Shared Builders

What You'll Learn

You'll discover how to add and manage collaborators on your Knack applications. This knowledge will help you build apps more efficiently with a team, while maintaining appropriate access controls and avoiding conflicts during development.

What is a Shared Builder?

A Shared Builder is a user who is granted access to the Knack Builder for a specific app. These collaborators can fully edit the apps shared with them - including adding, editing, and deleting elements from both the Data and Pages sections of the Knack Builder.

However, Shared Builders have limitations:

• They cannot access other apps in your account
• They cannot delete your app
• They cannot add new apps to your account

Managing Shared Builder Access

Shared Builder Allocation

Each Knack plan offers a specific number of Shared Builders allowed on an account, which includes the account owner. Each email address added as a Shared Builder counts as a single Shared Builder against your limit, regardless of how many apps they access.

Key points to remember:

• You can add the same email address to multiple apps without affecting your Shared Builder count
• Shared Builders must be invited to build with your app(s) by the account owner before creating their Knack account
• Shared Builders with existing paid accounts prior to being invited can be added at any time

Adding Shared Builders

To add a Shared Builder to your app:

1. Go to the Dashboard
2. Find the app you want to share
3. Click the ellipses (three dots) icon to the right of the app's name
4. Select "Manage Builders"
5. Enter the First Name, Last Name, and Email Address of the person you want to add
6. Click "Add"

A confirmation message will appear when the invitation is successfully sent. The Shared Builder will receive an email with a link to your app. If they don't already have a Knack account, they'll be prompted to set up a password.

Viewing and Removing Shared Builders

To view or remove existing Shared Builders:

1. Go to the Dashboard
2. Find the app with the Shared Builders you want to manage
3. Click the ellipses (three dots) icon to the right of the app's name
4. Select "Manage Builders"
5. A modal will display all current Shared Builders
6. To remove a Shared Builder, click the remove icon next to their name

Collaboration Best Practices

When multiple users are making changes to your app, it's possible to overwrite changes made by others, both in the Knack Builder and in the Live App.

Recommended Practices

To avoid conflicts when collaborating:

• Ensure all Knack Builders have only one browser window or tab open while working on data changes in the Builder
• If you or another Shared Builder have an older version of the Data open and save changes there, it can overwrite recent updates
• For the Live App, create a workflow or process to limit the number of users that might need to edit the same record simultaneously

Caution: When working with Shared Builders, it's possible to unintentionally overwrite changes made by others. Be mindful of where other Shared Builders are working in the Builder.