Developer Blog

Announcing Appway 6.3

Published March 7, 2016 by Nina Schneider

Wednesday, March 2 marked the official release of Appway 6.3.

Appway 6.3 sees a significant increase in overall user experience, and makes it easier to work in parallel when developing in the Appway Studio. Workspace user experience has also been improved with the introduction of new error guidance screens, while two reworked components greatly enhance the experience on mobile devices.

This release introduces the Business Object Diff Viewer, a tool to greatly facilitate parallel development. Business Object editors have also been enhanced to allow for user customization. Specific screen components have had their cross-platform responsiveness improved, and we have also introduced a series of fixes and enhancements focusing on system performance.

Comprehensive Release Notes for Appway 6.3 cover the changes and new features found in the release. A system upgrade guide (Appway 6.2 to 6.3) is available to help you upgrade your Appway installation.

Here's a summary of the five major topics we'd like to highlight.

Business Object Diff Viewer
The Diff Viewer is a new feature available in the Appway Studio. It lets you easily compare two versions of any Business Object, and view any differences between them. This new feature greatly enhances the capabilities of a development team when performing parallel development in the Appway Studio. The Diff Viewer presents the elements of the two compared Business Objects in clearly-defined groups such as Business Object Properties, Variables, and Scripts. It also visually indicates changes to the text and script, letting you quickly navigate from one change to the next.

Find out more by reading the Business Object Diff Viewer documentation.

Error Guidance Screens
Appway 6.3 uses a new mechanism for displaying screens that provide you with guidance in case something unexpected happens. The screens provide a clear explanation about what has occurred, and clear instructions on how to get back on track. You can also create your own custom error screens.

Find out about the different kind of error screens, how Appway decides which error screen to render, and how to create your own custom error pages in the Error Pages in Appway documentation.

Improved Dropdown List and Date Picker Components
The new Dropdown List and Date Picker components offer enhanced usability, especially on mobile devices. They are now easier to configure and fully responsive, regardless of screen size.

Dropdown List
The Dropdown List for Appway 6.3 is a responsive component which adapts to any screen size and supports various input types like mouse, keyboard, or gestures. More information about the component can be found in the Screen Component: Dropdown List documentation.

You can either migrate the Dropdown List with the help of the Migration Module in the Appway Studio, or perform this migration manually. The Migration of the Dropdown List document outlines the steps to follow to migrate the component from an older installation to Appway 6.3.

Date Picker
The Date Picker is a Screen Component that renders an input field for choosing a date. It provides a pop-up with a calendar to pick a date from and makes it easy for the user to enter the right value. More information about the component can be found in the Screen Component: Date Picker documentation.

You can either migrate the Date Picker with the help of the Migration Module in the Appway Studio, or perform this migration manually. The Migration of the Date Picker document outlines the steps to follow to migrate the component from an older installation to Appway 6.3.

Business Object Editor Enhancements
From a clean, flat design to clear notifications when you are working in read-only mode, we've included some visual improvements to the Business Object editors. But we've also made sure to deliver functional improvements as well: common operations can be performed using new shortcut keys, and you can now adjust the various regions of the editors according to your preference.

Cluster Enhancements
Appway 6.3 introduces a series of cluster-related enhancements and fixes that are reflected in such areas as improved performance, reduced resource consumption, faster system startup, and improved logging.

Querying of process messages no longer requires executing a distributed query, for example. Having an index to answer queries over process messages speeds up response times and saves computing resources. Find out more in the Process Messages Indexing documentation.

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Training
Our Appway 6.3 Upgrade training is now open for registration. Held in Zürich on Thursday, March 24 2016, this half-day course covers the features new with Appway 6.3, explains the impact these features have on development, and discusses information and procedures regarding an upgrade to 6.3.

If you have any questions regarding any of the topics covered in this post, please do not hesitate to contact Appway Support.

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