App Factory | TotalApp Docs

What Is App Factory?

Every other category in TotalApp gives you a screen someone else already built — a Kanban board, an invoice manager, a CRM pipeline. App Factory is different: it's where you build the screen yourself. It groups together two tools that work as a pair:

App Builder

A visual design canvas. Click components from a palette — a form, a text field, a button, a badge — to assemble a custom screen, then save it as a named, reopenable design.

Menu Builder

Where a designed screen actually becomes reachable. Create custom navigation menus and place any screen into them — including the ones you just designed in App Builder.

In one sentence

App Builder designs a screen by assembling components visually; Menu Builder makes that screen appear as a real, clickable item in your navigation — together they let you extend TotalApp without writing a single line of code.

Why This Category Exists

Most screens in TotalApp — a table, a list, an approval view — follow the same basic shape underneath: a handful of fields, a status indicator, a confirmation action. Building a brand-new hand-coded page for every one of these small, specific needs is slow and repetitive. App Factory gives you a faster path for the cases that fit this shape: assemble the fields and actions you need visually, save the result, and place it in your own menu — no waiting on a development cycle.

Not a replacement for built-in screens

App Factory is for the screens that don't exist yet and are small/specific enough to assemble from a component palette — a custom approval form, an internal status board, a lightweight data-entry screen. It is not meant to replace fully-featured built-in modules like Finance or HR, which have far more behavior than a palette of five component types can express.

How App Builder and Menu Builder Connect

1. Design in App Builder → 2. Save the App → 3. Place it in Menu Builder → 4. Open it from the Menu

Stage	What happens
1. Design	Open App Builder, click components from the palette (Form, Input, Button, Badge, Table) to assemble a screen, give it a name and description.
2. Save	Click "Save App" — the design is stored as a reusable app you can reopen and keep editing later.
3. Place	Open Menu Builder, create (or reuse) a custom menu, and add your saved app to it alongside any of TotalApp's built-in screens.
4. Open	The menu now appears in the top navigation bar. Clicking your app's entry renders it live — a real, working screen built from the design you assembled.

A saved app on its own is not yet visible anywhere

Saving a design in App Builder does not automatically put it anywhere a user can find it — that's Menu Builder's job. The two tools are meant to be used together: design first, then place.

Where App Factory Fits Among TotalApp's Categories

App Factory sits closest to Database Tools' Custom Collections in spirit — both let you define something new rather than use something pre-built. Custom Collections is for defining your own data table (fields, types, validation); App Factory is for defining your own screen (the visual layout and actions around that data).

Tool	What it's for
App Builder	Visually assemble a custom screen from a component palette and save it as a reusable design.
Menu Builder	Create navigation menus and place any screen — built-in or App Builder-designed — into them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to know how to code to use App Factory?

No. Both App Builder and Menu Builder are fully visual — you click components and menu items rather than writing any code.

Can I edit an app I already designed?

Yes. Reopen it from the "Saved Apps" list in App Builder, make your changes, and save again — the same app is updated rather than a new one being created.

Where do apps I design actually get used?

Only wherever you place them via Menu Builder. Until you add a designed app to a menu, it exists only as a saved draft you can reopen and edit — it isn't reachable from anywhere else in the app.

Can other users in my workspace see the apps and menus I create?

Custom menus created in Menu Builder apply to your whole workspace's navigation, so once placed there, they're visible to your team the same way any other menu item is.