Advanced Config

Overview

Advanced Config contains the app-level settings used to describe an app, identify its owners, control parts of the Workspace experience, provide guidance, and enable features such as offline working, Data Lens, App Home cards and report actions.

To open it in App Studio, select App Configuration > Advanced Config.

• Summary - Classification of the Category and KPI used to assess the App’s success
• Stakeholders - Exec Sponsor, Ops Lead, Tech Lead, App Builder
• Workspace Experience - Tailoring the App Experience for End Users
  • Previous and next Record navigation
  • Add Record control location
• Guidance - Process Diagram, System Diagram, Help Videos
• Tech Options - Inc. Offline Availability, Single Sign-On, Languages
  • Connectivity (offline availability)
  • Single Sign-On
  • Languages
  • Other Options
• Data Lens - Enabling Data Lens and Adding Searchable Fields
• App Home Card (Preview) - Enabling App Home Cards and Selecting Templates
• Report Actions - Setting the On Click and On Create Actions
• Named Styles - Adding named styles to App Elements
• Save, publish and test

Summary

Use Summary to record the app's Category and KPI.

• Category groups the app on the Launchpad. It is sometimes called the app's taxonomy. Apps are first ordered on the Launchpad by Category in ascending alphabetical order (then by App name).
• KPI records the Key Performance Indicator used to assess whether the process represented by the app is performing effectively or reflecting best practice. Key performance indicators (KPIs) refer to a set of quantifiable measurements used to gauge long-term performance.

In the Projects example, the Category is 3. CHANGE and the KPI is the percentage of projects delivered on time and within the approved budget. The Category determines where the app appears on the Workspace Launchpad, while the KPI gives App Builders a clear statement of what successful use of the process should achieve.

These values provide useful governance information for App Builders. Workspace users see the Category on the app's Launchpad card; the KPI is not displayed in Workspace.

Stakeholders

Use Stakeholders to record the name and email address of the people who should be consulted about the app, its process and any future changes:

• Exec Sponsor: Who sponsored the app and provided direction on its purpose and the process it supports?
• Ops Lead: Who was the principal operational or implementation contact?
• Tech Lead: Who is responsible for technical functions, integrations or relevant IT decisions?
• App Builder: Who built and maintains the app? This might be an internal App Builder, a partner or a member of the Softools team.

Keeping this information current makes it easier to direct questions, changes and support requests to the right people. Stakeholder details are visible to App Builders in App Studio.

Workspace Experience

Workspace Experience controls the standard previous/next navigation and where the built-in Add Record controls are shown. These settings change the interface; they do not grant or remove record-creation permission.

Enable previous/next record navigation

When Enable previous/next record navigation is on, users can move between records using the standard previous and next controls on full record pages and record pop-ups.

Turn it off to hide those controls. This is useful when records should be opened only from a particular report or when moving sequentially between records could take a user outside the intended context.

The setting applies to both:

• the record paginator on a full record page; and
• the previous and next arrows in a record pop-up.

It does not affect custom Action Button Fields or other navigation built into the app.

Add record control location

Use Add record control location to choose where the standard controls for creating records appear.

Left-menu controls include the app's New Record menu item and, when the app is shown as a child app inside a parent record, the plus icon beside the child app name.

Main-content controls are the floating plus buttons shown on App Home, Child App Home, full-page reports and embedded reports.

The following examples show the four options on the same full-page Projects Report.

Current behaviour for embedded report menus

The Create Record command in an embedded table report's ellipsis menu remains available for all four location options, including Left menu only and Neither location. This article describes the current product behaviour.

The parent app and child app each use their own Add record control location setting. An embedded report follows the setting of the app whose records it displays, not the setting of the parent app in which the report is embedded.

This option only changes the standard user-interface controls. It does not:

• remove Create permission from a user or team;
• hide a custom Action Button Field that creates a record;
• override an app, report or record restriction; or
• change whether a record can be created by an import, workflow or integration.

Permissions and other contextual restrictions still take precedence. For example, a user without Create permission cannot create a record even if an Add Record control is visible.

This setting is useful when records should normally be created automatically or from another part of a process: for example, child audit questions generated from a template. It cannot, on its own, enforce a rule where an app is directly accessible, but records may only be created from one particular parent-record context. Configuring the child App’s On Create Action Button to display an appropriate warning can prevent users from proceeding through the Create Record option that remains in an embedded Report’s ellipsis menu.

Guidance

Guidance lets App Builders store supporting material for the app:

• Process Diagram: upload an image showing the business process supported by the app.
• System Diagram: upload an image showing the systems, integrations or data flows associated with the app.
• Help Video Link: enter the URL of a video that explains how to use the app.

These items are currently provided as App Studio guidance for App Builders. Use clear, current diagrams and a video URL that the intended audience is permitted to open.

Tech Options

Tech Options contains settings for connectivity, Single Sign-On, languages and record-level features.

Connectivity

Turn on Available Offline? to make the app available when a user temporarily has no internet connection. When the user signs in while online, the app definition and record data are synchronised into the browser. The user can then access, add and edit records while offline; pending changes synchronise when a connection is restored.

Consider the following before enabling offline availability:

• Workflows, expressions and other server-side processing require a connection and may not complete until the device is online.
• Users working offline do not receive records or changes made by other users until the app synchronises again.
• An app containing a large volume of data takes longer to synchronise at sign-in. Test the experience carefully when an app may contain more than approximately 10,000 records.
• Some report and linking behaviour differs between online and offline apps.

