Site Object

This page provides detailed information on how to configure and manage a site object.

What is a site object?

A site is a custom, well-tailored web app that provides users with quick access to the pages, tasks, and information that they need. A site object allows you to define and customize the settings and content for your site. This includes defining interfaces to use for pages and customizing the site's navigation bar and branding. The site object makes it easy to both build and troubleshoot a site in one place.

A site object can be referenced in other objects. To learn more about this concept, see Referencing Objects in Expressions.

When to use this object

Use a site when you need to:

• Create a custom, branded experience for your users.
• Provide quick and focused access to specific pages, tasks, and information.
• Build dynamic dashboards, landing pages, or other custom navigation experiences.

To create a public web app that users can access without signing in to Appian, create a portal object instead.

Elements of this object

A site object contains the following elements:

#	Section	Available Actions
1	Build tab	Configure the basic elements of your site object.
2	Troubleshoot tab	View error details to help debug issues with the site.
3	Customization settings	Configurations: Modify the primary site settings that determine how users experience the site. Pages: Add, remove, modify, and organize the pages and page groups displayed in the navigation bar. Navigation Bar: Configure the layout, style, and branding of the navigation bar. Branding: Define the look and feel of the site, including colors, shapes, and logos.
4	Branding Preview	View what the navigation bar and branding configurations will look like.

Configurations

This section allows you to modify the primary site configurations that determine how users experience the site.

You can configure the following fields in this section:

Field	Action
Display Name	Enter the name to display in the site navigation menu and browser tab. Can be a static value or a dynamic expression that evaluates to a string.
Web Address	Click Edit to edit the Web Address Identifier used to construct the site's URL. The web address identifier appears in the URL and in log files.
Show Tempo link in Navigation Menu	Select whether to always show, never show, or conditionally show the Tempo link in the navigation menu when the user is on the site.
Show Record News	Choose whether to show the News view. When enabled, all records displayed in the site will include the News view. In addition, the latest news will be displayed on the summary view when viewing user records.
Show Task List on Mobile	Select whether to always show, never show, or conditionally show the mobile site task list in the Appian Mobile app. When enabled, after a user selects the site, the Appian Mobile menu displays a Tasks list which shows all tasks assigned to the user. Appian Mobile users can access offline-enabled tasks from this list, even when they are not connected to the internet.

Pages

This section allows you to build the structure of your site by adding and organizing pages and page groups. A site can contain up to ten top-level pages or page groups.

For more information on organizing top-level navigation items for the best user experience, see Designing Sites and Portals: Organizing pages and page groups and Mobile Considerations for guidance about mobile-first sites.

Page types

A site page can be one of the following types:

• Action: Displays a start form for a process model that allow users to initiate a process, like submitting a new service request.
• Interface: Displays an interface object. Interface type pages are the only pages that can be added to page groups or use URL parameters in a!urlForSite().
• Record List: Displays a record list configured in a record type.
• Process HQ: Displays an embedded Process HQ page. Process HQ pages are not available in Appian Mobile.

Add a page

To add a page to the site:

1. In the Pages section, click ADD PAGE.

2. In the Add Page dialog, configure the following fields.

   Field	Action
   Title	Enter the page title to display in the navigation bar and browser tab. The title can be configured as a static string or as an expression that evaluates to a string.
   Web Address Identifier	Enter the unique URL identifier for the page. If left blank, a random alphanumeric string will be generated.
   Icon	Select an icon to display with the page title in the navigation bar. When using Mercury style for the header bar, the icon won't display in web browsers, but will always display in Appian Mobile. By default, the file-o icon is selected.
   Type	Select the type of content for the page (Action, Interface, Record List, or Process HQ). See Page types for more information.
   Content	Select the specific design object to display on the page based on the selected Type. For Interface page types, you can create a new interface object by clicking .
   Rule Input Configuration	If the page uses an interface object with URL parameter-compatible rule inputs, configure default values and URL behavior.See Rule Input Configuration for more information.
   Appearance	For Process HQ pages, specifies the page theme and whether to use the site's branding configurations.
   Width	Select the width of the content area for the page (Narrow, Medium, Wide, or Full).
   Visibility	Set the page to be always visible or conditionally visible based on an expression. If Only show when is selected, the page is only visible when the entered expression evaluates to true. Otherwise the page is hidden. See visibility for more information.

