📖Glossary
This is a list of words and definitions for some commonly used Adalo phrases and lingo!
Last updated
This is a list of words and definitions for some commonly used Adalo phrases and lingo!
Last updated
Your account settings contain information such as your team members, name, payment and plan information, email, password management, domains, developer mode, and other settings. You can access it by clicking on the profile icon in the top right of the Adalo Editor, then clicking Settings.
An Action in Adalo is the brains behind what happens in your app and are typically denoted by the color Yellow. Actions can be placed on components, screens, and list items and are responsible translating what a user does in the app into changes in the database or in the app itself. Without Actions you wouldn't be able to do anything in your app! Some types of actions include creating database records, updating records, deleting records, linking to screens or websites, and sending notifications.
Airbase is a "single automated spend management" platform. According to their website, "Airbase combines bill payments, corporate cards, and reimbursements onto a single platform with approval workflows, accounting automation, and reporting." Your Adalo apps are compatible with Airbase. Read More >
Android is a mobile-first operating system for phones and tablets that is developed, maintained, and distributed by Google. The operating system comes in various "flavors" depending on the device it is installed on. Currently about 73% of the world's mobile phones run on some version of Android.
An API (application programming interface) is a web service that uses URLs (called endpoints) to perform various actions programmatically rather than through a GUI (graphical user interface). All applications use APIs in some form or another. The interface we see and interact with in apps is just a means to easily tell an API what we would like it to do for us.
For instance whenever a user creates an account in your Adalo app, their registration details are sent via the Adalo API to the database created to manage your app.
In Adalo, you can use APIs to pull in data from other sources, create data elsewhere, or perform actions like send emails, SMS messages, or crop photos.
An API base URL defines the root URL upon which all API endpoints are built. For example if you built a SaaS application which resides at https://app.example.com, and you offered users access to an API, then your API base URL might be https://api.example.com. Your API might define API endpoints such as /products which retrieves a list of products managed within your application. Therefore users would access https://api.example.com/products in order to retrieve those products.
An API endpoint is the URL used to execute a task defined by the API logic, such as create a new user or process a payment. For instance an API endpoint used to retrieve a list of products might look like this https://api.example.com/products.
Keep in mind that the endpoint URL is only part of the equation. You'll also need to know which HTTP method is supported by the endpoint. For instance if you were using an API to create a new user within the database then the best practice is to use a POST method, meaning the API client would initiate a POST request to an API endpoint that likely looks similar to this https://api.example.com/users. If you were to retrieve a list of users or just one user, then the API client would initiate a GET request to an API endpoint that looks like https://api.example.com/users or https://api.example.com/users/45, respectively.
An API Key "is a code that gets passed in by computer applications. The program or application then calls the API or application programming interface to identify its user, developer or calling program to a website. Application programming keys are normally used to assist in tracking and controlling how the interface is being utilized. An API key can act as a secret authentication token as well as a unique identifier. Typically, the key will come with a set of access rights for the API that it is associated with." Read More >
An automatic field can be used in the forms component of Adalo to automatically fill out fields for a user. Visible fields are fields that the user can change, and automatic ones are ones that are filled out in the background of your app. This is useful for doing things like generating IDs, incrementing counts, and joining text together. Keep in mind that since the user cannot change these, it's up to you to make sure they are filled out if you use them.
The Available Data section of a screen's sections tells you which types of data are being sent to the current screen from other screens. If data is missing or conflicting, this section will tell you which data types are having issues and which screens might be causing the issue.
In the Adalo editor, you'll have the option to add and edit text in your app. In the Branding tab under the Fonts dropdown menu, you have the option to select both Headings and Body fonts (screenshot at top of In-Depth section).
Selecting a Body font will make all Body text in your Adalo app appear as the font you've selected. This tool's purpose is just to help you as the app creator maintain uniform branding. You always have the option to manually select a different font for certain text, if you so choose. Take a peek at the In-Depth section to learn how to do so.
A bug is another word for an error in the code of a computer program that causes it to produce unexpected results or behave in unexpected ways. A bug may also cause the program to fail to run altogether. It is critically important for programmers to understand where their programs may fail, and ensure their program can respond in such a way that the user understands what caused the error.
Debugging is the process of locating and removing errors (or bugs) from a computer program.
A build simply refers to a version of your app's code. Your app may go through multiple builds, a new one coming into being every time you make substantial changes to it.
In the Adalo Editor, the canvas is the location in which you'll find your app's screens. You can drag and drop screens onto the canvas to start editing them. When you drag an unwanted component from a screen onto the canvas, it'll disappear.
