Managing App Links
App links are addresses that point to related resources of an app, e.g. to a user interface or the documentation of your application. App links are accessible for any user, who has access to the app.
The app links have different attributes and can be of different types. The app link attributes and types are outlined below.
App Link Attributes
PRIMARY | |
Field | Description |
|---|---|
LABEL | The label will be displayed whenever this app link shows up in the portal, e.g. inside of context menus. |
URI | The URI points to a particular resource. |
TYPE | The type of the app link indicates the usage of the app link by displaying different icons next to it. |
TAGS | Attach tags to support better identification and to allow additional filtering. |
PRIMARY | If enabled, the app link will be flagged as the primary one for the app. |
App Link Types
Types | Description |
|---|---|
User Interface (Ui) | Use if an app or service provides an UI. |
Web Link (Web) | Use it to provide further information about the app that is available on the web. (e.g. manufacturer page, etc.). |
Documentation (Doc) | Use if a documentation link is available. (e.g. Confluence, mkdocs, etc.) |
API | Use if an API documentation link is available. (e.g. swagger, etc.) |
OpenAPI | Defining an OpenAPI will add a new panel to the app overview where it is used to overview and consume the provided OpenAPI descriptions. |
App links flagged as primary
For each application, you can define an app link as primary, e.g. to mark the primary entry point to the Web UI of your app. The portal will use this app link as the underlying link for the "Open App" button on the app detail page.
App links created by users
App links created by the user are immediately available to other users. The access to the app links is moderated by fine-grained user rights, which can grant you an option to edit or remove them. These app links persist even when you upgrade or rollback a deployment of an app.
App links created by a deployment
App links that are automatically created and managed by a deployment cannot be edited by the user.
These app links may change or get replaced whenever you deploy, upgrade, or rollback a deployment, as different app versions may have different addresses or resources.
Accessing App links
After the app is successfully deployed, the app links specific to that app can be quickly accessed from the app tile.
You can access the app, by clicking on the three horizontal dots, as shown below. A menu item would list the available app links. Clicking on any of the items would open the respective app link in a new browser tab.
Locating Application Overview settings
The app links can also be accessed and managed from the App Overview.
Clicking on the app tile will navigate to the App Overview.
Application overview
This view has all the necessary information related to the app.
Clicking on the edit icon will open up a model that has information regarding the particular app link.
After the deployment, you cannot change the URL nor the label of an already generated App link.
Clicking on the edit icon will open up a model and includes information about the label, URL, type, and tags. It also has a checkbox button to make it a primary app link.
If a user in your platform requires to create a new app link steps are as follow:
Click on the plus icon.
Adding new App Link
Fill in the details required for the app link.
Configuring new App link
Click on Confirm after the form is filled up.
The newly created app link will then be available on the list of app links section.
New App Link in the list
If the user requires to edit the app link steps are as follows:
Click on the edit icon of the specific app link created by the user.
Editing App link
The app link can be then updated as required and click Confirm.
Editing the app link
If the user desires to delete the app link steps are as follows:
Click on the delete icon of the specific app link that is supposed to be deleted.
Deleting App link
Click Confirm.
Confirming the deletion of the app link
OpenAPI
When OpenAPI definition has been created in the Links section in the same way as shown in the above example, a new overview will appear on the Application Overview page with all API endpoints, their descriptions, and methods.
To correctly define the OpenAPI Link, make sure to put the address to your OpenAPI json. You can always find the link to the json by going directly to the OpenAPI URL
Overview of API Panel
In this newly created panel, it is possible to perform actions and test out API and their individual calls directly in the panel. To simplify the browsing of the methods it is possible as per default to collapse each individual bar. If there is a need to test the application’s API response you can authenticate as well to perform secure calls to the API
We have made sure that if there are more OpenAPI endpoints you wish to add, it is possible. After adding a second or more definitions of the OpenAPI, a drop-down menu will appear in the API panel to change the overview of the API Tab into the desired OpenAPI link.
Drop-down menu to choose one of the defined OpenAPI