For a detailed comparison, see Offline vs. Online Applications.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

The SSO area shows whether Single Sign-On is enabled for the tenant and lists the domains associated with the SSO login. These values are informational in Advanced Config and cannot be changed by an App Builder.

Contact Softools to set up or change SSO. See the Single Sign-On guidance for supported options.

Languages

The Disable Auto Translations? toggle controls whether the app is translated automatically from its default language into the languages supported by the site.

When automatic translation is available, Advanced Config shows:

• App Default Language: the source language used for the app's default translations. This is selected when the app is created and cannot subsequently be changed.
• Site Supported Languages: the languages enabled for the site.

When automatic translations are enabled, App Studio also provides the Translations area under Advanced for reviewing and maintaining app translations. See Translations.

Other Options

Record User Identifier Field

Select a field that uniquely identifies each record to use it in place of the Softools-assigned Record ID when importing data. Choose a field whose value is unique and stable, such as Project Reference.

This is particularly useful when records are imported from another system without first having been exported from Softools. A normal Softools export includes each record's internal [ID], which can be used to match rows to existing records during a later import. When the source file does not contain that ID, a Record User Identifier lets the import find an existing record using a business identifier instead.

For example, if Project Reference is selected, a CSV row containing PRJ-2026-012 can be matched to the existing project with that reference. This makes repeat imports and external-system integrations easier to manage.

Make sure the selected field is populated and unique before relying on it for updates. For the required CSV structure and import behaviour, see Importing Records via CSV.

Allow Attachments?

When enabled, users can attach documents and images to individual records using the paperclip in the bottom-right corner of the record. Attachments are enabled by default.

Allow Comments?

When enabled, users can add comments to individual records using the speech-bubble icon in the bottom-right corner of the record. Comments are enabled by default.

Data Lens

Data Lens provides AI-powered, meaning-based search across selected app fields.

1. Turn on Enable Data Lens.
2. If users need to search in languages other than English, turn on Enable Data Lens Translation.
3. Under Data Lens Fields, select the fields Data Lens should search. You can select up to 10 fields per app.
4. Save and publish the app.

When Data Lens is enabled, users can switch a Report into its Data Lens search view. For the best results, select text-rich Fields such as summaries, descriptions, objectives, risks, latest updates and next steps. Users can then search with natural phrases, for example, “projects relating to cost reduction”, rather than matching only an exact word or phrase.

Keep the following indexing behaviour in mind:

• Data Lens updates are asynchronous. A single record edit normally becomes searchable within a few minutes; larger batches are processed on a schedule and can take longer.
• A large import may take several hours to become fully searchable.
• If a new field is added to Data Lens after the feature is enabled, values already stored in that field are not indexed until those records change. Where necessary, export and re-import or otherwise update the affected values so that they are re-indexed.
• Data Lens is designed primarily for natural-language text. It may not reliably interpret number-only searches or numerical comparisons.

For search behaviour, examples and limitations, see DataLens for AI-Powered Text Search.

App Home Card (Preview)

App Home Card controls how records from the app are presented as cards on App Home. This feature is in preview and may continue to develop.

1. Turn on App Home Card Enabled.
   When this is off, the remaining App Home Card options are hidden.
2. Set the card dimensions:
   • Card Width: 160–1000 pixels.
   • Card Height: 100–1000 pixels.
3. Add one or more Card Templates to define the information and layout shown on each card.
4. Optionally add Card Named Styles to apply conditional presentation, such as a border colour based on RAG status.
5. Save and publish the app.

A useful starting size is approximately 400 pixels wide by 500 pixels high, but the best dimensions depend on the selected template, the amount of data displayed and the devices used. Test the cards in Workspace at the smallest screen size your users are likely to use.

See App Home for more information about the Workspace page.

Report Actions

Report Actions sets the default Action Button used when a user selects a Record in a Report or selects a standard Add Record control.

• On Click Action Button: runs when a user selects a record in a report. For example, it can open a Project Summary pop-up instead of navigating to the full record page.
• On Create Action Button: runs when a user selects a standard Add Record control. For example, it can open a purpose-built Create Project pop-up.

Only Action Button Fields configured for the app can be selected. The selected button should open an appropriate record or create pop-up and should be tested from every report and embedded context in which it will be used.

See Pop-Up Templates for guidance on configuring the templates used by these actions.

Named Styles

Named Styles are reusable styles that can be applied across the app. They are useful for maintaining a consistent visual treatment without repeating the same configuration in multiple places.

Each Named Style contains:

• Name: the identifier used when applying the style.
• Description: a short explanation of its purpose.
• Element: the type of interface element to which the style applies, such as a component.
• State: indicates whether the Named Style is new, modified or unchanged since the Advanced Config page was opened.

For example, a LargeText named style applied to components can increase the size of key values in table reports and record layouts. Use descriptive names and test the result in each context where the style is applied.

See Styles for detailed styling guidance.

 

Save, publish and test

After changing Advanced Config:

1. Select Save.
2. Publish the app.
3. Open the app in Workspace and test the change as a representative user.
4. If the app is available offline, allow the device to synchronise the latest published app definition before testing.

For Workspace Experience changes, test App Home, a full-page report, a full record page, a record pop-up and any relevant parent/child embedded-report context.