Editor

Development environment and Editor

The Development environment is designed for application development and testing. When you first create your app, it is automatically deployed to the Development environment.

When working with a ready app, all changes introduced either manually (i.e. in Schema Editor), or with the help of AI Engineer are reflected in the Development environment.

For each significant change, make sure to click the Save button to create a checkpoint in the version history, which is stored in the Editor tab. Within the Editor, you can safely roll back to any of the previous versions, while keeping all the earlier iterations.

To access the Editor, switch to the Editor tab or hover over the app preview in the Overview tab. Click the Edit button to be redirected to the Editor tab.

In the Editor tab, you can suggest changes through the chat with the AI Engineer. Any modifications will be reflected in the app preview and recorded in the Version Control sidebar. If you're not satisfied with the result, you can always roll back to a previous version.

Top bar navigation menu

In the upper-right corner of the Editor tab, you’ll find navigation buttons and actions, which are detailed further in the text below:

Refresh iFrame: Refreshes the iframe on the current page of the app. If you don’t see the changes made by the AI engineer, you can click this button to update.

Restart:

Restart Service: Completes a full restart of the application (restarts front-end and back-end) in the Development environment. Any local changes made will not be saved. Upon restart, the app will pull the latest version from the repository (either from the development environment or from GitHub if a custom repository is connected).

Note: To roll back to the previous version after changes, use “Restart Service” button instead of ‘Save’.

Rebuild Dev Environment: Completely recreates the Dev environment from scratch, creating a new service for front-end and back-end, reinstalling all libraries. A sort of stronger version of “Restart”. If you’ve updated the database schema using the schema editor and pushed the updated code to your GitHub, clicking ‘Rebuild’ will initiate the process of recreating the application, incorporating the latest schema changes from GitHub.

Sync to Stable Environment: All changes made in the Development environment will be synchronized to the Stable environment. In technical terms, the “ai-dev” branch will be merged to the “master” branch and the Stable environment will be rebuilt.

Reset Dev: Resets the Development environment to match the current state of the Stable environment, using the latest version from the stable environment.

Save: Creates a version of the current state in the Development Environment, assigning it a version name that can later be used to rollback changes from or push to the Stable environment.

Few words about Terminology:

Dev Environment: This is your development environment or “sandbox” where you can make any changes you want using AI engineer or the schema editor. When you’re happy with everything, you can move your changes to the Stable environment.

Stable Environment: This is where the final version of your app runs. It’s like the live version that everyone uses.

Repository: This is like a storage space for all the different versions of your project. It keeps everything organized, so you can easily track changes and collaborate with others.

Branch: Imagine a branch as a separate area where you can work on different parts of your project at the same time without mixing them up. It’s a way to keep things organized while you make changes.

Development Branch (ai-dev ): This is where new ideas and features are developed and tested. It’s a safe space to tweak and perfect things before they’re ready for everyone.

Stable Branch (master):This is the main version everyone uses, and it only includes features that have been tested and approved. It’s the reliable version of your app that’s can be ready for public use.

For ready applications, the AI Engineer can help you modify the underlying schema. You can request changes through natural language, such as: "Add an Events entity that displays as a calendar view" or "Create a relationship between Customers and Orders".

The AI Engineer understands these requests and can: add new entities and attributes, modify existing data structures, create relationships between different parts of your application, adjust how data is displayed and interacted with, or delete fields and entities.

For more information you could check these articles: Tools and Commands and Prompt Best Practices.

If you face any difficulties, please message us on our Discord, Forum, Twitter, or Facebook. We will respond to your inquiry as quickly as possible!

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