Create a Visual Application

You can create a new visual application and build it from the ground up, or start with an existing application that someone else has already worked on. Either way, you start with a visual application on the Visual Applications Home page.

The Home page is the primary console for creating and managing your applications. It serves as the entry point for your applications and is the first page you see whenever you log in to Visual Builder.

Description of the illustration homepage.png

If you don't have any applications when you log in, you'll see the landing page as shown here (you might see additional options if all your apps were previously deleted or if you're an admin user):

Description of the illustration landingpage.png

To get started, you need to create a new application, import an existing one, or have someone add you as a team member to their application. You can then manage the application from the Home page.

Create a New Visual Application

Create a visual application when you want to start building an application from scratch.

1. On the Visual Applications Home page, click New:
   
   Description of the illustration homepage-create-visualapps.png
   

   Note:

   If you don't see the Visual Applications Home page, select Visual Applications in the menu on the Home page:
   
   Description of the illustration homepage-select-visualapps.png
   
2. Enter the application name in the Create Application dialog box. Click Finish if you want to use the default empty application template. If you want to change the application template, click Change Template, select the template in the dialog that appears, and then click Finish.

   The Empty Application template does not create any artifacts, apps or other resources. Other templates might create resources or apps that already include artifacts.

   The Application ID field is automatically populated based on the application name that you provide. You can modify the Application ID if you wish, but the Application ID must be unique in your identity domain:
   
   Description of the illustration homepage-create-createdialog.png
   

Your new visual application opens in the Designer, on the Welcome screen. Your new application does not contain any artifacts, but the application's file structure and some resources are created for you by default. You can use the Welcome screen to help you decide which artifacts you want to create first:

Description of the illustration visualapp-welcome-screen.png

Click any tile in the Welcome screen to open the corresponding panel in the Navigator, where you can create and manage the artifacts. For example, if you click Responsive Apps, the Web Apps tab opens in the Navigator:

Description of the illustration homepage-artifact-browser.png

Note:

All users who want to collaborate on the app, including admins, must be added to the app as a team member. See Add Team Members.

Create a Copy of an Application

You can duplicate an existing application to create a copy that you can work with. A copy of an application contains all the resources and the database schema of the source, but will have a different name, application ID, and URI.

You can use the copy option if the application you want to copy is visible on the Home page. To create a copy of an application:

1. On the Visual Applications Home page, locate the version of the application that you want to copy.
2. Open the Application Options menu, then select Duplicate:
   Description of the illustration homepage-duplicate.png
3. Enter the application name and application ID in the Duplicate Application dialog box. Click Duplicate.
   The application ID that you enter will be exposed in the URI for the new application.
   
   Description of the illustration homepage-app-duplicate.png