Design custom business apps using the app designer

This topic applies to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises). For the Power Apps version of this topic, see: Create, edit, or configure forms using the form designer

Custom business apps are comprised of components such as entities, dashboards, forms, views, charts, and business processes.

The app designer helps you bring together all these components quickly. Its tile-based information structure and simplified interface make the process of building an app much easier, and you can create apps that are specific to your business roles and functions without having to write any code.

Each app that you create can have its own site map with the integrated and easy-to-use site map designer. Just drag and drop areas, groups, and subareas to the canvas. Components that you select in the site map are also added as entities in the app designer.

You can add or remove entities as necessary, and also add other components.

Once you're done adding components, you can validate your app to check if you have missed adding any required components, add those, and then publish the app for users.

The following table shows the steps you'll take to create an app.

Step	Description	Related topics
	Define app properties.	Create or edit an app
	Define navigation for an app using the site map designer.	Create a site map for an app
	Apps are composed of components like dashboards, entities, business process flows, forms, views, and charts. Include the required ones in your app by using the app designer.	Add or edit app components
	Check your app for any required components you haven't added.	Validate an app
	Make the app available for use.	Publish an app
	Give users access to the apps you created by using security roles.	Manage access to apps with security roles

Support matrix for the app designer and site map designer

The following table shows the supported operating systems and browsers.

Browser/OS	Windows 10	Windows 8.1	Windows 8	Mac OS X
Microsoft Edge	Yes
Internet Explorer 11	Yes	Yes
Internet Explorer 11 Modern		Yes
Internet Explorer 10			Yes
Internet Explorer 10 Modern			Yes
Mozilla Firefox	Yes	Yes	Yes
Google Chrome	Yes	Yes	Yes
Apple Safari				Yes

See Also

Create and manage custom business apps in Customer Engagement using code