Finding apps
Beta: everyone in a workspace can find its apps by the job they do; opening one still needs the right to run it.
- Where
- Apps, the top bar search, Maestro
- Who finds
- Every member of the workspace
- Who opens
- People who may run the app
App Studio is in release 3.0 as Beta: a paid add-on that no edition includes by default.
Seeing is not opening
Everyone in a workspace can find its apps. Opening an app still needs the right to run it, and finding it never gives that right.
What a person who cannot open an app sees is its listing, the card its builders wrote: the name, the icon, what it is for, what it helps with, which roles it is for, its owner, how many people use it, and where their own access stands. They never see its code, its versions, the topics it reads, who approved it or its drafts.
A listing appears only while the app is live and not switched off. People who can share the app can set it to not listed; then only people who may read, run or edit it find it. A deny rule that hides an app from someone also hides its listing. Paired displays and API clients see no listings.
Finding the right app
Apps is a catalog with one search box. Search for the job ("label printer", "changeover", "scrap on line 3"): the search matches words in the app's name, description and "Helps with" lines and, for apps you may run, the part of the plant the app reads, what it reads from, and what it does ("Records data", "Controls machines", "Handles alarms", "Approves", "Notifies", "Runs automations"). Filters narrow by part of the plant and by what the app does; these two look only at apps you can open, and say how many others they hide while they are on. For your roles keeps the apps made for a role you hold. Apps you can open come first; More apps in workspace then shows the listings you may see but not open.
The top bar search and Maestro (Beta) answer within the same rules: an app you may not find never appears there either.
Asking for access
On a listing you cannot open, Request access asks for the right to run that one app, with a reason of up to 500 characters. The person who decides sees the request in their inbox and decides it there; you get a notification with the decision, and an approved request lets you open the app.
The listing says where your request stands:
| State | What you see |
|---|---|
| You can open it | Open |
| No request yet | "You can't open this app yet." and Request access |
| Requested | "Requested on date. Decider decides." and Cancel request |
| You cancelled it | "You cancelled your request. You can ask again when." Asking again is possible 24 hours after cancelling. |
| Declined | Who declined it, when, and their note, then Request again. Asking again is possible 7 days after a decline. |
| You can open it, but it is switched off | Open disabled, with who switched it off and why |
One open request per person and app, at most 20 open requests per person, and at most 50 requests a day per person. Requests do not expire: cancel one you no longer need.
Without Advanced Access Control there is no Request access, because sharing one app needs that licence feature. The listing then says "You can't open this app." and which roles open apps in this workspace, and names people who can give roles there.
What builders add
An app needs a description to go live with a newer version or to ask for its release, and a good one is how people find it. If it is empty, or still the template's word for word, when you press Publish, a short Listing step asks for it, with optional "Helps with" lines (up to five, each up to 120 characters); where Maestro is available, Draft with Maestro can suggest both, and nothing is saved until you save. The listing is outside the release review: people with edit rights change it at any time, each change is audited, and the next release request shows what changed in the listing since the last approval.
Write the listing for people who cannot open the app yet: name the line or the area, and the problem it solves.
Drafts and history
Drafts and checkpoints need edit rights on the app (app:update); version history needs edit or publish rights. The right to open an app is not enough.
Usage
A card shows "Used by N people this month" from three people up, and "On N screens" for paired displays. Counts come from people and paired displays opening the app, never from tokens or API clients. A person's records of opening an app are removed after 90 days; a paired display's stay while it is paired and go when it is unpaired.