Before you deploy your apps, make sure you have tested them.
Test apps using app preview
The simplest way to test your app is in your browser. The app preview in the editor sidebar shows what the latest version of your app will look like on a phone oriented vertically. To quickly test other form factors such as tablet, horizontal phone, or full-screen browser mode, use the links above the editor preview.
Use the Preview App as field to test the app using a specific account, as demonstrated in the following video.
Note: The concepts in this video are still valid, though the AppSheet app editor UI has changed since it was recorded.
Quick Tip Friday - Preview App as Another User
Test the app install link
Before deploying the app you should also test on your mobile devices by sending yourself the install link.
Considerations when testing apps
There are a few differences in how the app behaves running in-browser vs on a mobile device:
- On a mobile device and in full-screen browser mode, the app can launch with cached local data without the need for a sync. If a stable version is set, both will show the stable version rather than the latest version. Since they launch with cached data, they will not show the latest version of the app or the latest data until completing a sync. The sync-on-start and automatic update options can be used to keep the data up-to-date.
- In the phone and tablet form-factor preview modes, the app will not launch with local data and will always sync the latest version when the page loads. Subsequent syncs will stay fixed on that version, so if you make changes to the app, the preview page should be reloaded to see the latest version.
- Device-based features like barcode and NFC scanning only work on mobile devices, so the buttons to start scanning for scan-enabled columns will not appear when the app is run in-browser in full-screen mode. The form-factor preview modes do show these buttons since they simulate running the app on mobile devices, but in this setting they simply input a placeholder value.