Reuse automation components

AppSheet Automation enables reusability, allowing you to build components once and reuse them in various automations to save time and accelerate development. You can create events, processes, tasks, and actions that can be reused in other components. For example, you can reuse actions and tasks within new processes, reuse events and processes within new bots, and so on.

Manage component reuse as described in the following sections:

• Enable or disable automation component reuse
• Reuse an automation component
• View the linked components
• View all reusable components
• Edit or delete a reusable component
• Disable reusability for an automation component

Enable or disable automation component reuse

Automation component reuse is:

• Disabled by default when you create a component within a bot.
• Enabled by default when you create a component as a stand-alone component (for example, Automation > Events).

When configuring a component within a bot, you can enable reuse by expanding the Linking panel and enabling the Linking setting. For events and tasks, the Linking panel appears in the Settings panel, as shown:

For processes, the Linking panel appears in the center edit pane.

You can also enable or disable linking when viewing all reusable components

We've made some improvements to the app editor.
You are opted in to the new editor by default, but you can switch back to the legacy editor at any time.

If you are using the legacy editor

When configuring an automation component from the relevant tab (for example, Automation > Tasks), you can enable reuse by expanding the Linking panel and enabling the Linking setting, as shown:

Note for processes: You can enable or disable reusability for a process only by using the Automation > Processes tab. To view all reusable and non-reusable processes, click Show unlinked. (Non-reusable processes are hidden, by default.)

Similarly, when configuring an automation component within a bot, you can enable reuse by expanding the Linking panel and enabling the Linking setting in the Settings panel, as shown:

Note for actions: You can enable or disable reusability for an action only by using the Settings panel when configuring the action. 

To disable automation component reuse, disable the toggle.

Reuse an automation component

When you enable automation component reuse, that component will be included as a suggestion when adding components to your bots.

For example, when adding a new task to a process, the relevant reusable automation components are listed as suggestions:

To reuse a process, when editing a bot, select Swap in the Then run... drop-down and select a linkable process in Select a linkable process dialog. 

View the linked components

 View the linked components that are currently using the component in the Linking panel. 

For example, in the component Settings panel, you can:

• View the number of linked components in the linking lozenge
• Expand the Linking panel to view the full list of linked components
• Click a linked component to navigate to it in the relevant component tab

View all reusable components

After you enable at least one reusable (or linkable) component for a type (event, process, or task), you can view all reusable components of a given type by selecting the type in the fly-out menu. For example, select Automation > Tasks to view all reusable tasks.

We've made some improvements to the app editor.
You are opted in to the new editor by default, but you can switch back to the legacy editor at any time.

If you are using the legacy editor

 View all reusable and non-reusable components on the relevant tabs (such as, Automation > Processes).

Reusable components display the number of linked components in the linking lozenge. Non-reusable components do not display the lozenge. To show only reusable components, click Hide unlinked. Then, to show all components, including non-reusable components, click Show unlinked.

Edit or delete a reusable component

When editing or deleting a reusable component, your changes affect all linked components. Ensure that your changes do not negatively impact the operation of the linked components.

Before you delete a reusable automation component, consider removing the component from other bots or processes that use it.

If you are using the legacy editor

 If you try to delete a reusable component that is used by one or more bots, AppSheet will prompt you to confirm the operation. For example:

Disable reusability for an automation component

Before you disable reusability for an automation component, consider removing the component from other bots or processes that use it. See View the linked components.

 When configuring an automation component, disable reusability by selecting More   > Disable linking in the Settings panel.

We've made some improvements to the app editor.
You are opted in to the new editor by default, but you can switch back to the legacy editor at any time.

 

If you are using the legacy editor

 To disable reusability:

• When editing a component on its relevant tab (such as, Automation > Tasks), expand the component, expand the Linking panel, and disable the Linking toggle.
  
  
   
• When editing a component within a bot, expand the Linking panel in the Settings panel, and disable the Linking toggle.