Best practices question..... App is already d...

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

Best practices question… App is already deployed to employees.

Need to update the app which includes adding a few columns and one new view.

The changes will take about a day to make.

Don’t want to interrupt current app operation and don’t want to risk breaking the current app while in use.

What is the best practice for the update; rename the spreadsheet and app, work offline, etc?

Pls advise best practices.

2

@praveen solution is the ideal.

But i’d suggest the following as a belt-and-braces approach if you’er not on Pro licensing:

1 = Inform your users a few days in advance there is going to be an update at xxxx on xx/xx/xxxx.

Ideally 2-3times.

We find adding them to a WhatsApp group also useful.

Tell them they’ll need to sync everything BEFORE that time or risk losing it forever 2= Pick a time above that nobody is likely to be using the App, such as 1800 on a Tuesday 3 = At that time just add the extra columns.

Since that is the only bit that would cause their app to stop working. 4 = Wait a day or so to confirm all is ok.

If anyone is running an older version, you’ll see Appsheet writing data into the wrong columns.

Sort those people out with a direct phone call or email. 5 = Finally you can then, at your leisure, create all your rules and views

We’ve done the above with 30-40 user construction apps and it seems to work quite well

3

Without knowing what plan you are using, I would send the information day before the new release that they remember to sync the app first in the morning. Small changes are easy to do even if they are using the app, but you should add those new columns once.

4

Also consider App Update and App Upgrade (see documentation).

help.appsheet.com - MANAGE | AppSheet Help Center MANAGE | AppSheet Help Center help.appsheet.com

5

@Simon_Robinson great info. Thanks

6

We operate w the premium level package.

What about testing and developing the changes… the changes being made will affect the user forms while developing the changes.

How to avoid the user accessing the changes during development?

is it at all suggested to copy and rename the app offline while editing the app so the users don’t have access until changes are correct.

Thanks!

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is it at all suggested to copy, rename, edit the app offline while editing the app so the users don’t have access until changes are correct.

Is it typical to edit a copy and then replace the original app and spreadsheet or is editing the originals how this goes, relying on history if need to go back version prior to edits?

Thanks!