Convert a prototype to an application when a concept earns enough confidence to build on it. Converting keeps everything you and Elle have already built, and adds the database, authentication, email, and other services that prototypes do not include.
Conversion is permanent. An application cannot return to being a prototype, and the new application will not be shared with the people you shared the prototype with.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Permissions
Action |
User permissions |
|---|---|
Convert a prototype to an application |
Every Aha! Builder plan includes prototype conversion. Some of the services an application adds carry their own plan requirements — email delivery, AI capabilities, and SAML and JWT single sign-on (SSO) require the Aha! Builder Scale plan.
What an application adds
A prototype runs as a working front end so people can click through your concept and react to it. You share a prototype rather than deploying it, and it carries no backend services. An application runs as real software, so it needs the services a business process depends on.
Converting gives your application access to the following:
Database: A dedicated PostgreSQL database with separate Preview and Production data, so the records your users create persist.
Authentication: Sign-in for your end users, with password, Aha!, Google, GitHub, Microsoft, SAML, and JWT methods.
Email: Branded email that your application sends to end users.
Background processing: Scheduled and recurring work that runs without anyone opening the application.
AI capabilities: AI features you embed directly in the application you ship.
Integrations: Connections to the tools your workflows depend on, and the secrets those connections need.
Converting also opens the parts of Aha! Builder that a prototype hides. You gain the Production environment alongside Preview, the Server logs, Issues, and Email pages, and the user and role management tabs on the Authentication page.
Before you convert
Work through the following before you convert, because you cannot undo the change.
Collect the feedback you still need. Sharing stops as soon as you convert, and the shared link stops working for everyone holding it. Close out any outstanding feedback requests first.
Plan for how people will reach the application. Shared prototypes stay open to anyone with the link. An application uses authentication instead, so decide which sign-in methods your end users need before you deploy.
Check your account limits. Prototypes stay unlimited and count toward nothing. An application counts toward your account's application limit, and deploying it counts toward the deployed applications included in your plan.
Replace your test data. Prototypes use fictitious data by design. Decide what your application should start with before real end users sign in.
Converting does not deploy your application. Your work stays in Preview until you deploy it to Production yourself.
Convert a prototype
Aha! Builder offers the same Convert to application button on every page a prototype cannot use. Each page explains what you gain, so you can convert from wherever you hit the limit.
Open the prototype in Aha! Builder.
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Navigate to any of the following pages:
Operate -> Configuration -> Authentication, Integrations, Secrets, or Database
Operate -> Documents -> Security or User guide
Select Convert to application.
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Confirm the conversion in the Elle panel.
Aha! Builder opens the Elle panel in a new chat and Elle asks whether you want to convert. Answer, and Elle starts the work.
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Wait while Elle adds the services your application now supports.
Elle builds the database schema and the authentication setup your existing screens need. Keep the browser tab open while the work runs.
Each page opens as a working configuration page once Elle finishes, and the convert option disappears.
After you convert
Your application keeps its name, its screens, its design, its code, and its full change history.
Pick up the work that a prototype could not support:
Set up authentication so your end users sign in.
Inspect and query the database that now backs your screens.
Connect the integrations your workflows depend on.
Run the built-in security and privacy reviews and share the reports with your IT team.
Generate a user guide so your end users know how the application works.
Deploy the application to Production when it is ready.
Governance administrators see the change on the governance page. Your work moves off the Prototypes tab and onto the Applications tab, where the account rules that govern applications apply to it.