According to material-ui.com, a chip is a compact element that represents an input, attribute, or action. Read More >
*mention how it's different from copy - David
A CNAME (short for Canonical Name Record) is a type of DNS record that maps one domain, known as the alias, to another domain, known as the canonical record. CNAMEs are a critical feature to many Adalo makers who desire to use a custom domain name to host a web-based mobile application, because the custom domain name (the alias) will need to be mapped to the Adalo domain (the canonical name) associated with the server where Adalo-hosted apps are managed.
This is why when adding a new domain to your app within the Adalo builder you'll see instructions that look like this:
In order to create a CNAME record you'll need administrative access to the domain name registrar where the domain was registered (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc), or to the third-party where the domain's DNS management has been delegated (such as Netlify). For example in Namecheap you would navigate to the domain's Advanced DNS tab and create a new CNAME record like so:
In Adalo nomenclature, database tables are known as collections. If you were to describe what your app does and who it's for, the nouns you use in that description would be your collections.
For example, for a food delivery app, you might include a collection for your app's users and a collection for food orders to keep track of each user and what they've ordered. If your app can stream TV shows and movies, you would want to have a collection for TV shows and a collection for movies. For a visual example click on the In-Depth tab.
Each of your app's collections can be customized to include any number of Properties. So to tie it all together, if collections are the nouns of your app, then properties are the adjectives that describe them.
A collection is the Adalo nomenclature for a database table, and the Collections API gives makers the ability to access their app collections outside of the app and Adalo Canvas. For instance you might want to create a digital dashboard in your office that displays the number of users who signed up to use your app over the last 24 hours. This would be easily accomplished by accessing your app's Collections API.
The collections API isn't limited to read-only requests. It's also possible to insert, update, and delete data. Learn more about the Collections API in the documentation.
Components are the building blocks of your Adalo app. All of the elements that appear on your screen – lists, buttons, text, etc. – are components.
For a more in-depth description of components, check out our Component Basics help document.
A component is a functional unit within Adalo. Think "Button" or "App Bar" or even "list". There are many components in Adalo that help you build your apps. The Component Marketplace is a platform for developers to create and share components with others - they enhance the functionality of the apps that can be made with Adalo.
There are different types of marketplace components - free & paid. Some are built by Adalo and some have been built by developers in the larger Adalo ecosystem.
Marketplace components are different from Private Components (sometimes referred to as Private Libraries) as the latter is made only for the consumption of the developer of the component. Marketplace components are available for all Adalo makers to use (either for free, or for a fee).
For more information on the marketplace and a glimpse of the available components, check out the Adalo Marketplace. If you wish to develop a marketplace component, check out: Adalo | Marketplace Developers.
If you need support with Adalo's Marketplace component, please reach out to us by submitting a support ticket. If you need support with a component developed by a third-party developer, please reach out to the developers.
For more on the Component Marketplace, take a look at our Marketplace Components help doc.
You can add logic to your actions so that they only happen when certain rules apply. You can think of this feature in terms of the programming logic if this then that else... For example, if you were building a Product Hunt clone and a submission reached 100 upvotes then you might want to send a congratulatory email to the submitting user. In order to do this the conditional action would need to monitor the upvote count and respond accordingly.
Learn more about conditional actions in the documentation.
You may want a component in your Adalo app to show only sometimes. This is what's known as conditional visibility. For example, let's say you want one screen of your app to display a continue button for the user to continue to the next screen, but you only want the button to appear after the user has entered the correct text into a text input. You'd apply conditional visibility to the continue button to appear only after the proper text has been entered into the input. Check out the In-Depth section for a description of how to do this.
A Firebase Config. File contains the configuration data that your app needs to find its Firebase project on the servers.
The term count is often used to refer to the number of records in an Adalo collection. For instance, you might want to display the count of products found in your app catalog.
You can learn more about counting records in the documentation.
This action creates a record in a database.
Custom Actions are actions that you create within the Adalo Builder. They are API calls to external services to perform certain actions with that outside service. For instance, Adalo doesn't send emails by itself, but you could create a custom action that sends a command to SendGrid to send an email. The custom action can then be placed on buttons, list items, forms, and other components.
Apps that are largely focused on managing and displaying data are typically referred to as CRUD (create, retrieve, update, and delete) apps. Adalo supports all four of these tasks in the form of Actions, including the Delete Action.
Developer accounts generally refer to any account that is created in order to gain access to a third-party service's API and other features for the reason of enhancing your own software. For instance you would need a Stripe developer account in order to add Stripe-managed credit card processing to your web application.
If you want to publish your Adalo app so it can be installed on an Android device or iPhone, you'll need to create Apple Developer and Google Play Developer accounts.
A DNS Provider manages the DNS records for a domain name. This is usually the company that you purchased your domain name from (known as the domain registrar), but it's also possible to delegate DNS management to a third-party such as Netlify. If you would like to make an Adalo web application available via a domain name owned by you, then you will need administrative access to your domain's DNS provider.
