AI CoCreator - Create An App

Overview

In this guide, we'll walk you through the exciting journey of crafting an app using the AI CoCreator tool. What sets CoCreator apart is its unique ability to convert your textual descriptions—whether they're succinct statements or comprehensive project outlines—into functional app elements. With just your words, it designs fields, crafts templates, structures forms, and generates reports.

But the magic doesn't end there. Even if you're new to the world of app development, CoCreator is on your side. As long as your process scope is clearly articulated, you can effortlessly launch a fully-functional application within minutes. It's app building reimagined, allowing for swift and intuitive deployment, no prior experience needed.

• Prerequisite
• Initialising the AI App CoCreatorAccessing
• Scoping the App
• Creating the App

To put the value of this feature into context we will reference to a use case where we are a car manufacturer and have noticed an increase in Incidents in one of our manufacturing warehouses. We need to reduce these or we will not meet our production demand for the next 6 months. So we have decided to be proactive and build a Weekly Quality Inspection Audit App which will allow us to foresee incidents before they happen.

Pre-Requisite

In order to use the AI CoCreator, it will require your site to have tokens that come with a daily token limit. If you do not currently have tokens enabled and would like to use the AI CoCreator, then please consult with your site admin who can contact Softools via support@softools.net.

If your site does not have tokens enabled then it will display a warning otherwise it will show you your daily limit and the current daily token consumption.

Initialising the AI App CoCreator

To initiate the App Creation process:

1. Navigate to the App Studio Homepage.

2. Locate the Add option (highlighted in red on the homepage) and select it.

After selecting the "Add" option, you will be presented with four distinct app creation choices. To proceed with AI assistance, choose the "AI CoCreator App".

Here's a brief rundown of each option:

• Quick Start App – With a few details this option instantly creates an app with a field, template, form, and report. Useful for quickly generating results within App Studio.

• Blank App – Allows you to build an app entirely from scratch.

• Import App – Perfect for those trying to convert their current processes held on excel. This choice lets you generate an app by importing your file.

• AI CoCreator App – Leverages AI assistance to guide and accelerate the app creation process. Click on the Video Link in the CoCreator tile for a visual demonstration of this feature.

Scoping the AI CoCreator App

When you proceed to the next step, you'll be introduced to the App Creation screen. This interface presents several fields and options to help you tailor your app:

Note: If you click on the Avatar at the top of this page, it will open our assistant who will guide you through a Video on using AI App CoCreator.

Title & Identifier

Title: Provide a name for your app. The App Title will appear in the LaunchPad and Context Menus when using your App in the Workspace.

Identifier: Set a unique identifier for your app. Remember that this identifier will be referenced in exports, look-up fields, and aggregate fields and cannot be changed once the App is created so think carefully and be sure the identifier is the one you are happy to keep once set.

For our Inspection Audit App we will call it Weekly Quality Inspections but for our Identifier we will use QualityInspections. In time we may reduce the frequency of the inspections to Monthly and so we do not want to be too specific with the Identifier that it will be confusing as the process evolves.

Scope

Describe your app here. This can be a concise summary or a detailed outline of its functionalities. The more information that you provide, the more accurate the App will be for your process.

Lets put this in context of our Weekly Quality Inspection Audit App. We could start with a very basic definition which states the Fields we expect in our App

Create a Weekly Quality Audit with the following Fields: 
Unique ID, Company, Business Unit, Location, Auditor (person), Date,
Period (month calculated from the date) 

We can then build on this to give some process preference on how the Audit will be conducted

Each Audit should have 10 Questions where the Auditor will score each question from 1-5
The Auditor should be able to add comments and images for each question

We will then want summary information in the form:
- Maturity Level (calculated from the average Maturity Score from the questions) 
- Status (Red, Amber, Green) 
- Auditors Summary 
- Next Steps 

But we can then also give some instruction of how we would like the App to look.

Create 3 Templates: 
1) Context (UniqueId, Company, Business Unit, Location, Auditor, Date) 
2) Audit Q1 to Q10 (Description, Maturity Score, Auditor Comments) 
3) Outcomes (Maturity Level, Status, Auditors Summary, Next steps)

We can even finish this off with what outputs we would like to see to perform our inspection analysis.

Create at least 5 Reports to include: 
- A list of audits with all fields in the Context template and Outcomes template 
- A chart showing the Maturity Level of each location 

The clearer we can be with our process definition the more work will be completed by AI and less refinement needed from App Building.

Using Samples to Pre-Define the App Scope

Based on our experience of Business Apps, we have added generic scopes of the most common Apps that we see. To utilise these:

1. Click on Samples at the bottom of the screen.
2. Select the App that is most similar to your use case by clicking on Select at the end of the Row.
3. Click on Select to preview the App Scope.
4. Once you are happy with your selection click on Prefill at the bottom of the page to use this as the AI CoCreator Scope.

Browse through a handpicked selection of scope examples. These can inspire you or act as a foundation for your app's design. It will pre-populate the Scope that you can then adjust so it fits your business needs before proceeding with the AI CoCreator.

Creating the AI CoCreator App

After you've filled out all the necessary details, in the Scope, click the Save button to commence the app creation process. This action will navigate you to a progress screen where the app fields are generated. As each field materialises, you'll be prompted to review and confirm its specifics, including Field Identifier, Label, and Type. At this point, you also have the ability to designate each field as Required, Read-Only, and/or Searchable.

If you find the need to incorporate additional fields, the Add button is readily available for use. You can also Delete any redundant Fields by clicking the cross at the end of the Field Row.

Once you're content with your field configurations, ensure you save your progress before advancing.

Once you hit 'Save', you'll progress through to the final screen showing the generation progress of templates, forms, and reports. When this process reaches completion, your app will be ready to review and then deploy.

From there, you can navigate as you typically would, making any tweaks or adjustments as needed.

Note: You may be met with a screen that shows 0 in certain rows but upon refreshing the page you will see the missing items in the left hand menu