3. Click ADD.
4. Reorder pages using the and arrows.

Rule input configuration

When you set up your site page and select Interface for the page Type, the interface you select can use rule inputs of any type. However, certain types of rule inputs can use URL parameters to set their value. Site pages that use these types of rule inputs will display Has rule input configurations under the interface name. When you edit the page, the Rule Input Configuration displays, which allows you to configure the rule inputs.

To link to site pages using URL parameters, use a!urlForSite().

For more information on using URL parameters, see Use URL Parameters for Site and Portal Navigation.

You can configure the following fields in this section:

Property	Description	Default
Encrypt URL parameters	Determines whether to use encrypted or plaintext URL parameters. To help keep data secure, URL parameters are encrypted by default. See Determine whether to encrypt url parameters for more information about when to use encrypted versus plaintext URL parameters.	Selected
Rule Input	The rule inputs from the selected interface. Only certain types of rule inputs that work with URL parameters will appear.	Read only
Enable in URLs	This only appears when Encrypt URL parameters is deselected. It allows you to opt in to using only the URL parameters that are safe to display in plaintext. To help keep your data secure, only enable the rule inputs that you need to use with URL parameters.	Toggled off
URL Parameter Name	The name used when constructing links to the page. You can change this if you want to rename a rule input and make sure existing links don't break, or if you just want to make the name shorter or more clear.	Rule input name
Default Value (optional)	The value to use whenever the URL doesn't provide a value. See Determine whether to use a default value for more information. The evaluated default value must be 100 characters or less. Otherwise, the default value will be ignored.	Null
Update URL when rule input values change	Determines whether to update the web address when rule input values change. For example, on page that has filters that work with URL parameters, the URL parameters in the web address will update with the selected filter value.	Selected*

*If the site object was originally created in an environment earlier than Appian 24.2, Update URL when rule input values change will be deselected by default.

Add a page group

Page groups allow you to group pages under a single navigation menu item. Each page group can have up to ten pages.

Before you can start adding and configuring page groups, you must add at least one page to the site object.

To add a page group to the site:

1. In the Pages section, click ADD PAGE GROUP.

2. In the Add Page Group dialog, configure the following fields.

   Field	Description
   Title	Enter the page group title to display in the navigation bar. The title can be configured as a static string or as an expression that evaluates to a string.
   Web Address Identifier	Enter the unique URL identifier for the page group that will be a part of the URL for all pages in the group. If left blank, a random alphanumeric string will be generated.
   Icon	Select an icon to display with the page group title in the navigation bar. When using Mercury style for the header bar, the icon won't display in web browsers, but will always display in Appian Mobile. By default, the file-o icon is selected.
   Visibility	Set the page group to be always visible or conditionally visible based on an expression. If Only show when is selected, the page group is only visible when the entered expression evaluates to true. Otherwise the page group and all pages in it are hidden. See visibility for more information.

3. Click ADD.
4. In the page group card, click Add Page to add pages to the page group. Only Interface page types can be added to page groups.
5. Reorder page groups or pages within the group using the and arrows.

Delete pages and page groups

To delete a page or page group, click the icon in the page or page group.

Deleting a page group will also delete all page configurations within that group. The interface objects themselves will not be deleted.

Page and page group visibility

The icon displays to the right of the page or page group title if the Visibility option is set to Only show when.

Page group visibility settings take precedence over any visibility settings for pages in that group. This means if a user does not have access to the page group, they will not be able to see any pages in that group even if they have access to the individual pages themselves.

Page hierarchy diagram

Once you've added at least one page to your site, you can view the page hierarchy diagram by clicking the sitemap icon in the Pages section. This diagram is a visual representation of what powers your site and its pages, with each related object appearing as a node. For site pages that use a process model or a report, the diagram also shows the interface behind the corresponding start form or report. Double-click an object in the diagram to open it.

Navigation Bar

This section allows you to configure the appearance and layout of the site navigation menu.

