Exploring App Engine Studio

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 6 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring App Engine Studio

    App Engine Studio (AES) is a low-code development tool from ServiceNow designed for building powerful, custom web applications through guided setup, templates, and workflows. It enables both citizen developers (who have little or no programming experience) and pro-code developers to efficiently create apps that automate business processes and solve organizational challenges. AES provides a simplified, integrated environment to accelerate app creation on the ServiceNow AI Platform.

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    Users and Roles

    • Citizen developers: Use graphical interfaces and templates to build applications without coding skills.
    • Pro-code developers: Utilize programming skills to extend and customize apps.
    • AES admins: Manage app intake, development oversight, collaborator access, and deployment through the App Engine Management Center (AEMC).

    Application Creation Workflow

    The app creation process in AES involves submitting an application idea for approval, choosing to build from a predefined template or from scratch, and collaborating as needed with developers. Templates automatically generate base applications with data models, user experiences, workflows, and security roles, which can all be customized. Admins monitor development progress and manage app deployment through testing, staging, and production environments to ensure quality.

    Key Features

    • Guided experience: Step-by-step onboarding for first-time users with ongoing contextual assistance.
    • App templates: Ready-made templates accelerate development by providing proven use case foundations.
    • Guardrails: Tooltips, recommendations, and approval workflows maintain app quality and consistency.
    • Collaboration: Supports multi-role collaboration within a unified low-code environment.
    • Integrated tools: Combines table design, workspace building, catalog creation, and workflow automation in one platform.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Empowers non-programmers: Citizen developers can create enterprise-grade apps quickly by leveraging templates and guided workflows.
    • Customizable foundation: Templates provide base data, user experiences, automation, and security that can be tailored to organizational needs.
    • Streamlined oversight: Admins maintain control over app quality and lifecycle management through centralized monitoring and approval processes.
    • Accelerated app delivery: Integrated development tools and templated workflows reduce development time and complexity.
    • Security and scalability: Role-based access controls and structured review processes support safe scaling of app development across the enterprise.

    Practical Application and Next Steps

    ServiceNow customers can use AES to quickly transform business ideas into working applications by submitting app concepts for approval, choosing templates or starting from scratch, and customizing apps using integrated tools like Table Builder, Workspace Builder, and Workflow Studio. Admins should leverage the App Engine Management Center to oversee development and deployments, ensuring apps meet organizational standards before production rollout.

    To maximize AES benefits, customers are encouraged to explore detailed configuration guides, app-building tutorials, and reference materials provided by ServiceNow.

    Learn how you can use the low-code app development tool, App Engine Studio (AES), to build powerful applications using guided setup, predefined templates, and workflows.

    This video shows a visual overview of the app creation process using App Engine Studio.

    App Engine Studio users

    Table 1. Users
    User Description
    Citizen developer Citizen developers without programming experience can efficiently create applications on a simplified low-code, no-code platform that uses graphical interfaces and templates. The lower barrier to entry means developers of all skill levels can build applications.
    Pro-code developer Pro-code developers are familiar with using programming languages to build applications.
    App Engine Studio admin App Engine Studio admins manage the processes related to application development in AES. They review new application ideas, manage application development and deployment, and manage collaborator access, usually in the App Engine Management Center.

    Workflow to create apps using App Engine Studio

    The following illustration describes the basic tasks involved in creating an app using App Engine Studio. For detailed instructions, see Building apps in App Engine Studio.
    Note:
    Select the image to enlarge it.
    Figure 1. Application creation process using AES
    Infographic for creating apps workflow. For the text description, refer to the workflow steps that follow.
    The workflow for creating apps in App Engine Studio is as follows:
    1. As a citizen developer, you submit your plan for an app through Application Intake for approval and development in AES.
    2. The AES admin reviews the intake request. If it's rejected, that closes out the request. But you can always update your idea and submit a new request.
    3. When the request is approved, you must decide whether to create your app using a predefined template, or to create it from scratch. You should explore the available templates. They can save you lots of time.
    4. Then you must determine whether you have the resources to build the app on your own. If you need help, you can request collaboration, or the AES admin can assign a collaborating developer.
    5. If you use a template, the base system app is created automatically, with a basic data model, user experiences, automated workflows, and security roles. For more information, see Integrated development tools for AES.
    6. You can customize all those elements for the app. If you're creating the app from scratch, you must define those four elements yourself.
    7. The AES admin can monitor the development of the app every step of the way using the App Engine Management Center (AEMC). Monitoring apps through the development cycle can help the AES admin balance workloads and ensure quality.
    8. When your app is complete, the AES admin uses the AEMC to request that the app is deployed into the pipeline for testing, staging, and final deployment.
    9. When the app receives final approval, it’s deployed to your production environment.

