How to

This article lists practical how-to knowledge that is useful when building an AppMachine app.

Set a block to inactive

If you want to keep the users of your published app from using a portion of your app, make use of the "ON/OFF" switch.

Select the block you want to hide.
Change the selector to OFF.
When you publish (or update) your app, this block will not be visible for your users.
If you want to see the block in the app previewer while you are working on it, change the selector to ON. If you need to do an app update, but you do not want to make the block available, set the slider to OFF again before you publish

Once you are satisfied with the block, change the selector back to ON and publish the changes to your users.

Access the Update History for your App

The update history for an app is located in the "Publish" screen. To find the update history for an app, go to the Publish screen, click on the dropdown icon in the Publish button and then click View Publication History

This will open a modal that shows publication history and details of each publish.

Double click on a publish to show more details, for example why a publish may have failed.

Use Google Calendar ID for the "Events" block

This is how to retrieve your Google Calendar ID for use in the "Events" block.

Go to http://calendar.google.com/ and login to your Google Calendar account.
Click the dropdown next to the calendar name. Please note that we only support Google Calendars which are publicly accessible.
Copy the “Calendar ID” and paste it into the Calendar ID field of the Google Calendar sections of the "Events" block.

Add a Block

You have just created an app and can’t wait to add features. What next? Adding content to your app of course. How to add a block:

Go to the Content tab in the left side menu
Click on the red + Block button.
Click on a block to see a description of what it does
Add block pop-up.
Click Next to add the block and follow the instructions. You can check the instructions on how to add each block here.

Replace or delete a block icon

Click on a building block's icon to reveal the Edit and Delete options for that icon.

Clicking on "Replace" allows you to select a new icon from a number of different sources.

Pexels - Allows you to browse and pick from free stock photos you can use everywhere.
Upload - "Upload" gives you the option of uploading a new image to the AppMachine CMS to be used as an icon. You can upload this image from your local system or import one from a URL.
Stock - Here you can browse our preselected icons
App Images - This option displays all the images that are being used in your app so far.

Delete an app

Do you want to organise your apps by deleting the ones you're not using? This can be done very easily by going to your App Dashboard, clicking on the menu icon of the app you want to delete and clicking delete. Confirm your choice to finalize deletion. Note that this process can not be undone. Published apps can't be deleted.

Delete/Remove a block

If you want to delete a block, all you have to do is click the delete icon for the block you want to remove. A modal will open and you can confirm your choice.

What to do when you've accidentally deleted a block from your app

When you've accidentally removed a block from your app and you want to get it back, contact support@appmachine.com to request the block to be restored. In most cases our support agents will be able to restore the deleted block. Please be aware though that this might not always be the case.

Delete your account

If you want to delete your account, then please contact support@appmachine.com. Your request will be processed by our privacy team.

Edit your app's name

Giving your app a proper name is extremely important, especially when you're working with several copies of the same app. Try to keep your app names up to date so that you know which versions are the most recently updated. Once you've finished editing and designing your app you can change its name to the definitive app name. But how is this done?

You can rename your app in two places; in the Editor and in the Publish Screen. If you're in the Editor your app and want to change the name, click the edit icon next to your current app name.

This will allow you to edit your app name inline. Don't forget to click the save button!

If you're in the Publish Screen and want to change your app name, go to the bottom right section, App Vitals and click on the App Name field. Now you can edit your App Name. Don't forget to click save after the change.

Add images to your information block

In an Information block you can text, videos, but also images. You can even use it to only add a single image or a list of image beneath each other.

When editing your Information block, click the expand icon to show a bigger text editor with more options or click the arrow icon to show more editing options in the small editor.

In both scenario's you will see more editing options, including an image selector icon.

Click the image selector icon to open the image selector. Within the image selector your can choose from three different ways to add an image to your information block:

Pexels: stock images
Upload: to upload your own images
App images: choose from images that are already used in your app
Image selector screen.
Chose the option that is best for you, pick an image and click select in the image modal to add the image to your block.