Get Started with Skuid

Note

How to use this Guide

Get Started with Skuid is a beginner’s guide to using Skuid. We suggest you keep this page open in a browser while following along.

Skuid is a cloud-based, user-experience platform for rapidly creating and optimizing engaging business applications across data repositories and services. With Skuid’s drag-and-drop app composer, anyone (including non-developers) can create powerful applications with beautiful, consumer-grade user interfaces for any device—all in about 90% less time than it would take by traditional programming.

Let’s face it, user feedback and changing business needs are continuous! Skuid gives you the power to quickly iterate your solutions in hours, not weeks or months. That’s because with Skuid you don’t need to write code for business logic or UI. Yet Skuid is also open and extensible for developers who wish to create their own unique extensions.

If your business’s primary system of record is Salesforce, we offer Skuid SFX—a managed package you can install directly into your Salesforce environment.

Here’s a Skuid page that integrates data drawn from the Salesforce data source with a custom theme (built without writing CSS) that gives it a unique, branded look and feel.

get-started-0

All of the data on this page can be edited and deleted (according to user permissions).

Working with Skuid

How can you use Skuid to build a business application like the one above? Follow these basic steps:

  1. Connect to data
  2. Create an app
  3. Compose pages connected to the app
  4. Deploy / publish app to the appropriate users.

Connect

To access data with Skuid, you must configure a Skuid data source to connect to the data and determine how the data source will authenticate end users.

Note

Data source options may be different if using Skuid SFX.

Create

An app is a collection of Skuid pages associated with URLs. Start by creating an app:

  1. In the Apps list tab, click Create.

    • Give the app a name.
  2. Click Create.

Add Skuid pages to the app

The page is the basic canvas for creating user experiences, so now, you need to add some pages to the app. You can do this from the App or the Pages tab.

From the Apps tab [[]]
  1. Click the app you created above.

  2. In the App’s detail page, click Create Page.

    • Configure the details (name, API version, Page URL Slug).
  3. Click Create.

(The page you create is automatically associated with the app.)

From the Pages tab [[]]
  1. Click Create Page.
  2. Configure the page (name, API version).
  3. Click Create.

Note

The page you created must be added to the app using Create Page > Add Existing Page in the Apps tab.

Learn more about different ways to use Skuid pages.

Compose

Skuid’s drag-and-drop Composer is where the Skuid page comes together. Use the Composer to develop simple, streamlined processes that ensure users spend less time wrestling with technology, and more time adding value to the business. To get familiar with this environment, take the Composer tour.

Customize pages

First, use models to connect the Skuid page to data source objects. For each model, choose which of the object’s fields to include in the page. Once the page has data, it’s time to add components.

Check out the Component overview to learn about Skuid components and how they can be used to create a great user experience. Then, drag and drop components into the page, arrange them, and use each component’s properties pane to customize it.

Deploy/Publish

Deploying pages refers to the process of packaging them so they can be moved to another site, for example, transferring pages from a sandbox to a production site.

Publishing occurs when pages are made available to end users via app deployment. For more information, see the Deploying apps topic.

Note

Skuid’s Salesforce managed package (SFX) can deploy pages on both Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic <skuid/deploy/salesforce/visualforce/index.html#visualforce-overrides>.

Updating Pages

You can modify pages even after they’ve been created and deployed:

  • On the Pages tab, find the page you wish to edit.
  • Click on the page record to open the Composer and make revisions.

Warning

Making changes to pages in production while users are using the pages can produce unpredictable results.

Explore Sample Pages

You can import Skuid page XML to try out already-built pages.

Ready to learn more about composing Skuid pages?

Try Composing in Skuid: a Deep Dive.