Managing app collections
Contents
Requirements
AppsAnywhere 2.12+
Overview
App collections are groups of apps which can be highlighted to the user. There are two types of app collection - 'favorites' and category. Apps in the 'favorites' collection are dynamically generated based on apps that the user has favorited, while category collections are associated to a category and contain the apps in the associated category.
App collections can appear in either the search page or the app grid page. The settings page contains sections for both of these pages, and which section the collection is added to will determine where that collection appears.
If you would like the same app collections to appear in both pages, then you can use the Duplicate collections from search or Duplicate collections from grid buttons to duplicate configuration between pages.
You must remove all collections from a section to duplicate its configuration from another section.
Navigating to the app collections settings page
Prerequisites
System administrator privileges
Steps
Log in as an admin user
If you’re on the portal, click Return to admin
In the sidebar, expand the settings section and click App collections
Favorites
It’s common for people to use a small number of apps regularly. To speed up finding these apps when accessing the portal, the user can mark them as favorites via the more info page. When an app is favorited by a user, it appears in their favorites collection.
The favorites collection is configured to appear on both the search and app grid pages by default, however can be removed from either of these pages by the administrator.
Adding the favorites collection to a section
The favorites collection can be configured to appear in the search page and app grid page.
Prerequisites
System administrator privileges
You must decide whether you would like the favorites collection to appear on the Search page, the App grid, or both
Steps
Navigate to the app collections page
Identify the section you would like the favorites collection to appear in and click the Add new collection button for this section
Enter the Collection name - if there is already a favorites collection set up in the other section then this name should be reused, otherwise we recommend using 'Favorites', or 'Favorites' translated into the language configured as your default
Set the Type to ‘Favorites’
Click the Save search collections or Save app grid collections button, depending on which section you are editing
If you would like favorites to appear in an additional section, return to step 2.
Removing the favorites collection from a section
Prerequisites
System administrator privileges
Steps
Navigate to the app collections page
Identify the section you would like to remove the favorites collection from
Find the favorites collection and click the Remove button
Click the Save search collections or Save app grid collections button, depending on which section you are editing
If you would like to remove favorites from more an additional, return to step 2.
Category collections
Grouping related applications together into categories can help users find their apps more quickly, and discover new ones. Once apps have been grouped into categories, app collections allows you to promote categories in additional places.
If a category is assigned to a collection on the app grid page, then it will appear in the sidebar twice, in both the app collection and category lists.
In the example on the right two categories are present, Engineering and Graphic design. The Engineering category has been associated with a collection on the app grid page, so appears twice, while Graphic design has not, so only appears in the category list.
Adding a new category collection to a section
Each collection is linked to a category. Before configuring a collection you should have set up a corresponding category.
Prerequisites
System administrator privileges
A category to link the new collection to
If a category you have recently added does not appear in the list, you can use the Reload categories to refresh the list of categories.
Steps
Navigate to the app collections page
Identify the section you would like to add the collection to
Click the Add new collection button
In the Collection name field, type the name of the collection. This will typically be either what you have called this collection in a different section or the name of the category
Set the Type to ‘Category’
In the Category field, select the name of the category which corresponds to this collection
Click the Save search collections or Save app grid collections button, depending on which section you are editing
Removing an app collection from a section
Prerequisites
System administrator privileges
Steps
Navigate to the app collections page
Identify the section you would like to remove a collection from
Find the collection you would like to remove and click the Remove button
Click the Save search collections or Save app grid collections button, depending on which section you are editing
Ordering app collections
The order in which collections appear in the list determines the order in which they are presented to the user. You can change the order in which they appear by following these instructions.
Default Search app collection
The app collection that is ordered first for Search will be used as the default view on the search page when users login to AppsAnywhere. By default this is set to Favorites.
Prerequisites
System administrator privileges
At least two app collections set up in any section
Steps
Navigate to the app collections page
Click the Reorder collections button
Identify the section you would like to reorder
Click the up and down arrows to change the order of each collection until you achieve the desired order
Once you have finished reordering the collections, click Finish reordering
Click the Save search collections and/or Save app grid collections buttons, depending on which sections you have reordered
