A prototype in Aha! Builder is a working concept you can put in front of real people before you invest in building a full application. Sharing a prototype creates a private link that anyone can open in a browser, so you can gather feedback early and decide what is worth building.
Shared prototypes are unlimited — they do not count toward the deployed applications included in your plan, or toward your account's total application limit.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Permissions
Action |
User permissions |
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Share a prototype |
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Set the account rule for who can share prototypes |
Before you share
A prototype is built to test a concept, not to run a business process. Confirm the following before you send a link to anyone.
Prototype capabilities: A prototype does not include a database, authentication, email, background processing, connections with AI capabilities, or several other services that converting to an application adds.
Open access: Anyone with the link can open a shared prototype and use it. There is no sign-in step, and you cannot restrict a prototype to specific people. Build your prototype with fictitious or sanitized data, and do not include customer or confidential information in anything you share.
Account rules: An administrator can control whether owners are allowed to share prototypes. If governance administrators have disabled sharing for your account, the option will not appear.
Trial accounts: Sharing from an Aha! Builder trial requires approval. Reach out to our Customer Success team to have your trial account vetted before you share a prototype.
Share a prototype
Sharing replaces the deployment flow that applications use. Instead of deploying a prototype to production, you share it.
Open the prototype in Aha! Builder.
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Select Share, then select Start sharing.
Aha! Builder publishes the prototype and generates a private link. Anyone with the link can open the prototype in a browser. There is no sign-in.
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Select Copy URL and send the link to the people you want feedback from.
Select Open in new window to view the shared prototype yourself.
The link is private and unguessable, so a prototype is reachable only by someone you send it to. It will not appear in search engines.
The shared prototype view
When someone opens your link, they see your prototype with a banner across the top: "This prototype was created using Aha! software and is shared to gather user feedback."
The banner appears on every shared prototype. It tells people where the prototype came from and why they are being asked to try it, which helps them recognize it as a genuine request for feedback rather than a phishing attempt.
Manage a shared link
You control a prototype's link for as long as it is shared.
Open the prototype in Aha! Builder and select Share.
Select Generate new link to replace the current link with a new one.
Note: If you do this, the previous link stops working immediately. Anyone still using it will lose access, so send the new link to everyone who needs it.-
To stop sharing, open the Share panel and switch sharing to Disabled.
The link stops working, and the prototype is visible only to people with access to it in Aha! Builder. Switch back to Enabled to share it again.
Generate a new link when you have shared a prototype more widely than you intended. Un-share it once you have the feedback you were looking for.
Publish updates to a shared prototype
A shared prototype is a published snapshot. Changes you make in Aha! Builder are not visible on the shared link until you publish them.
Open the prototype and select Share.
The panel shows when the prototype was last published. Select Publish updates to push your latest changes to the shared link.
Track shared prototypes across your account
Administrators can see every prototype in the account on the governance page, on the Prototypes tab. Prototypes are tracked separately from applications, which stay on the Applications tab.
The Prototypes tab shows the following for each prototype:
Name: The name of the prototype.
Sharing status: Whether the prototype is currently Shared or Not shared.
Shared by: The Aha! Builder user who shared it.
Administrators can also set an account-wide rule that controls whether owners can share prototypes. Turning the rule off prevents new prototypes from being shared.
Convert a prototype to an application
Convert a prototype to an application when you are ready to move past testing a concept. Converting is permanent, and sharing stops the moment you convert — so send any outstanding feedback requests first.
Open the prototype in Aha! Builder and navigate to the Authentication, Integrations, Database, Security, Document -> Secrets, or User guide page.
Select the option to Convert to application.
If you get stuck, please reach out to our Customer Success team. Our team is made up entirely of product experts and responds fast.