Agilebase v6 – Updated framework that will make your teams agile

3rd November 2022

It’s been slightly longer than usual since our last AgileBase platform release, which was back in August, but that’s because we’ve been working on some significant functionality, enough for a new major release. We are excited that AgileBase Version 6 will be ready soon and is available for you to test now.

There are three major elements:

• Branding and Usability Improvements
• Learner Progression
• New Functionality

1. Branding and Usability

The first thing you’ll most likely notice after logging in is that there’s a new colour scheme. That’s part of a new brand which will be launched with a new agileBase website. The changes to the platform aren’t just cosmetic though, they come with improved legibility/accessibility and functionality to aid comprehension of what’s on the screen, such as the ability to group tiles into sections.

A complete list of all the new functionality is at the end of this page for reference.

2. Learner Progression

“Agilebase is changing how to build software – and who gets to make it”

Twenty-five million people are fluent in standard programming languages, say analysts. That is one person for every 125 people in the global workforce. But it is 1.4 million fewer than needed. By 2025, we will need four million more.

Agilebase is already empowering many people working for organisations who would never have thought of themselves as developers before –

from admin staff to project managers, people can build systems which the business uses to work more efficiently and effectively.

Interestingly, although according to recent CapGemini research, women make up just 16.4% of the IT workforce, amongst our customers, roughly half are, reflecting a more genuine cross-section of society. That’s another advantage of no-code platforms like agileBase for businesses – the people who build the software are the people who use it.

So our next goal is to make it easier for new developers to come on board. More people in each organisation will be able to collaborate on building the systems they need.

To allow this, we’re introducing a 5-level Learner Progression programme. The current administrator of each agileBase system will be able to, at their discretion, grant increasing amounts of development rights to other people in the organisation.

3. New Functionality

User Interface Improvements

1. Updated tile colours, spacing and font sizes to match the brand and improve legibility
2. The ability to group tiles into sections is functional when there are many tiles.
   To create a section
   a. On the homepage, toggle on the development mode
   b. Click ‘Tiles’ to see a list of current tiles
   c. Click the tile you wish to make first in a new section. When the tile editing panel pops up, type into the Section Name field.
3. Greater flexibility in form design. You can now design the screen, so there are blocks above the row of tabs and below it. This allows data entry forms which are more accessible for people to use. See the place tabs here option for further details.
4. Warnings of impending logouts. Rarely, but now and again, we need to log everyone out of the system to perform system maintenance. They can log back in immediately, but this disrupts work. On screen, warnings will now appear if a logout happens soon.

Development Interface Improvements

5. On the development homepage, recent activity is now more condensed, allowing a better overview of which developments have occurred recently.
6. In the tiles interface, when editing a view or table, a banner at the top of the screen shows quick reference data, such as where it’s used in the system and who created it.
7. Performance optimisations – enabling caching on a view is now quicker
8. Better logging of API pushes and global edits – more fine-grained logs make it easier to see what actions have been taken.
9. More intuitive tab adding. Previously a number of steps often had to be taken when adding a tab, now a lot is automated such as the creation of a tab view.
10. The ‘back’ button at the top of the screen now works when development mode is toggled on. It will take you to the views or tables previously edited.
11. Aliases – when adding a field to a view, you’ll be prompted to give the field a name just for that view. If you leave the name unchanged, the field will be added as normal. If you change the name, a calculation will be added referencing the field, effectively creating a field alias.
    For example, in a view of invoices, you may wish to call the Organisation Name field Customer instead
12. Table and view creation details are now logged, i.e. the name of the creator and a timestamp. These details can be seen when looking at an individual table/view, or a list

Many other minor improvements and bug fixes have been made. If you logged an issue or idea, you should have received a notification of its completion.

Testing the changes

Customers with a test server will be able to see and test these changes on their test servers from today. Other customers can log in to our development environment to test.

We invite everyone to try them out. We’ll be speaking to critical customers individually, and also do; don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if there are any questions.