Test apps

Before you deploy your apps, make sure you have tested them.

• Test apps using app preview
• Preview an app as an individual account 
• Test the install link
• Considerations when testing apps

Test apps using app preview

Remember that you are interacting with the live app. Any data changes you make while interacting with the app preview are stored. 

The simplest way to test your app is in your browser. The app preview shows a live version of your app. Use the links in the top banner to preview your app on a mobile, tablet, or desktop (preview) device, or open the live app in a browser. 

Turn on the new desktop design, currently in preview, to optimize the user experience.

 

If the new desktop design is turned on,  desktop (preview) is displayed in the top banner and when you click  to open the app in a browser, AppSheet displays the new desktop design.

 

If the new desktop design is turned off, then    desktop (preview) is not displayed in the top banner and when you click  to open the app in a browser, AppSheet displays the legacy desktop experience.

Preview an app as an individual account

To test an app using Preview app as, you must share the app with the individual user. After sharing the app, you might have to refresh the page. If you share the app only with a domain, testing an app won't work as described for an individual user.

To preview an app as an individual account, do the following:

1. Enter the email in the Preview App as field (shown in the previous figure).
2. Click Apply.
3. Click a link in the top banner to preview the app using the the individual account on mobile, tablet, or desktop (preview).

When previewing an app as an individual account in the new desktop design (preview), you can also change the preview as setting directly in the top banner of the desktop UI.

The following video shows how to preview an app as another user to test its functionality.

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 send yourself the install link and test that it opens on your mobile devices.

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 desktop 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 mobile and tablet 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 desktop 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.