Glossary

Application#

One piece of software you had built. It has its own conversation, its own data, its own address and its own settings. Everything in the workbench is scoped to one.

Build#

One run of the builder: it reads what you asked for, writes code, runs it, reads its own errors and fixes them. A build changes the preview and nothing else.

Builder#

The thing doing the software development work behind the conversation. It acts with your permissions, not its own.

Configuration value#

A named value the application reads but does not contain — an API key, an account number, a threshold. Set in Settings › Configuration, per environment. See Configuration values.

Data store#

Where an application's records are kept. Its own by default, one per environment; or one the workspace keeps that several applications share. See Where records live.

Decision screen#

A question the builder puts in front of you instead of asking in the conversation, because the answer is a choice or a table rather than a sentence. The build waits on it. See When it asks you.

Deployment#

Putting one version into one environment. Separate from building, and always a decision somebody takes. See Deploying.

Design system#

A brand and a brief: the colours and type, and the instructions the builder designs from. See Choosing a design system.

Environment#

Preview, test or live. Each has its own database, cache and file storage. See Environments.

Folder#

A grouping of applications on the dashboard. Deleting one never deletes applications.

Integration#

A capability the platform provides on the application's behalf — email, SMS, Google. The credential stays on the platform. See Integrations.

Live#

The environment the business runs on.

Preview#

The working copy, always current, reachable only from inside the workbench.

Published file#

A document the application hands to its users, with a stable address and no build needed to change it. See Published files.

Record#

One of the things an application has stored — a booking, a customer, an invoice. Read and corrected on the Data tab. See Your data.

Restyle#

A build that rearranges an application's screens for a design system whose brief has changed. Never automatic.

Role#

Owner, builder or viewer, held per workspace rather than per account. See People and roles.

Source#

Something an application was started from — a spreadsheet, a document, a picture, a page of a website. Read before the first build and listed under the brief. See Starting from what you have.

Table#

A kind of thing an application stores — its bookings, its customers. Its columns are fields, and each row in it is a record. Named by the application rather than by you. See Your data.

Test#

The environment for showing something to somebody before it is real. Closed to search engines by default. Sometimes written uat in an address.

User directory#

Everybody who can sign in to the applications one workspace has had built — listed under Users, shared by all of them. Nothing to do with platform accounts. See People who sign in.

Version#

A frozen point in an application's history. Every build becomes one automatically. See Versions.

Workbench#

The screen you work in: the conversation on one side, the application and its tabs on the other.

Workspace#

Your organisation on the platform: its people, its applications, its domain, its own design systems and its user directory. One account can belong to several. See More than one workspace.