This month, we’ve added a couple of handy new features and continued to focus on boosting the reliability of Alloy Mobile iOS 📱.

The update took place during the evening of the 29th August. For a full list of changes in v2.62, please visit the Alloy Changelog.

Use encrypted secrets in HTTP requests 🔐

When building a workflow, the Http Request action lets you send a web request to a specific URL. The method, URL, body and headers can be configured with static values or populated dynamically (based on the output of other actions in the workflow).

If a request requires authentication details or other sensitive data, this can now be stored securely within a Text attribute on an item of any design. To make the attribute secure, it must be configured with a custom tag named Secret. When the attribute is populated on an item, the value will now be saved as an encrypted text string. The original text won't be viewable to anyone!

To reference a secret in a Http Request action, enter a dollar sign $ plus the attribute’s code when configuring the relevant property. The item containing the desired value must also be added to the action’s Key Items.

In the example below, $attributes_credentialsPassword_66ceecb95527bff1c0a108c8 is included in the action’s Url and Http Headers properties. The decrypted value will be used in the request:

GET /test?pass=mypassword1234 HTTP/1.1
Host: alloytest.requestcatcher.com
Authorization: Bearer mypassword1234
Connection: Keep-Alive

Clone imports 🧬

To import data using Gateway, you need to create and configure an import item, validate its configuration, and then commit its data to Alloy.

If an import item’s Status is Validated or Processed, you now have the ability to clone it! When cloning an import, you can view the existing configuration and make changes to any step, or just create an exact duplicate.

This provides a handy way to redo a committed import (possibly with different data files), or experiment with alternative import configurations, without having to configure a new import from scratch.

To clone the current import item, select More in the action bar and choose Clone import.

Offline item forms in Alloy Mobile 📶

Item forms let you customise the order and appearance of attributes when users create or edit items of a particular design/interface.

In Alloy Mobile, item forms were previously loaded on demand. While this ensured they were up-to-date, they would unfortunately be skipped if your device happened to be offline at that precise moment.

Therefore, item forms are now downloaded when the app synchronises, and will be displayed regardless of your device’s connectivity.