Places
A place is a named spot in your app, such as home.banner or promo.raffle-button. Your developer writes the name into the app once. After that you decide in the admin which published document is shown there — a banner, a raffle, a survey — and you can change it any day without a new release of the app.
What you need#
- At least one published document. A place can show only a published document, because that is the version phones read.
- The role of a publisher, an admin or the owner to change and publish places. Other members see the same table as plain text. See Team and roles.
- An active trial or licence. When publishing is off for the organization you can still edit the list, but not publish it. See Trial and licence.
Open the places#
In the left column, under Project, open Places. The table has four columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Place | The name the app uses. |
| Document | Which published document is shown there, or an empty place. |
| Entry screen | Where the document starts: its first screen or one of its named entries. |
| Published | When the list was published, or that this row has changed and is not published yet. |
Add a place#
- Under Place name, write the name exactly as your developer wrote it in the app. Use lowercase Latin letters and digits in segments separated by dots, starting with a letter:
home.banner. A hint with the rule is always on the screen; if the name does not fit, the reason appears under the field before you add anything. - Press Add place.
A new place is empty: it is declared, but no document is shown in it. The app hides the frame of an empty place. A project can have up to 200 places.
To take a place off the list, press Remove in its row. Remove a place only when the app no longer uses it: an app that asks for a place that is not in the list shows nothing there.
Choose a document and an entry#
In the Document column the list offers the published documents of the project; archived documents are not offered. If the list has nothing but the empty place, publish a document first and come back.
In the Entry screen column choose The first screen, or an entry name that the document defines. A screen gets such a name in its settings, in the field External entry; the document must be published for the name to be offered here. Choosing another document resets the entry, because an entry belongs to its document.
Publish the places#
Places have no draft: once published, the apps read the new list. That is why publishing asks for a confirmation.
- Press Publish places.
- The window lists what changes: Added, Changed and Removed places, each with what was and what will be.
- Press Publish to go ahead, or Cancel. Nothing is published until you confirm.
When it is done, the page says The places are published. Apps show the new documents the next time they read the list; how soon depends on how your developers set that up.
While the request is on its way the fields are locked, so that what you see is what is sent.
Marks next to a place#
A problem with a place is written in the row, before you press anything. Publishing stays off while any row has one.
| The row says | What to do |
|---|---|
| The document is not published | Publish the document, or choose another one. |
| The published document cannot be read | Publish it again, or choose another one. |
| The document has no such entry | Choose another entry, or leave it empty so that the document starts on the first screen. |
| The document is no longer in the list of documents | The document was deleted from the admin, but its published file is still there and phones keep reading it. Choose another document, or leave it if that is intended. |
If someone published the places first#
If a teammate published the list after you opened the page, your publication is not sent over theirs without asking. The page says so and offers two buttons:
- Show their version — the page shows what they published. What you typed is dropped.
- Publish mine over theirs — your list is published instead of theirs.
If the published list cannot be read#
If the file with the places exists but cannot be read, the page says so and starts with an empty list. Publishing then replaces that file with the list on the page. If the page could not load the places at all, it offers Try again instead of an editor.