Note: Nintex Apps data centers are located in West US and Australia (AUS). In-region processing of Nintex Apps data is only available in these regions.

Get Started with Nintex Apps

Note:  This quick start guide assumes you are working in an environment connected to Nintex Automation Cloud. While these concepts remain the same, your options and use cases may differ depending on your subscriptions and entitlements.

Nintex Apps is a cloud-based, user interface (UI) toolkit. With the drag-and-drop Page Designer, anyone can rapidly develop powerful applications for any device—in about 90% less time than traditional programming.

Iterate on solutions in hours, not weeks or months. There is no need to write code for business logic or UI, though the Page Designer is also open and extensible for developers who wish to create their own unique extensions.

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Introductory training course

The best way to begin understanding Nintex Apps is by completing the Nintex Apps - Level I training course (login required).

Nintex Automation Cloud and Nintex Apps are part of a connected experience. Because of this, you can manage workflows, tasks, and in-house data tables in Nintex Automation Cloud, and then make them available within your apps.

To navigate from Nintex Automation Cloud to Nintex Apps:

  1. Ensure you are in the workflows section of Nintex Automation Cloud by clicking Automate in the navigation bar
  2. Click Apps.

To navigate from Nintex Apps to Nintex Automation Cloud:

  1. In the Nintex Apps navigation bar, click Workflows.

Nintex Apps concepts

When building with Nintex Apps, you'll do the following:

  • Create an app, a collection of pages, connections, files, permissions, and other resources.
  • Connect to your services and data. Each connection is made up of endpoints, credentials, and other settings required to access a particular service.
  • Design styles so your apps are on brand. Styles are contained in design systems.
  • Compose pages, the areas your end users visit to accomplish their tasks. Each page is an arrangement of components, models, and other elements. Your pages display data from your connections in components styled by your design system.

Once you've built an app, you'll need to make it available to your users.

  1. Deploy the app to a production environment.
  2. Publish app pages to specific URLs.
  3. Assign permission sets to users.

You'll do each of these things in Nintex Apps.

The Nintex Apps navigation bar includes links to the following sections in Nintex Automation Cloud and Nintex Apps. Click the respective link for more information about each section.

  • Apps
  • Design systems
  • Data
  • Connections
  • Deployments: The interface for deploying packages of app resources between linked environments as part of an application lifecycle management process
  • Workflows
  • Settings: Various configuration settings for the Nintex Apps tenant settings
  • Help: Links to learning resources, like Nintex University and this documentation site

Page Designer concepts

The drag-and-drop Page Designer is likely the most important workspace in Nintex Apps. You'll use it to build pages primarily with components and models. You can further enhance your pages with action flows, display logic, and JavaScript.

Use components to build a UI

Components are visual building blocks—determining how your page looks and what it does. Drag and drop components into the canvas, which represents how your page looks to end users.

Some components are used for layout options, but the most useful ones access data. For components to access data, they'll need to be connected to a model.

Use models to retrieve data

Models are the bridge between your connections and your components. When you create a model, you'll select a connection, an object, and any fields you want to retrieve as data.

Models use conditions to limit incoming data, and they can also trigger action flows based on certain events.

Combine components and models to create pages

You can connect a single model to multiple components. When configured this way, changes in one component update any others connected to the same model. Interconnected components are a powerful way to give users instant feedback and simply build complex pages.

Use action flows, display logic, and JavaScript for dynamic pages

Pages can do more than just display data. They can dynamically react to user input, hiding and showing only what's needed and kicking off workflows.

  • Use action flows to update the user interface, activate workflows, and trigger other types of page logic.
  • Use display logic to create rules about when and how components appear.
  • Use JavaScript to create custom renderers, script formula functions, and embed external libraries.

In each of these areas, you'll likely use merge syntax —special markup used to "merge in" information from models, connections, the page itself, and more.

Save and preview pages

Click the Save button to save changes. Once saved, changes can be seen at runtime by clicking Preview. If the page has been published, changes will also be visible to end users.

Important:  Making changes to pages in production while users are using the pages can produce unpredictable results. We encourage users to follow a clear application lifecycle management process.

Deploy and publish

Deployment refers to the process of creating app packages and moving those packages through development, testing, and production environments. We always encourage builders to follow an application lifecycle management process to ensure safe, rapid development while maintaining stable user-facing apps.

Typically, builders will work in a development environment to rapidly build and test their apps. Once their apps have reached a stable state, apps are published —made available to end users at specific URLS—within that same test environment. If the app appears to be in working order, it can then be deployed to a testing environment for further safety checking, before finally being deployed to a production environment for end users.

The URLs associated with the app and its pages are included as part of the app's deployment package. Once a page has an activated URL, it is considered published.