The App Directory Just Got Better!
App Directory 2.0 lets you customize and ship integrations to your users even faster.
10 min read.
The App Directory enables you to spin up a complete directory of integrations made on the Integry platform or any other external platform. This lets you show a unified listing of your integrations from those made by partners, off-site integration platforms, internal teams, and by Integry. Even though the first version helped you do all that, we’ve streamlined many aspects to make the creation and management experience even better.
Here’s what the new App Directory looks like:
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Based on customer feedback we’ve updated the App Directory to give you more UI options for customization, including the ability to add external apps from within the Directory; real-time preview during the directory creation process of exactly how your directory’s going to look, and much more. We’ve done this by adding more fields in the existing sections of the App Directory and by introducing two separate sections for card management.
Embedded Integrations vs App Directory: Which one do I choose?
While our SDK- based embedded integrations are available for those looking for complete control over how the integration looks inside their application, the App Directory gets you up and running without having to embed the SDK or designing the integration sections for your app which can take much longer to go live. For the vast majority of customers, the App Directory is the fastest way to get integrations in the hands of your users.
Let’s start with the basics and then a walkthrough of the new features.
What are cards?
The image above shows what a card looks like, the App Directory is a listing of cards. Cards can represent anything from an integration, an app, an off-platform integration to an integration built on Integry. If you click on the card it will take you to its card page which displays the details of the card as shown below.
Quick How-To: Creating Your App Directory
Simply login to your Integry account, go to the deployments menu, and select Directory as your deployment type.
This will take you to your App Directory’s first set up section i.e. Basic Info and then various other sections including Directory Appearance, Card Page Appearance, Cards and Categories, and Localization. After you’ve added all the details of your Directory’s settings, your App Directory will be published on your provided subdomain.
Now let’s take you through each section and tell you what’s new.
1. Basic Info
As you can see in the image above, this is where you can pick between, setting up a custom domain or adding the Directory URL. You can also Link to Homepage and add your Login URL for SSO which will be used to redirect the user for Single Sign-On. You can add your Google Analytics Tracking ID too if you’re using one.
What’s New
Here’s a few things that are new in this section:
- Preview Panel
All sections of the App Directory have been updated to include a preview panel which will show how the information will appear on the actual page. All the live changes happening in the settings will be shown on the preview panel in real-time. You can also open a full preview in a new tab. This preview auto-refreshes when you make changes. The preview is sticky so it will always appear on the right when you are scrolling up and down. This feature helps you visualize the actual directory without having to save, publish, leave, go to the live URL, and refresh.
- Autosave
Whenever there are any changes or additions made on any section of the directory, a save is automatically performed. This autosave happens every 5s.
- Dedicated Card Section
We’ve removed the option to add cards on this section because we’ve created a dedicated Cards and Categories section for this very purpose in the App Directory 2.0.
2. Directory Appearance
In this section, you can add a title, header text, favicon, logo, header image, background, and text colors for your card. You can also add the Privacy URL and Terms of Service URL along with your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
What’s New
There are a few new things you can do with this version of the App Directory:
- Automatic Categories
You can enable or disable automatic categories. Automatic categories appear on the left side of your App Directory as shown in the image below.
These include three categories namely: All Apps, Featured, and Newest. All Apps category shows all apps in the App Directory. The featured category shows all the starred apps by you and Newest category shows all the apps sorted by last added date.
- Cards Per Row
You can select whether you want to show 2, 3, or 4 cards per row.
- Element Positioning
You can also select a category panel position between left, top, or right.
- Action Link
You can add your action title and action description on the Directory and provide a URL for the action button which will direct the user to a specific link when they click on the action button.
3. Card Page Appearance
This is an entirely new section created as part of the new card management we’ve introduced in the current version of the App Directory.
Here you can customize your card’s page appearance by choosing to display keywords, screenshots, and card logo. You can also select colors for the background and text as well as pick the positioning of the panel from left, right, or center.
4. Managing Cards and Categories
This new section is also part of the new card management we’ve introduced in this version.
Why did we introduce a separate section?
Since you can add 1000s of cards, we wanted to give you a broad canvas to manage all of them. We also wanted to make it easier for you to create cards and categories, and to add new cards or categories inside the App Directory.
You can add the following in this section:
- An existing card
- A new card
- New card categories.
Adding an Existing Card
You can add an existing card by clicking the Add Card button and selecting a card from the list, or searching for it by entering text as shown below.
Once the card has been added the preview on the right will show it, as shown below.
Adding a New Card
Previously, if you were in the App Directory and you had to create a card, the process was a little tedious. You had to leave the App Directory, head over to the Apps section, create a new External App, add all the details, and then come back to the App Directory, refresh it to see the newly added card, and then pick it to be added to your App Directory… oof!
Now, you can add a missing card simply by clicking on the Add Card button and selecting Create New Card from the list, which will open a Card Settings section on the right, as shown below.
This new layout gives you a central location for managing all the cards in one place, so you don’t have to switch between multiple views. It saves you a lot of time. You can manage the following Card settings:
Card Settings
Here you can add the details of your new card including the title, summary, icon, color, Action URL, categories, keywords, social media accounts, screenshots, description as well as URLs for Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Documentation, and Support. You can also enable or disable your card’s detail page.
Adding a Category
Card categories are created to organize your cards better, as your cards can be in 1000s or more. Categories help in grouping the cards in a more orderly fashion for your users. For example, in the image below you can see two categories i.e. Sales and CRM.
You can add a card category by clicking on the Add Category button which will open a Category Settings section on the right, as shown below.
Category Settings
Here you can add a title, enable or disable show, select a sorting option, add the number of rows to be shown for the category or delete the category altogether.
What Else is New?
Some other features of this section are as follows:
- Support for Any URL
Integry now supports 100,000+ cards. Just mention any URL and we’ll generate a card for you with the screenshot, title, and description.
- Drag and Drop Management
All cards and categories in the Cards section can be dragged, dropped, and renamed.
- Ease of Use
Hovering over a card shows you different icons through which you can edit, drag, and delete cards. Hovering over a category allows you to edit, add cards, drag, and delete the category.
- Multiple Categories
Cards can be added to multiple categories, cards without categories are added to the uncategorized category.
5. Localization
Here you can select a default language for your page, add more languages along with the title and description for each language.
After you finalize and save your App Directory, it will appear in your deployments menu as shown in the first image of this blog.
Ready to Go!
Once you’ve successfully created your App Directory, it goes immediately live! You can start sending users the URL of your Directory. If you’re creating on the Integry platform, you can also use SSO to log your users into the App Directory as well.
Want to Dive Deeper?
Here are a few links that might help:
Explore App Directory
Read the help article
Learn more about Integry