A DNS Record is a piece of information telling the DNS Provider how to connect the different pieces of your project. For instance, you might use Wix for the marketing website, Mailchimp for emails, Stripe for payments, and Adalo for your app. You'll need to add and manage domain DNS records for each of these services in order to connect everything together in a convenient and transparent fashion.
A domain name is the text one would type into a browser window to reach a particular website, or simply put, the name of a website. A domain name does not include the entire web address, but just the name of the organization that the address belongs to. Read More >
A Custom Domain is a custom, branded domain name for your website. For example, Adalo's custom domain is the "Adalo" portion of adalo.com. Read More >
"An Editor is a computer program that permits the user to create or modify data (such as text or graphics) especially on a display screen," according to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary.
The Adalo Editor is a virtual workspace for creating apps. In it, you have access to numerous useful tools and components to help you create and customize your apps to your heart's content.
An External Collection refers to data sets that aren't managed within an Adalo Collection. For instance some users prefer to use Xano to manage app data, while others prefer to BYOD (Bring Your Own Database) using DreamFactory.
The File Picker component is used in custom forms to give the user the option to add files from their devices. The file picker presently supports the following types of files:
If there is a file type that we currently do not support that you require, please add an Adalo | Feature Request on our board, and you will be notified as we make progress towards implementing these requests.
In the Adalo editor, you'll have the option to add and edit text in your app. In the Branding tab under the Fonts dropdown menu, you have the option to select both Headings and Body fonts (screenshot at top of In-Depth section).
Selecting a Headings font will make all Heading text in your Adalo app appear as the font you've selected. This tool's purpose is just to help you as the app creator maintain uniform branding. You always have the option to manually select a different font for certain text, if you so choose. Take a peek at the In-Depth section to learn how to do so.
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996. It is a law passed in the U.S. to protect employees' health insurance coverage when they change jobs or lose their job, provides standards for patient health, administrative and financial data interchange, and governs the privacy and security of health information records and transactions. Read More >
Currently, Adalo does not provide HIPAA compliance, as it requires a special document called a BAA (Business Associate Agreement) to be signed by both Adalo and the maker, however there are plans for Adalo to offer this in the future.
A home screen is the first screen a user encounters on an app. Most of the core functions of the app live on the home screen, and all subsequent navigation stems from the home screen. In your Adalo app, you can choose which screen will be your home screen and customize it accordingly.
In the Adalo editor, you can clump components on a screen together into a single group by clicking down with your mouse and dragging across all of the component's you'd like included in the group, then selecting Make Group in the lefthand menu. This is known as grouping. Once components are grouped together, they can be moved around from screen to screen, copied, pasted, and deleted as a group to make customization easier for you. You can even group together components to create lists.
iOS (iPhone Operating System) is Apple's iPhone operating system. It is the operating system employed on all of Apple's mobile devices, meaning iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. Your Adalo apps are iOS native, meaning that they've been built in a specific programming language so that they're compatible with Apple devices.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is the de facto standard data format used by HTTP-based APIs. It has come to be preferred over XML-formatted data because the format is both easily readable and writable by humans. Here is an example JSON object used to describe a job candidate:
Adalo heavily uses JSON throughout the application and infrastructure to pass data to and from maker applications, however its use is largely incidental to makers.
This action can link to a different screen in your app or to an eternal website.
'Logic is the sequence of operations performed by computer hardware or software. It refers to the algorithms and operational sequences that computer hardware and software follow. Hardware logic is contained in the electronic circuits of a computer. Software logic, or program logic, is contained in the placement of instructions written into the software's code by a programmer.' Read More >
One type of component you can add to your Adalo app is a List. Lists are quite powerful and offer a host of functionalities. You can connect them to your Database to display information from desired Collections and even allow list items to create actions, such as link to a different screen or update the current user's information.
Magic Text is information pulled from records within your database. This can be anything from names, numbers, dates, or photo URLs. Think of Magic Text as a placeholder for information that will change based on a user's actions or information.
A Maker is the term used to refer to anybody using Adalo to make a mobile application! We have an amazing Maker community consisting of people who help each other out in the forums, contribute templates, and grow the Adalo Marketplace.
You'll often want to combine data found within two or more Adalo collections. This is also known as joining data, and exactly how you join data together will depend upon the type of relationship, of which Adalo supports three: one-to-many, one-to-one, and many-to-many.
The many-to-many relationship type means each record in one table can be related to one or more records in another table. For example a travel app might allow users to indicate whether they've visited a particular monument. This means each monument could be related to many users, and each user could be related to many locations.
The Adalo Marketplace is the directory for finding, contributing, and selling components that other Makers can use within their apps.
In the programming world a method can refer to several different concepts, including most notably an object-oriented class function and the type of action an API client would like to execute on a resource exposed through an HTTP API. In the Adalo world when you come across the term, it's likely in reference to the latter.