    Additional resources for App Engine Studio

    Learn more about App Engine Studio ServiceNow resources
    App Engine Studio is a guided, low-code tool for developing rich web applications to store information, automate business processes, and solve business problems.
    Note:
    AES requires an App Engine subscription or product packaged with one. For more information, refer to Installing App Engine Studio. Contact your account representative for details.

    App Engine Studio Playlist

    App Engine Studio vs. Studio

    ServiceNow Community site

    Build My First App Engine Studio Application - ServiceNow Developers site

    App Engine Migration Assessment

    Get to know AES

    AES is designed to address enterprise low-code development needs by putting the power of the ServiceNow AI Platform in the hands of low-code developers. Guidance-driven flows and easy-to-customize templates help citizen developers to come up to speed quickly.

    Regardless of their skill level, citizen developers become more productive using AES. Whether you're building a custom app from scratch or using a template, the simplified low-code experience in AES speeds up development on the ServiceNow AI Platform.

    Key features of the AES include:
    • Guided experience for first-time users: AES features a guided experience that orients developers, making it easy to navigate the environment. The first time you use the guidance, you're stepped linearly through the entire process of creating an application. After that, the guidance displays assistance related to what you're working on. You can hide the guidance by selecting Don't show me this again and exiting the pop-up.
    • App templates: App templates simplify the app development process. Using templates based on proven use cases gives developers the ability to create powerful apps without the learning curve.
    • Guardrails: Citizen developers receive tooltips and recommendations along the way, keeping them on track. Submitting apps for approvals also ensures quality.
    • Collaboration: Developers of all skill levels can seamlessly collaborate on app development in AES's low-code environment.
    • Integrated tools: Why work with multiple low-code tools when AES integrates with several? From designing tables to building catalogs and creating custom flows, AES has it all.

    App Engine Studio benefits

    App Engine Studio provides the following benefits.
    Benefit Feature Role
    Submit ideas for an app, which admins then approve. Submit your idea for app development Citizen developer
    Use templates for standard application types, such as procurement portal or time off request, as a starting point to create and customize new apps quickly. Create your app using an application template Citizen developer
    Access multiple development tools in one interface, such as Table Builder and Workspace Builder. Integrated development tools for AES Citizen developer
    Scale development while maintaining process to review and test applications before deployment. Managing app development using the App Engine Management Center Administrator

    Accelerate your low-code development with AES

    Using App Engine Studio's low-code development environment, citizen developers can quickly build high-quality apps. Citizen developers are individuals in your organization who aren’t experienced programmers, but who are subject matter experts with ideas for creating apps. With an approved idea in hand, a citizen developer chooses an app template, fills in a few parameters, and AES builds the app. The resulting application includes data, experiences, logic and automation, and security, all of which can be customized to your organization's needs.
    Figure 2. AES landing page
    App Engine Studio home page

    Apps created from a template can be easily modified to meet the requirements defined by the citizen developer, or new apps can be created from scratch.

    You can perform the following tasks to customize apps created using AES.
    Task Description
    Create your data foundation easily App Engine Studio templates contain default data tables that include everything you must deliver base system app functionality. Using the Table Builder app included with AES, you can edit or add new tables, add and delete columns, change table types, and more.

    You can also import existing data from spreadsheets, making it easy to automate existing manual spreadsheet-driven workflows.
    Deliver great experiences Experiences are role-based user interfaces that end users access to interact with your app. AES includes several distinct experience types, including configurable workspaces, portals, catalog items, and mobile experiences.

    You can add an experience by following a few simple steps. For example, you can quickly create a workspace by adding a name and description, a URL, and the roles that can access the workspace. Then you can tailor the workspace experience to the needs of your organization using the Workspace Builder tool within AES. More advanced configurations can be edited in UI Builder.
    Automate your apps with workflow templates AES templates include a set of powerful digital workflows that you can use to simplify the user experience, increase productivity, and strengthen your business processes.

    Simply choose from a list of common automation activities, and let the wizard quickly guide you through configuring the workflow. To adapt template-generated workflows to your needs, launch the Workflow Studio app to edit workflows.
    Keep your apps secure You can maintain control over who uses your apps by adding roles in AES. The app templates include predefined roles, giving you a head-start on security. You can add or delete existing roles, or create roles to meet your security needs.

    Scale development while maintaining oversight

    App Engine Studio lets you scale development across your organization while establishing and maintaining guardrails. You can control access to AES. You can also review apps created by your citizen developers before they’re moved through your pipeline and published to your production environment. This review process gives you confidence to ensure the quality of the apps you create, release, and deploy.

    What to explore next

    To learn more about configuring and using App Engine Studio, see: