We’ve got some exciting new features to showcase in this month’s Alloy update! The release will be applied during the evening of 1st September 2022. For a full list of changes, please visit the Alloy Changelog.

Item Forms

This is a big one! We’re pleased to announce that you can now customise the form that users fill in when creating/editing items.

Item forms can be created for any design/interface and provide a wealth of ways to customise data entry, which can improve save time and improve efficiency.

Using the new Item Form builder, you can add attribute controls to your form. Start with a blank canvas and add controls as required, or start with the default controls and remove as required.

Either way, Alloy warns you if the form is missing a control for a required attribute, and you can fix it with a single click.

Some things you can do with the Item Form builder are:

• specify the order of attributes
• show or hide an attribute
• make an optional attribute required
• override an attribute’s default value
• make an attribute read-only
• use AQS to sort and filter items in the lookup list of a link attribute

If this reminds you of stencils, there are indeed some similarities! However, a stencil customises how an item looks when viewing it, whereas an item form customises how data can be inputted into an item when creating/editing it.

Item forms aren't supported on Alloy Mobile just yet (users will see the default form instead) but this is coming soon.

Stay tuned for improvements and enhancements to item forms over the coming months!

Custom Interfaces

Another major new feature is the ability to edit interfaces and even create your own!

An interface is similar to a design but can be implemented by other designs/interfaces. This lets you define a group of generic attributes. Anything that implements the interface will inherit those attributes, as if they were their own.

For example, you could create a Playground Assets interface, which is implemented by more specific designs such as Swing and Slide. These will inherit the generic Playground Assets attributes alongside their own specific attributes.

Interfaces also provide a way to address multiple designs/interfaces at once. This is useful when working with things like:

• map layers
• AQS queries
• workflows
• reports

Targeting one interface instead of multiple designs saves you time and avoids repetition. Additionally, any future designs can be included by simply implementing the target interface, avoiding the need to go back and edit things.

We’re looking forward to seeing how everyone uses this powerful new feature!

Colour-coded Report Builder Controls

In the Report builder, controls now display a pill shape representing the control’s Label and Value fields. Pills are colour-coded depending on whether the field’s set value is dynamic (green), constant (blue), calculated (orange) or not set (white).

This gives you an indication of how your controls are configured at a glance. It also makes it a bit easier to set a control’s Label or Value, as you can now select the corresponding pill directly.

Bulk Trigger Manual Workflows

In May, we announced the ability to trigger a manual workflow for a single item. As of this release, you can now trigger a workflow on multiple items of the same type.

Select your items in Data explorer and perform a Bulk action as normal. Choose the new Trigger workflow option and select the desired workflow from the list.