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Changes in Methodology

If you have created apps using App Builder before using workflows, you may have some methodologies that need updating.

Creating Query Parameters for Persistent Service Models​

Before using workflows, you may have stored query-parameter objects in the data-stores, for use when running persistent-service models.

image-20210210115628302

When using workflows, this is an anti-pattern. The data-stores should now be treated only as a direct interface between the UI components and workflows. The pattern with workflows is as follows:

  • The data store should only hold UI-specific data, for example 'which country is selected' instead of 'data to pass to the model'. The data store should now look like this:

    image-20210210115838021

  • Use workflows to construct the query-parameter object as well as run the model. Use a combination of Set value on object steps to create the query parameters object. Each step is used to add a single parameter to the object, and the object is then passed to the Persistent-service request step.

image-20210210120204123

Why?​

There are many benefits to this method:

  • Reduces duplication of data in the data-stores. For example, previously you may have needed to duplicate the country or state values between multiple query-parameter objects in the data stores.
  • Clearer data in the data stores. Now that the data-stores only act as a store for UI-specific information, you can give your data much clearer names. For example, selectedCountry & selectedState
  • Debugging. You can view the inputs & outputs of each step when creating the query-parameter object.
  • Performance. Any data-manipulation can be optimized by App Builder when done via workflows.