Reference Guide
Detailed explanations of every feature and function in NutshellLinks
Although not in the Tool Bar, Links are an essential building block of a Nutshell app. They link one screen or component to another in a logical workflow.
Links define the path your user will take through an app
Rather than dragging Links on to the Canvas from the Tool Bar, you draw them from component to component, by clicking on little handles that appear when you select the component.
Click on a handle to create a link – then click on the Screen or component you want to link to
Creating a Link
Click on a handle, and then click on the next component in the workflow. You’ll see an arrow drawn between the two. The Link tells Nutshell where to go when the end-user is finished with the current screen or component.
Where there are many potential routes the workflow could take, it is possible to have several Links leading out of a single component. Which Link is followed depends on the behavioral rules you set in the Link’s Properties panel.
Different links can be triggered by different buttons and controls
Types of Link
There are several types of link, depending on what kind of component the link is coming from. The most common kind (and the default) is a simple link that takes you from one step in the workflow to another.
In some components – mainly ones that involve interacting with a third party service – there are separate links for Success and Failure outcomes, which are followed or ignored depending on whether the interaction was successful or not.
Success & Failure allow you to create separate workflows for different outcomes
Don’t worry too much about these links – they’ll be covered in more depth under the appropriate component.
Link Properties
When a link is selected on the Canvas, the following settings are available in the Properties panel. There may be more options available, depending on what kind of component the link is coming from, but in most cases you’ll see:
| Basic Settings | |
|---|---|
| Label | An optional name, that appears on the Canvas. Giving your link a name can make it easier to see what should happen in order for the link to be followed – e.g. “Submit button pressed” or “Data record selected”. This makes reading larger workflows much easier. |
| Behaviour |
This defines under what circumstances this link should be followed. For example, button A might follow one Link, while button B follows another. There are two options available: “Always follow this link” is selected by default, and will always be triggered (e.g. by a button-press) as long as it’s the only link coming out of a component. “Only follow this link if…” allows you to set specific rules governing when this link should be followed. For example, “Only follow this link if Button B is selected”. This is useful when there is more than one link on the screen, and Nutshell needs to understand which link to follow under what circumstances. You can specify criteria based on pretty much anything – for example, to follow the link when a specific button is pressed, or when a value is chosen from a drop-down. |
| Style | |
|---|---|
| Line-type | There are three options available: Straight, Curved and Right-angled. Curved and right-angled are useful in more complex workflows, where you want your links to bend or curve around other components on the Canvas. You can adjust the curve of a Curved link by clicking on it and dragging it. |
| Analytics | |
|---|---|
| Track this Link |
Nutshell can collect basic usage metrics for your apps by tracking each time an end-user follows a specific link. This option is turned off by default. When turned on, Nutshell will log each time an end-user in your Live or Test community follows this link, including some useful information about the version of the app they were using at the time, their device and operating system. When you enable this option, you’ll also be asked whether you’d like to include their GPS location with that data. The end-user’s device will ask them if they’d like to allow access to location data, and they will be able to refuse. Unfortunately, there’s nothing Nutshell can do about this. Currently, this tracking information is not viewable within Nutshell (although an analytics dashboard is on our roadmap). If you’d like to see your data, please request a copy of it from support@nutshellapps.co.uk, who will export the data for you. |
Just getting started? Try the Tutorials section for handy quick-start guides.
Prefer to watch the action? Try our series of short video tutorials.
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