There are two different layout options that determine the styling and positioning of your site's navigation bar:

• HEADER BAR: Displays at the top of the site and offers two different style options.
• SIDEBAR: Displays on the side of the site. Page titles display with icons.

For information on making design choices for your navigation bar, see Designing Sites and Portals.

You can configure the following fields in this section:

Field	Description	Default	More Info
Layout	Select >HEADER BAR or SIDEBAR to determine the position and style of the navigation bar.	HEADER BAR	The navigation bar layout only applies to browsers. It doesn't affect sites in Appian Mobile.
Style	If the header bar layout is selected, you can choose between two different styles. The style determines if icons are displayed with page titles, which side the logo is on, and the style of the Selected Page Highlight Color. There are two styles: The Helium style displays the logo on the right and icons with the page titles. The selected page is underlined with the Selected Page Highlight Color. The Mercury style displays the logo on the left and no icons with the page titles. If a site has only one page, this style won't display a page title. The background of the selected page changes to the Selected Page Highlight Color.	Helium	The header bar style only applies to browsers. It doesn't affect sites in Appian Mobile.
Background Color	Set the background color for the navigation bar using a hex code or expression. Click TRY A DARK COLOR SCHEME to select a dark theme for your site and view the steps to apply it to your interfaces. See Using predefined dark color schemes for more information.	#46708c	For browsers, this is the background color of the navigation bar. For mobile, this is the color of the top and bottom navigation bars.
Selected Page Highlight Color	Set the color used to indicate the currently active page.	#083d5c	For header bars with Helium style, this is the underline color of the selected page. For Appian Mobile, sidebars, and header bars with Mercury style, this is the background color of the selected page.
Logo	Upload a JPG, PNG, BMP, JPEG, or GIF to display as the logo in the navigation bar. The file must have a transparent background and be less than 100 KB.	Appian logo	For header bars, the placement of the logo depends on the style: Helium style: Right side of the header bar. Mercury style: Left side of the header bar.
Logo Alternative Text	Enter descriptive text for the logo to be read by screen readers. The alternative text can be set by a logo, web address, or expression. To use either a document or web address, select Static.	Logo	You should update the default value to something that conveys the same information as the logo, such as the company or entity name or any text used in the logo. See Configuring logo and favicon images for more information.
Show site display name in navigation bar	Choose whether to show the site's display name in the navigation bar.	Turned off	This determines whether or not the Display Name of the site displays in the navigation bar. The behavior of this option depends on the selected navigation bar layout: For a header bar, this determines whether the navigation menu displays as the Display Name of the site, or the icon. For a sidebar, this determines if the site display name appears above the list of site pages. The navigation menu always displays as the icon in a sidebar layout. This setting only affects web browsers, not Appian Mobile.

Branding

This section allows you to define a consistent visual style across your site.

When you edit these configurations, the site object's branding preview automatically updates with your changes.

To ensure you are working with the most accurate representation of your interfaces, we recommend configuring the branding for your site early on in your app development. This allows you to take full advantage of the interface object Branding preview throughout your design process. When you are editing interface objects, use this menu to select the site that the interface will display in and see how your branding applies while you are designing.

For further information on configuring site branding, see Designing Sites and Portals.

You can configure the following fields in this section:

Field	Action	Default Value
Input Shape	Set the shape for input, selection, and picker fields, as well as tooltips, on all pages in the site (Squared or Semi-rounded).	Squared
Dialog Shape	Set the shape for all dialogs displayed in the portal (Squared, Semi-rounded, or Rounded).	Squared
Button Shape	Set the shape for all buttons in the site (Squared, Semi-rounded, or Rounded).	Squared
Use uppercase capitalization for button labels	Choose whether to use uppercase letters for all button labels. Turn this off if you want to control capitalization for each button component.	Turned on
Accent Color	Set the primary color for buttons, links, and other key elements. Avoid grayscale colors (black, white, and gray) as the accent color, since these are similar to colors used for interface elements. Avoid green/red colors as the accent color, since these are commonly used to indicate positive/negative values. See Configuring colors for more information.	#1d659c
Loading Bar Color	Set the color for the loading indicator. Select a loading bar color with sufficient contrast against the navigation bar color to ensure users notice it. If using a sidebar layout, select a color with sufficient contrast against the page background color used for site pages. See Configuring colors for more information.	Accent color
Favicon Image	Upload an ICO file to be used as the browser tab icon. The file must be 16x16 or 32x32 pixels and smaller than 100 KB. See Configuring logo and favicon images for more information.	Appian "a" icon
Typeface	View the current typeface for all sites and portals in the environment. Administrators can configure the typeface in the Admin Console.	Open Sans

