Combine Skills into an Application

An Application packages one or more Skills into something you schedule, trigger, version and promote. The Skills are joined by the same waits, approvals and branches as the steps inside a Skill.

Build the Application

1. Create it

   Open Build›Applications, select New Application and click Untitled Application to name it.

2. Add Skills

   Drag Skills from Skills in the palette onto the canvas. Connect them, and add any Wait, Human approval or other block from Control flow, just as in a Skill.

   

3. Choose which version of each Skill it runs

   Select a Skill on the canvas. Under Version:

   • Always latest takes over each new version of the Skill automatically. The version in Production only changes when you promote.
   • A fixed version never changes on its own.

   See When a Skill changes.

4. Pass the values on

   Parameter mapping lists the Skill's inputs. An input with the same name as one of the Application's inputs is passed through by itself. Use Static to fix a value for this Application, or Mapped to take it from another step. Inputs in the header shows what a person or a trigger must provide. See Make a Skill reusable.

5. Save

   Select Save. Promote a version to Production before your alarms rely on it: see Versions, staging and production.

An Application can also hold several Skills that each start on their own, for example one per kind of alarm. Skills in this Application above the canvas switches between them, and Save saves them all together.

Decide where it runs

Select the button in the header that reads Global to open Access & Deployment.

Under Deployment, choose which device a run uses when nothing else names one:

Choice	Runs on
Chosen by Dispatch Rules	The device your Dispatch Rules pick.
Auto-select from a theatre	An online device stationed at the site you pick.
Fixed asset	Always the one device you pick, from a site.

Access, which organizations may run the Application, is set by a system administrator.

Move it to another installation

1. Export

   Open the version to move and select Export. Under Encryption, keep This installation's key to import it here again, or choose Passphrase to move it elsewhere. Share the passphrase separately. The console downloads a .zqnt file.

2. Import

   On the other installation, select Import on Build›Applications, choose the .zqnt file, enter the passphrase if there is one, and select Check file. Command dependencies lists what the devices there must be able to do. Select Import.

Troubleshooting

• A Skill on the canvas says it was not found. The Skill it points to was deleted. Remove the node and add the Skill again.
• The import lists a command dependency as breaking. The devices on this installation can't do something the Application needs. Connect such a device, or change the Application first.
• Fixed asset lists no devices. Station the device at the site first. See Sites and no-fly zones.

Next steps