App Builder Release: Multiple-Actions Support, AI View Generation, Remote Data Handling & More
App Builder's latest release expands on our efforts to provide you with the easiest way to build an app. Our new features will enhance your workflow significantly, allowing greater flexibility and shorter development time.
Zdravko Kolev
7min read
I’m thrilled to share App Builders’ exciting new updates featured in our latest release. As always, they aim to streamline your app development process even further. We’ve introduced key features that enhance flexibility in your app creation process and performance upon working with remote data, including Multiple-action support, allowing a single interaction (e.g., click, row selection) to now trigger multiple actions, enabling more complex workflows.
We’ve also added a new way to build your Page Views with AI prompts. Furthermore, you can now configure Remote data handling (with Paging) to non-grid elements, like Card, Row, and Column layouts, vastly improving performance by dynamically fetching and displaying smaller data sets from remote servers.
Moreover, we introduced a new component to the Toolbox – The Carousel, as well as а new Disabled Summaries feature. These updates continue strengthening App Builder’s position as the go-to platform for low-code, high-performance app development.
Before diving into the new features and all the new functionalities, if this is your first time learning about App Builder, let me quickly share why you should consider it as a key tool in the application development process for your organization:
- A visual App Builder – the unified platform for product managers, designers, developers, and stakeholders.
- Cloud-based WYSIWYG drag & drop tool that helps companies design and build complete business apps 80% faster than ever.
- A low-code tool generating production-ready Blazor code, Angular code, Web Components, and React code from your Figma designs.
Multiple-Actions Support
A single interaction (e.g., click, row selection) can now trigger multiple actions, enabling more complex workflows. Managing interactions in App Builder just got more powerful with the introduction of Multiple Actions per Trigger. Previously, users could define only a single action per event, limiting flexibility in handling complex workflows. With this update, a single interaction—such as a button click or row selection change—can now trigger multiple actions, enabling richer app behaviors without additional workarounds.
App Builder’s new Multiple-action support leads to greater Flexibility for Interaction Design – with this new capability, users can configure various actions to be executed simultaneously or in sequence within a single interaction. As a result, when an event is fired, multiple predefined operations can take place, such as setting values for different variables, opening or closing components, navigating to another page, or executing component-specific actions. This feature significantly enhances workflow automation, making it easier to build dynamic and interactive applications.
A detailed walkthrough can be seen as part of the last Webinar we had:
Real-World Use Cases
Consider a scenario where a user selects a row in a grid. With Multiple Actions, you can now set multiple variables at once—one capturing the selected CustomerID and another storing the full Customer object for further processing. This ensures that all necessary data is readily available without requiring additional interactions.
Another example is an edit dialog for managing records. When clicking the edit button on a data card, the system can set a variable to track the currently edited item while simultaneously opening a modal dialog to display the record. This streamlined approach keeps the UI responsive and intuitive. Extending this further, upon submitting an update, multiple actions can be executed: the form submission, closing the dialog, and displaying a confirmation message in a snackbar, providing a seamless user experience.
Generative AI for Creating Application Views
App Builder AI introduces generative AI features for view creation. This feature can currently be found in our preview site for user feedback. These features allow users to generate UI layouts using free-text prompts.
Step-by-step “Getting Started” article is available here.
We also did a webinar on App Builder’s AI capabilities.
Prompt “Create a detailed login screen” with image of the result.
Other capabilities introduced with this release:
- Prompt-Based View Generation: Users can generate UI components by entering prompts refining outputs through iterative actions like adding, replacing, or creating new views. Context-aware behavior ensures flexibility in layout modifications.
- Example Use Cases in the official help topic: Demonstrations include AI-generated templates for a login screen and a car-service booking view, showcasing structured layout and component generation based on detailed user prompts.
Efficient Data Handling with Remote Data Operations
Managing large datasets efficiently is now easier with Remote Data Operations in App Builder. This functionality enables users to iterate over data using components like Card, Column Layout, Absolute Layout, and Row Layout, while the Paginator component ensures that only the required page of data is fetched from the server. This significantly enhances performance and scalability. Here you can find the full topic.
Also, check out our detailed walkthrough on how to set up and use Remote Data Handling capabilities with App Builder.
Key Benefits
- Optimized Performance: Fetches only the necessary data, reducing server load and improving app responsiveness.
- Scalability: Handles large datasets efficiently by retrieving smaller chunks of data on demand.
- Flexible UI Configuration: Allows repeated components like Cards to be placed in custom layouts while benefiting from paging features.
- Seamless Pagination Setup: Automatically adds a Paginator and simplifies remote paging configuration with intuitive settings.
How Component-First Remote Data Works
When a user repeats a component over data (e.g., a Card iterating over a JSON array) and selects an endpoint from a data source, remote paging can be enabled if the API supports it. App Builder automatically adds a Paginator, and users can configure paging settings through the Remote Paging Configurator. Internal variables like pageIndex and pageSize are created, and changing pages triggers new server requests to fetch only the required data.
Setting Up Remote Data Paging
- Repeat a Component Over Data: Drag and drop a supported component (Card, Column Layout, Absolute Layout, etc.) and select data.
- Choose a Data Source: Select a REST endpoint or Swagger definition that provides the JSON response.
- Enable Pagination: Toggle Paging on, and App Builder will wrap the component in a Row Layout while adding a Paginator.
- Preview the Setup: Test the configuration to ensure smooth data fetching and navigation.
Grid Summaries Toggle
Grid Summaries toggle – Added a property to enable/disable summaries per column.
Carousel Component in the Toolbox
Added Carousel component to the component toolbox. To see a real use case of it, head over to the Movies Samples app:
Some Final Words
App Builder is a game-changer in the app development process. Its cloud-based visual builder, low-code capabilities, and new features make it a must-have tool for any organization. Try it out today! If you need more details, we encourage you to check out our:
To experience everything, head over to appbuilder.dev and start using the App Builder. If you want an exclusive preview of our latest developments, check our App Builder Preview environment. As usual, we are always excited to get your feedback and hear what you want to add or recommend. So, please email me at zkolev@appbuilder.dev and let me know how we can help you continue delivering value to your customers with Infragistics.