Configuring colors

Each color field has three color configuration options to choose from:

• Default: The default color depends on your field.
• Hex Code: Select this option to define a hex code, or choose a color using the color picker.
• Expression: Select this option to dynamically set a color defined by an expression.
  • If an expression's output is an invalid hex code, the field will show the default color.

If you select a predefined dark color scheme, the values for the navigation bar color, selected highlight color, accent color, and loading bar color are all provided for you.

For more information on sites color schemes and color configurations, see the site color scheme design guidance.

Configuring logo and favicon images

The logo and favicon fields have four configuration options to choose from:

• Default: Select this to use the Appian logo.
• Document: Select this to use an image that is stored as an Appian document.
• Web Address: Select this to use a static image hosted on a web server or a content delivery network.
• Expression: Select this to dynamically display an image defined by an expression. The expression must point to a document, output a document ID (integer), or output a text value (web address). If an expression's output is invalid, the default image will display.

Branding preview

The Branding Preview is an interactive panel that allows you to visualize the navigation and branding configurations you've chosen.

It is for visual preview only and does not allow you to test functionality. It does not:

• Allow you to test the expressions, interface components, or functionality of the pages.
• Display component plug-ins. A placeholder image with a plug icon displays in their place.
• Reflect how the site will appear in Appian Mobile.

To see these settings applied to the site, save the site object and click the link under Web Address to open the site.

Troubleshoot tab

This tab allows you to view error details to help troubleshoot issues and ensure your sites are reliable. It displays up to 100 of the most recent error messages encountered by users on the site from the last 90 days.

To view more than 100 errors for a selected date range, or to search, sort, and filter them, download the site error log above the grid. This error log can display errors from the last 90 days.

Monitoring sites

Site usage and metrics

You can monitor your site by checking out site usage and metrics in your environment's logs.

Site usage is logged in <APPIAN_HOME>/logs/audit/sites_usage.csv. See Sites Usage Audit for details.

Sites metrics are logged in <APPIAN_HOME>/logs/data-metrics/sites.csv. See Sites Metrics Log for details.

Email error alerts

When users encounter errors in a site, email alerts will be automatically sent to administrators of the site object with details about the error. Click the page name to go to the site page where the user encountered the error.

Only one email will be sent per error message every hour and it is limited to 500 recipients. To see all the instances of an error, check the Troubleshoot tab in the site object or the design error log.

In order to access the system logs or the site object, you must be assigned to the Designer user role, which gives access to Appian Designer.

To receive email error alerts for a site, make sure:

• Outbound emails are turned on for the environment.
• You have Administrator permissions to the site object in that environment.

Security

Object security is configured through role maps. By default, only the creator has access.

The following table outlines the actions that can be completed for each permission level in a site's security role map:

Actions	Administrator	Editor	Viewer
View the site	Yes	Yes	Yes
View the definition	Yes	Yes	Yes
View the security	Yes	Yes	Yes
Update the definition	Yes	Yes	No
Receive email error alerts	Yes	No	No
Update the security	Yes	No	No
Delete the site	Yes	No	No

System administrators can always access a site object, regardless of object-level permissions.

To access a site, a user must have at least Viewer permissions to the site object. To view a specific page, a user must also have:

• Visibility to the site page.
• At least Viewer permissions to the object used for the page content, such as the interface or record type.

Additionally, if your site has a Process HQ page, users will need access to data fabric insights.

To access data fabric insights, users need to be members of the Data Fabric Report Creators system group. The Process HQ Users system group inherits members from the Data Fabric Report Creators system group, so report creators will automatically have access to the Process HQ workspace.

For more information, see Secure Data for Process HQ.

Considerations for configuring sites

This section provides you with guidance and tips to keep in mind while you're creating and configuring your site.

