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Build your first app

This walk-through builds a small job tracker: customers, the jobs you do for them, a board to move jobs along, and an email when a job is done. It takes about 20 minutes. Every step can be done by hand or by asking the AI builder.

#1. Sign in and create the app

1. Go to apptown.app and choose Sign in. Signing in for the first time creates your account. There is nothing to install.
2. On your apps page, create an app. Give it a name (Field jobs) and a description of what it is for: Track our customers, the jobs we do for them, and who does each job. The AI builder reads this description with every request, so a clear one helps.
3. The app opens in the builder: its own menu on the left (Data, Views, Automations, Security, History, Branding, Sharing, Settings), the page in the middle, and a live preview of your app on the right.

With AI: type the description into the AI builder chat instead, for example "Customers with name, phone and address; jobs with a customer, a date, a technician and a status (New, Scheduled, In progress, Done)", and watch the tables and views appear. Then skip to step 4.

#2. Add tables and fields

A table holds one kind of thing. Under Data, add two tables:

• Customers with the fields Name (text), Phone (phone), Email (email) and Address (location).
• Jobs with Title (text), Customer (link to another table → Customers), Date (date and time), Technician (person), Status (single select with the options New, Scheduled, In progress and Done) and Price (price).

The Customer link makes a relationship: every job points to one customer, and each customer shows its jobs under Linked from. See all the field types.

#3. Add views

A view is a screen of your app. Under Views, add:

• Jobs board: a Kanban view of Jobs, grouped by Status. People drag a card to move a job along.
• Calendar: a Calendar view of Jobs on Date.
• Customers: a Table view of Customers.

Each view gets a name and an icon for the app's menu. Choose where it shows: on desktop, on phones and tablets, or both. Read more in Views and the menu.

#4. Try it with test data

The preview never touches real data. It works on a separate set of test records, so add a few customers and jobs in the preview, drag a job across the board, and switch the preview between phone and tablet (or open it at desktop size with Desktop ↗). The Test data sash in its corner is your reminder: nothing you do here is seen by anyone else.

#5. Add a rule and a formula

• On Jobs → Price, open Logic and add the validation [Price] >= 0 with the message The price can't be negative.
• Add a formula field Overdue to Jobs with AND([Date] < NOW(), [Status] <> "Done") and result type checkbox.

The expression box suggests fields and functions as you type and shows the result on a sample record. Everything about expressions: Expressions.

#6. Automate the email

Under Automations, add one:

1. Trigger: A record changes in Jobs, only when Status changes, only if [Status] = "Done".
2. Step: Send an email to {{[Customer].[Email]}} with the subject Your job "{{[Title]}}" is done.
3. Choose Test run: it runs on your test data and shows exactly what would have been sent, without sending anything.

More in Automations.

#7. Publish and share

1. Choose Publish. People using the app see the published version; your later changes stay in the draft until you publish again. See Draft, publish and history.
2. Under Sharing, create a group (paste a list of emails), give it the User access level, and share. Everyone in it gets the app at once, on every device. See Sharing.
3. Want technicians to see only their own jobs? Add a role and a row filter under Security: Roles and security.

That's a complete app. From here, browse the view types and the automation steps to see what else it can do.