The “All Apps” screen

When you launch the application, the first screen you will see is the “All Apps” screen. AppCreator lets you create multiple database applications called apps. Each app is independent, and the data for each app is stored separately. This screen shows all the apps available on your device.

Managing apps

To create a new app, simply tap the “+” button at the bottom of the screen, you will be prompted to enter a new app name. After saving the app name, the new app will be listed under the “All Apps” screen. Tap the “Edit” button at the top of the screen will switch to edit mode where you can edit an app name, delete an app or reorder the apps so they show in the preferred order within the list.

The “All Models” screen

Tapping any of the apps shown in the “All Apps” screen will take you to the “All Models” screen. This screen shows all the models in the app that you just selected. A model in AppCreator is roughly equivalent to a relational database table. An app can contain multiple models and each model is designed to hold information of a specific type. For example, an app may contain a “Customer” model which contains the name, address and phone number for all the customers of a particular business. The same app may also include a “Product” model used to store the product descriptions with associated product codes for the items sold by the business.

Creating new model

To create a new model, tap the “+” button at the bottom of the “All Models” screen.

In the “New Model” screen, give your model a name, for example, “Customer”. Next, you must specify the record name. Record name is the name of the field that appears in key lists, related lists, lookups, and search results. You can think of it as the primary key in the relational database table. For example, the record name for “Customer” model is “Customer Name” and for “Product” is “Product Code”. You can add more fields to the model or tap the “Save” button at the top of the screen to save the model.

Adding fields

To add a new field, simply give it a name and choose a field type. Field type dictates the type of data the field can contain. Available field types include:

• Text
• Number
• Date
• Time
• Date & Time
• Checkbox
• Note
• Phone
• URL
• Email Address
• Lookup
• Heading

You can control the order the fields are shown by dragging the reordering icon up or down. Field name, field type and field order can be changed even after records have been created.

Managing models

Tapping the “Edit” button at the top of the “All Models” screen will switch to edit mode where you can edit a model, delete a model or reorder the models so they show in the preferred order within the list.

Viewing and editing records on the device

Tapping any of the models shown in the “All Models” screen will show all the records in the model. Dragging your finger up and down will scroll through the visible records. Tapping the status bar will scroll to the top of the list. Only the record name is shown in the list. Tapping any of the records will take you to the detailed record view. Tap the “+” button at the bottom of the screen to create new records.

Detailed record view

Tapping a field defined as URL type will launch that URL in the Safari web browser. Tapping a field defined as email address will open the mail dialog addressed to that email address. Tapping a field defined as phone number will let you dial that number in the Phone dialer or let you send a text message to that number. To edit the record, tap the “Edit” button at the top of the screen to switch to edit mode.

When you are in edit mode, tapping any of the fields will take you to the view that lets you edit the field value, or, if that is a lookup field, you will be presented with a list of choices.

You can also add tags to the record. Think of a tag as a simple category name. You can categorize records with any tag that makes sense. Tags do not form a hierarchy and they are especially useful when it comes time to find your records later.

If the record that you are looking at is associated with other records of a different model via a lookup relationship, then the model name will be shown in the related list. Tap the model name will show a list of related records. For example, if you have a “Contact” model that has a lookup field related to the “Account” model, if you add a contact record “John Appleseed” and select “Acme Inc.” as the value of its account field, when you view the “Acme Inc.” record, you should see the “Contact” model being shown under the related list section. Tap on “Contact” will reveal “John Appleseed” and other related contact records.

To delete the record, tap the “Delete Record” button.

You can navigate from one record to another record by tapping the next or previous button at the bottom of the detailed record view.

Search

To find a record, you can tap the search box and start typing. As you type, the view is limited automatically to show only those records where the record name matching the keyword you have given. To search across all the fields, simply tap the “Done” button on the keyboard when you are done typing in the search box.

Tags

Tapping “Tags” at the bottom of the model screen will show a list of tags or keywords you have ever assigned to any of the records of that model. The number shown next to a tag tells you the number of records tagged with that particular keyword. Tapping the tag will show the tagged records.

Views

Views are named set of filter and sorting options. A default view is created for you when a model is created. The default view sorts the record name in ascending order and it is selected by default. To switch to other view, simply tap it from the list in the “Select View” screen.

Managing views

Tapping the “Edit” button at the top of the “Select View” screen will switch to edit mode where you can edit a view, delete a view or reorder the views so they show in the preferred order within the list.

Sorting options

Sorting options let you define the order the records will be shown. You can add multiple sort fields with different sort orders. The second sort field will sort the duplicates in the first sort field, the third sort field will sort the duplicates in the second sort field, and so on.

Filters

Filters are rules that describe the subset of the records. The options “Match any of the following”, “Match all of the following” and “Match none of the following” translate to logical OR, AND and NOT respectively. For example, you want to create a view of “Employee” records where all the employee are male and last name is “Appleseed”, you would create a filter by selecting “Match all of the following” and add two expressions, “Gender = Male” and “Last Name = Appleseed” respectively.

Backup, restore database, import, export or editing data in web browser

Tapping on the synchronize icon at the bottom of the screen will launch the internal web server, where it lets you backup or restore database, import, export or editing data on your computer by typing in the given URL in the web browser. You device must be connected to a WiFi router that is on the same network as your computer for this to work.

Note: When you are entering date, time, or date & time in the web browser, it must be in the same format as what you would see on the device, e.g. "April 1, 2009", "10:00 AM", or "April 1, 2009 10:00 AM".