OnStart – How to optimize app loading experience!

Introduction

The OnStart property runs when an app starts. There are multiple use cases when it makes sense to place the code in the app's OnStart. For example,

• Setting up global variables e.g. for colors that will be used throughout the app
• Fetch and store records in a collection e.g. for offline capabilities

To read more about the App control, click here.

Tip - Start & end of OnStart!

Depending on your app, you could have a lot of code in OnStart. If so, set a variable to false at the beginning of the OnStart and then set it to true at the end of the OnStart. A pretty standard pattern is to have a loading screen that redirects users to the welcome screen. For that you will need a timer on the loading screen to navigate the user to the welcome screen. It is a good idea to make sure that all the collections and variables have been set before the user gets to the welcome screen. A simple way to ensure that is to check if the variable that was set at the beginning of the OnStart is true and only then navigate to the welcome screen.

Here is a quick summary:

App's OnStart:

Set(gblAppLoad, false); [other code here]; Set(gblAppLoad, true)

OnTimerEnd of the navigation timer on the loading screen:

If(gblAppLoad, Navigate('Welcome Screen'))

Stay tuned for the remaining 11 tips!

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