Sharing Add-on
The “Sharing” feature is becoming increasingly important as people rely more and more on technology to communicate and connect. Integrating a sharing feature into your app build can provide a range of benefits, from increasing user engagement and satisfaction to expanding your app's reach and visibility.
By allowing users to share content easily, you can create a more social and interactive experience that encourages user retention and promotes word-of-mouth marketing. In this way, a sharing feature can be a valuable addition to your app, helping you to build a stronger community and grow your user base.
Let’s jump in, so your users can start sharing until their hearts are content.
Getting Started
To begin, we enable the Sharing add-on. Then, you may need to set up a few third-party accounts, such as SendGrid (for email sharing) or Twilio (for SMS/text sharing).
- Login to Devless Admin.
- Click the Add-ons page in the left menu.
- Click the 'Sharing’ tile to open it.
- Click the ENABLE button.
- Set up third-party accounts, if necessary.
- Click the SHARING SETTINGS button.
Enabling the Sharing feature adds a “Sharing” page to the left menu of Devless Admin. If you don’t see it, expand the Add-Ons menu item to view it. This will be the most convenient way to access Sharing Settings in the future.
Next, we configure the settings for Sharing and customize messages.
Configuring Your Devless App
To configure Sharing, we select what resources to allow and then complete the details for the sharing methods desired. The available sharing methods are currently by download, email, or SMS/test (powered by Twilio). Social is coming soon!
Let’s complete the Sharing Settings page together.
Enable sharing for…
This section controls which content users share. Users can share folders by email or SMS and individual resources via all three methods. In addition, you can limit sharing to specific resource types from the picklist for greater control.
Sharing methods
After choosing what to share, toggle on the sharing methods you wish to activate. Let’s review each:
Downloads
A sharing icon will appear at the top of individual resources. When users click the icon, a pop-up prompts them to download the resource to their device.
Email
You can have the emails sent from the user's email client or the server. Sending the emails from the server means you can control the “from” address and subject/body of the emails. Sending it from the user's email client lets them send it from themselves and edit the subject and email body.
Feel free to customize the Email Body to your liking. Use the provided placeholders below the Email Body field when customizing the message.
SMS
Enter in the details from your Twilio account in the top three fields. The “Twilio from” field is where you enter the 11-digit number texts will come from (18881230987). And, ike email sharing, you can customize the Twilio Body to your liking. Use the provided placeholders below the Twilio Body field when customizing the message.
Save!
After all fields are complete, remember to click the SAVE button at the bottom to activate these settings.
Testing the Sharing Feature
Great job! The final step is to test the sharing methods to make sure they work correctly for your app’s users. This ensures users have a seamless experience and are able to easily share the content they want to. This will not only increase user satisfaction but also improve the overall functionality and reputation of your app.
What you've done is impressive! Since you're on a roll, check out our other cool add-ons you can implement, all without coding. Visit our Help Center, and we'll be your guide.
Need Help Getting Started?
Blackburn Labs is a software engineering firm that specializes in Devless support because they built it! If you have questions or simply need support, please feel free to reach out to them