There are five HTTP methods, including GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE. The GET method is used to retrieve data, POST is used to insert data, PUT replaces an existing resource with an updated version, PATCH updates a resource, and DELETE, you guessed it, deletes a resource.
A modal is like a popup that serves as either an intermediate screen or a temporary screen. It's typically used to present options to the users about records, ask them to confirm something, or even edit records with a form of some kind.
You'll often want to combine data found within two or more Adalo collections. This is also known as joining data, and exactly how you join data together will depend upon the type of relationship, of which Adalo supports three: one-to-many, one-to-one, and many-to-many.
A one-to-many relationship means one Collection entry (or record) can be associated with one or more records in another collection. For example, if you were building an app for buying and selling automobiles, then you will probably create collections managing automobile manufacturer makes and models. Because Toyota and only Toyota makes the Sienna, Avalon, and Tacoma, we can create a one-to-many relationship between the manufacturers collection and the models collection.
Opacity refers to an element's degree of transparency. Many Adalo components offer a transparency control which you can use to vary the component's opacity.
An operating system is a computer's "software that communicates with the hardware and allows other programs to run. It is comprised of system software, or the fundamental files your computer needs to boot up and function. Every desktop computer, tablet, and smartphone includes an operating system that provides basic functionality for the device." Read More >
Every Android app has a unique Package Name, such as com.example.myapp. This ID uniquely identifies your app on the device and in the Google Play Store.
It must have at least two segments (one or more dots).
Each segment must start with a letter.
All characters must be alphanumeric or an underscore [a-zA-Z0-9_].
Once you publish your app, you should never change the Package Name. If you change the Package Name, Google Play Store treats the upload as a completely different app. If you want to upload a new version of your app, you must use the same Package Name as the Listing in the Google Play Console.
Play App Signing is an optional process by which Google verifies your apps and any changes that are made to it. By opting in to Play App Signing, you are giving Google permission to hold the certificates required to make changes to your app. You can check which apps have Play App Signing enabled, by going to your Play Store Console, clicking on the app you want to check, clicking the Setup tab in the left menu, then choosing App Integrity. If your app is enrolled you will see a Green check mark and a "Enabled" message in the top left.
In the Branding section of the lefthand menu in the Adalo Editor, you'll have the option to customize your app's colors. We offer this to give you greater customizability and make coherent branding easier. The Adalo Editor offers the option to choose both primary and secondary colors for various elements of your app, including background screen, app bars, icons, buttons, etc. Your primary color will be the dominant color of your app's elements.
Databases in Adalo are made up of Collections. Properties are the individual categories of information that make up each collection. For example, in a "Users" collection (a database collection of your app's users), you might include properties for your users' Email, Username, Password, Full Name, and Profile Picture. You can customize the number and types of properties each of your collections includes.
To publish an Adalo app means to make it available for your audience.
In the Branding section of the lefthand menu in the Adalo Editor, you'll have the option to customize your app's colors. We offer this to give you greater customizability and make coherent branding easier. The Adalo Editor offers the option to choose both primary and secondary colors for various elements of your app, including background screen, app bars, icons, buttons, etc. You may want to choose a secondary color to accent the dominant color of your app.
Stripe is an online payment processing software. Through Stripe's API, your Adalo app can send and receive payments online. You can enable Stripe on your app by downloading the Stripe Kit Component found in the Component Marketplace.
A subdomain acts as a specific and different version of your regular domain name. They are often setup as app.yoursite.com or docs.yoursite.com or support.yoursite.com where the words app, docs, and support serve as the subdomains for yoursite.com. Subdomains are setup as DNS records under the top-level domain (TLD) - such as yoursite.com. The exact where subdomains are hosted depends on the service. For example, you may use app.yoursite.com for your Adalo app, you may use docs.yoursite.com for your Gitbook help docs, and you might use support.yoursite.com for your Hubspot help desk.
A subscription is a form of payment plan in which customers make recurring payments to a business or organization for access to a product or service, usually at fixed intervals of time. Find out more about Adalo's subscription plans here!
A web app, or web application, is a computer program that performs a certain function and is accessible via an internet connection. Some examples of web apps are email programs such as Gmail, the Google Drive apps, and chat apps like Discord.
In Adalo, App Settings contain options such as the app name, description, icon, Mixpanel token, team assignment, editor display settings, app copying and deletion, and more. You can access it by clicking the gear icon on the left menu in the Adalo editor .
In the Adalo editor, your home screen will be denoted by the label "Home" and a house icon .
To add a list to your Adalo app, select the Plus buttonin the upper left corner of the editor to open the lefthand menu.
Magic Text can be accessed anywhere you see the sparkly T icon or where you see the sparkly X icon which is used in number fields and formulas. Upon clicking, it will open up menus for you to choose from your collections the pieces of data you want to display.
