an app in order to automate a workflow, manage tasks, send notifications, integrate data flows, transform data or to do a combination of all of them.

Prerequisites

You need to have a developer account in a PIPEFORCE customer or trial instance.

If you don’t have an account yet, just request it here: https://pipeforce.io/jetzt-testen/

Basics about Apps

In PIPEFORCE, an app groups together resources like scripts, templates, configurations and others to solve a certain business task. Such resources are also called properties.
Any property like a pipeline, form config or workflow definition and so on is by default part of exactly one app.
For each app, certain access rules can be specified.
Apps can be installed, uninstalled and optionally distributed via the marketplace.
It is possible to use staging and versioning for apps.
They can be developed online using the workbench or offline using source code files.
You can think of apps also like “plug-ins” for PIPEFORCE which solve a concrete business problem.
Therefore a PIPEFORCE app is sometimes also called a business solution.
Typically, all apps reside in the property store under the root path global/app/.., for example: global/app/myapp.
Apps can be visible to the user or hidden and run in "the background".

In case an app is visible to the user, it will be listed in the apps section of the portal:

Create a new app

In this step you will learn how to create a new app using the portal

Login to your portal with a developer user account.
Navigate to AUTOMATION → Properties.
Click the plus icon + at the top of the tree.
Click the App tile or type-in app in the search field and press enter.

As App Name use io.pipeforce.myfirstapp. Note: You can also use a different name here but make sure to always use a qualified name.
Click CREATE.
The app configuration will be created at global/app/io.pipeforce.myfirstapp/config/app and gets opened in the online editor. This configuration contains the default settings for your app.
You can navigate now to Installed Apps. Here you should see your app listed.
Done. You have created your first app.

Note: If you click your app now, nothing happens, since we did not add any property to it yet. This will change in the next tutorials.

More information

Public docs about PIPEFORCE Apps
You can create the app also by simply creating a property global/app/io.pipeforce.myfirstapp/config/app with type application/json.
You can also use the CLI tool in order to create an app.

Tutorial 02: Create an App