Managing and navigating interfaces

Interface Designer is a powerful new way for creators to work with their collaborators without requiring those collaborators to navigate the full complexity of a base. This article will cover everything you need to know about managing and navigating interfaces and the groups they live in.

Prerequisites

If you aren’t familiar with interfaces or haven’t yet created any groups of interfaces, please read this support article before continuing.

Navigating interface groups

On your main home screen, you can see groups of interfaces built by you or shared with you by other collaborators:

You can also search for interfaces by name using the search bar located in the top left:

Remember, each grouping of interfaces is linked to a single base. If you’d like to see all of the interface groups for a specific base, the first step is to click the “Interfaces” button in the top left corner of that base.

Clicking on the “Interfaces” button in a base will take you to the main “home page” for all of the groups of interfaces in that base.

If you haven’t created any groups of interfaces for a base yet, the page will appear as below:

However, if your base does contain groups of interfaces, they’ll be listed on the page alongside their current publication status:

Clicking on the icon for a group of interfaces will open up the Overview for that group:

From here, you can navigate to any interface within the group by clicking on the interface’s name directly.

You can also use the menu in the top left to navigate through the interfaces in this group.

You can navigate back to the connected base for the interface group by selecting “Go to base” from the side menu. If you are in an interface, you can also go back to the main group overview page by clicking “Overview” from the side menu:

Editing an interface group

You can customize your interface group’s title, icon, and description at any time. If you aren’t in editing mode, click “Edit” on the top of the screen, and you will be able to edit your interface group. While in editing mode, you can change the icon, title, or description for an interface group:

You can also edit the order of interfaces within a group by using the pull handle to drag and drop your interfaces into a new order:

You can also do this from the side menu for an interface group:

Deleting a group of interfaces

To delete a group of interfaces, navigate to the overview page for that group and enter editing mode by clicking on the “Edit” button. You can now click on the dropdown arrow on the interface group’s icon showing the “Delete” button:

Clicking “Delete” will open a pop-up warning; clicking “Delete” again will delete the group of interfaces and all interfaces within the group.

Managing an interface

Interfaces are customizable, dynamic, interactable, and shareable visual representations of your base’s data. Please see this support article to learn more about editing an interface’s content (i.e., the formatting or configuration of an interface’s elements).

Every interface has its own menu where you can rename, edit the description, duplicate, or delete that interface:

Clicking on “Rename” will let you rename the current interface:

Clicking on “Edit description” will allow you to change the interface’s description:

Clicking on “Duplicate” will duplicate the current interface within its interface group. Note that you cannot duplicate an interface from one interface group to another at this time:

If your interface is published, you will also see an option to “Unpublish” that interface. A pop-up will show up, warning you that the interface you are unpublishing will no longer be viewable except while in editing mode.

As a reminder, only those with Owner/Creator permissions can enter editing mode for an interface, meaning that if you unpublish an interface, you are effectively hiding it from all base collaborators without Owner/Creator permissions.

Finally, you can choose to delete an interface from that interface’s menu.

Clicking “Delete” will open a pop-up warning; clicking “Delete” again will remove that interface. If your interface is published, you will first need to unpublish it before deleting it:

Duplicating an interface

Interfaces can also be duplicated, even before they have been published. This can be helpful when you want to create other, similar interfaces without having to start with a template or from scratch. Additionally, you could use this option to create sandbox environments to test out new interface designs. With the interface that you want to duplicate open, navigate to the name of your interface and click the drop-down. Here, you'll find the duplicate option:

Next, you'll need to choose a group location for the duplicate interface. This can be a new group or an existing one. 

After choosing the group location, click the "Duplicate" button and you'll be taken to the duplicated interface's group page.

FAQs

I’m looking for a group of interfaces—but don’t see it on my home screen?

Not all interfaces groups are shown on your home screen—just the ones created by, or explicitly shared with, you. If you'd like to search for a group of interfaces by name,  you can do so using the search bar in the top left-hand corner of the home screen. 

Can I duplicate or copy or duplicate an interface into another base?

We do not support duplicating an interface or an interface group into another base at this time.

Can I copy an interface into another interface group on the same base?

Yes, you can duplicate an interface from one group to another group.

What happens to changes made to my published interface if I don't publish those changes?

Any changes made to an interface in editing mode will automatically be saved. So you can choose to publish changes to an individual interface whenever you are ready.

Can I duplicate an entire group of interfaces?

We do not support duplicating entire interface groups at this time. However, you can duplicate individual interfaces.