See Designing Sites and Portals for design guidelines you should follow to give your users the best user experience.

Interfaces as sites pages

Use interfaces as sites pages to create dynamic dashboards, landing pages, and custom navigation experiences for your users. For design examples and inspiration, check out our complete list of drag and drop patterns to help you craft an efficient and engaging user experience.

Only pages of type Interface can be added to page groups or use URL parameters in a!urlForSite().

Records and actions as sites pages

Configuring sites to show record news can help improve the collaboration around records. Users can collaborate on existing record news entries in sites, but not create new entries. However, records can be designed to include related actions that can generate new record entries via process.

Typefaces

You can configure a custom typeface in the Admin Console. Typefaces are universally applied to all sites and portals in the environment.

See Custom Typefaces for more information.

Using predefined dark color schemes

• The predefined dark color schemes for sites include predefined colors for the navigation bar and selected highlight color.
• When you select one of the predefined dark color schemes for your site, make sure that all of your site pages are using the same color scheme. To do this:
  • In the interface for your site page, use a header content layouts with the backgroundColor parameter set to the same color scheme used for your site: Charcoal, Navy, Plum.
  • Then, put the page's contents into card layout with the style parameter of each card layout set to the same color scheme used for your site.
• Do not use dark color scheme pages and non-dark color scheme pages together in a site. If all pages in your site don't work well with the predefined dark color schemes, you can create your own custom color scheme for your site and interfaces.
• Dark color schemes shouldn't be applied to pages used on Tempo or across multiple sites with different color schemes. Dark color schemes also do not work with the News and Related Actions tabs on records, record lists, and record related actions. If your site requires any of these, we recommend using the default white background across all site pages.

Components that aren't affected by input shape rounding

Input shape rounding is not applied to the following UI elements:

• Layouts
• Display fields
• Actions
• Grids
• Charts
• Browsers
• Record banners

Using site display names in URLs and navigation menus

After you've created a site, the web address identifier (URL) won't automatically update if you edit the site display name or define it using an expression.

Site display names appear in the navigation menu. If you use an expression to create a site display name, that expression will evaluate whenever sites in the environment load or refresh in order for the site display name to appear in the navigation menu. To avoid your sites loading slowly, don't use long-running expressions, like queries.

Manage the object

This section explains how to create, edit, and delete site objects.

Common object options

There are a few common options available across different design objects. The following options are available in a site object.

Option	Available?
Versioning	No
Renaming	Yes
Viewing Appian design guidance	Yes
Duplicating	No
Viewing performance details	No
Object overwrite protection	Yes

To view options that are available from the toolbar in Appian Designer, see Common View Elements.

Create the object

To create a site object:

1. In your application, go to the Build view.
2. Click NEW > Site.

3. In the Create Site dialog, configure the following properties:

   Property	Action
   Name	Enter a name for the object. We recommend following the Standard Object Names convention. Not visible to end users.
   Display Name	Enter a name that will be displayed in the navigation bar and the browser tab. Visible to end users. Follow the recommended naming standard for display names.
   Web Address Identifier	Specify a unique web address identifier to use in the site URL. The identifier must be unique in the Appian environment. By default, Appian constructs this property using the Name property you entered, but you can modify the identifier as needed.
   Description	(Optional) Enter a description for the object.

4. Click CREATE.
5. Review the security and update as needed, then click SAVE.

Edit the object properties

To edit the site object properties:

1. In the Build view, click the name of the site object. The object will open in a new tab.
2. In the settings menu, click Properties.

3. In the Site Properties dialog, configure the following properties:

   Property	Action
   Name	Enter a name for the object.
   Description	Enter a description for the object.

4. Click OK.

Delete the object

To delete a site object:

1. In the Build view, select the checkbox next to the object's name.
2. Click DELETE in the toolbar. System administrators can delete multiple objects at once.
3. Review the list of dependent objects before confirming the deletion. See Object Relationships for more information about the impact of deleting objects that rely on each other.

See also

• Designing Sites and Portals: Learn best practices for creating functional and beautiful sites, including guidance on branding, color schemes, and page organization.
• Using Sites: Read about the end-user experience of navigating and interacting with a site.

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