Mobile App Builder in Rome

#Rome Release , #Rome , #Mobile , #Mobile App Builder

Brad Tilton

4 minute read

One of the new Rome release features that I have personally been most excited about, Mobile App Builder, is now available! Built on the Now Experience UI Framework, the organizational layout and ease of navigation in the Mobile App Builder facilitates a faster and more intuitive creation of ServiceNow mobile components. Some benefits are:

  • Organization of records in a hierarchical layout of records for easy access and reference.
  • Streamlining of mobile configurations by: guiding users to appropriate record relationships, preventing invalid configuration choices, and auto-populating fields when creating child-record relationships.
  • Ability to quickly see how records connect with one another and tie into the overall mobile app configuration.

Overview

Here is a quick 3 minute overview video of Mobile App Builder as an intro:

One thing I want to highlight is that the overall structure of the mobile apps themselves in ServiceNow has not changed. Mobile App Builder is a newer, easier way to configure those same mobile components.

Deep Dives

THe mobile product team joined us on the most recent Creator Toolbox episode to do a deep-dive demo into the new builder that I highly recommend if you’re interested in using MAB.

We’ll also be getting hands-on MAB on Live Coding Happy Hour this week to get hands-on with the new builder.

Installing Mobile App Builder

You may be saying “Brad this looks great, but how can I test it out in a PDI?” and I have your answer! Follow these steps to get Mobile App Builder in your PDI:

  1. Go to System Definition > Plugins

  2. Search Mobile App Builder

  3. Click Install on the Mobile App Builder item. This will auto-install the Mobile App Builder API as well.

    mabinstall.png

  4. Once it installs, you can open it by going to System Mobile > Mobile App Builder

Mobile Terminology

We mentioned this in the Creator Toolbox episode, but in the Rome release a number of table labels were updated in order to help users better understand which items they are configuring within a mobile app, how the configurations affect the on-screen view, and how the items relate to one another. These changes also align the Mobile Platform and its tools more closely with standardized terms used in the mobile industry. For example, the applet launcher is now called a launcher screen and charts are now called analytics previews.

Changes to mobile terminology

Other New Mobile Features

There are also a handful of new mobile features and capabilities outside of Mobile App Builder that will be of interest to anyone building mobile apps.

  • Deep linking for mobile URLs - This is a new link format that can direct users to specific content and locations within a mobile app and will prefill the instance details in the app if the user isn’t logged in. They can be used from push and email notifications.
  • Universal linking for mobile - Redirect users to the mobile app from the mobile web experience via a link at the top of their screen.
  • External user support in mobile - External user support allows users and third parties who are not registered with an instance and login details to use ServiceNow mobile apps. External users can perform tasks like viewing knowledge base articles, creating and managing incidents, and using Virtual Agent chat without affecting the security of the instance. Due to security concerns, external users are not able to perform activities like impersonating a user or accessing the debug drawer.
  • Sorting filtered results in mobile - Use the sorting option in lists and maps to help users organize their filtered results and enable them to view the most relevant information. Examples of configurable sorting options are: recently added, assigned to (ascending), assigned to (descending), and highest priority first.
  • Mobile re-authentication - Admins can enable re-authentication as a type of a pre-condition before a user executes an action. Users are required to re-authenticate themselves by providing their credentials. This compliance layer provides an extra level of security.
  • Alerts for a form screen - Configure mobile alerts to display a message overlay to users when they open a form screen.
  • Define banner display persistence - Define whether a message or alert displayed on the user’s mobile device fades after a set time or requires the user to acknowledge the receipt of the message.
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