What are “Apps”?

So if you didn’t know, we now have apps that we can include as part of a solution. These are essentially another way to group together a set of configurations to enable a simpler, more streamlined user experience. I won’t go into all the details as the link provides most of them, but it allows system configurators to create a dedicated Site map that includes only the entities required, along with the capability to select specific forms and views which are available within the app. It simplifies and focuses some of the application options to allow users to remain focused on what they need to do.

To create a new or edit an existing app, you need to open the App Designer. To change the App URL or associate the App with a specific role for permissions, you need to open the Manage App dialog.

To open the App Dialog you first need to view all of the apps in the specific instance. To do that go to Settings –> My Apps (under Application).

I had an issue today where this item was missing from my instance. I had several apps deployed via different solutions. I could access them via the initial URL configured, but I didn’t have the “My Apps” icon under the Sitemap so I couldn’t associate the different apps to roles. After a bit of digging, I managed to get the page from a different CRM instance I had. The magic address is:

/tools/AppModuleContainer/applandingtilepage.aspx

Simply prepend your organization URL to this and you’ll be able to see the apps in the organization and manage them. Or you can use the SiteMap editor to add it back to the default site map.

Good luck if it goes missing!