Custom Apps Documentation

Make Custom Apps documentation is a guide for developers looking to create their own apps for themselves or others to use on the Make platform. This documentation will walk you through how to use Make Apps Editor in Make UI and in Visual Studio Code to create and manage those custom apps, as well as best practices and common approaches for development.

Custom Apps Development Training

If you are new to custom apps on Make or want to freshen up your knowledge about apps developing, enroll in the Custom Apps Development Training. It has 39 lessons and 4.5 hours of video content where you can learn all the aspects of custom apps development on Make.

Introduction to creating custom apps

When there is a service that you want to use in Make but the service is not yet available in Make, use the apps builder to create a custom app. The only requirement is that the service has to have an API.

In the apps builder, you write down a JSON configuration. This configuration is then used by the Make platform to generate all connections and app modules for you. If you are working on a complicated custom app, you can write a custom IML function with JavaScript.

There are two options directly supported by Make to write the custom app configuration:

• The web interface of your Make account instance.

• The Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension.

The benefits of using VS Code over the Make account web interface are for example:

• first-class support for JSON format, like syntax highlighting and completion,

• automatic checking of the JSON configuration validity, notably in terms of parameter type checking and correct object context,

• predefined project structure for every custom app you create,

Follow the instructions here to configure the VS Code extension.

If you want to write the custom app configuration in the Make web interface, navigate to Custom apps in the left sidebar menu of your Make account. You might have to click on the three dots at the bottom of the left sidebar to view the Custom apps option.

If you are developing a custom app for the first time, check out the Create your first app section first.

Important notes

• All modules can be tested directly in scenarios.

• Changes to communication configs are immediately active.

• You can see raw requests/responses in your browser's console.

• Changes in parameters and interface requires you to reload scenario editor page.

• We use JSONC (JSON with comments) in all sections except common data.

Collaborative development

The Make Apps Editor VS Code extension contains support for Git.

Learn how to utilize Local Development for Apps feature to develop collaboratively.

Develop apps collaboratively