Installation

TAF Studio is a desktop application built on the VS Code engine, currently packaged for Windows. Request access and we will send the installer for your environment.

1. Run the installer.
2. Open Studio and choose Sign in from the Accounts menu.
3. Sign in with your TechAppForce account, the same one you use at techappforce.io. Your token is kept in the operating system's secure storage and refreshed automatically.

Studio checks for updates shortly after it starts and then regularly, and updates itself.

Install and launch

TechAppForce provides Studio directly. Install it from the installer you were given, or unzip the build to a folder of your choice, then launch TAF Studio.

When asked, choose a folder to work in. Any empty folder will do. Studio keeps a working copy of your app there, in a .taf sub-folder: objects, queries, screens, lifecycles, workflows, scripts, reports and the rest, each carrying the platform ids needed to publish changes back.

Sign in and choose an app

• Click Sign In at the top right of the window, or run TAF: Sign In from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).
• Enter your TechAppForce username (or email) and password.
• Studio opens the app you administer. If you administer more than one, pick one. To change later, click your name in the title bar and choose Switch App, or use File › Switch App….

Signing out clears the local copy of the app. You are warned first, and nothing on the platform changes. If your session expires, everything stays on disk; sign back in and carry on.

Connect a database

Each app keeps its data in its own database, and Studio reaches that database through the platform. When you create a new app, the wizard asks for the database connection. If you choose Connect later, the app is created without one, and App Home shows that the app has no database yet. Until a database is connected, nothing can be created in the app or read from it.

• Use File › Connect Database…, choose the database type (PostgreSQL or SQL Server) and enter the server details.
• Studio tests the connection before saving it.
• Then run TAF: Load latest from platform to read the parts of the app that were skipped.

Your first look around

After sign-in, App Home opens. It shows which app you are in, what it contains, what you touched recently and what still needs publishing, plus a Build a feature checklist that walks the natural build order. From there:

• Open the TAF Studio icon in the left bar to see the explorer of every object, query, screen and more.
• Open a query and run it to see real rows from your app.
• Open a screen and switch to the designer to see it as your users do.

The next page, Explorer and designers, covers each of these in detail.

Settings

Open settings with TAF: Studio Settings, or the gear at the bottom left, then Settings › TAF Studio. There are two groups:

• TAFI holds the AI assistant settings: provider and model, where the panel docks, the gateway address and voice input and output. See Use TAFI from AI clients.
• Platform holds the service addresses for your TechAppForce environment. Your administrator sets these, and they are hidden unless you choose Advanced in the settings filter.

If something goes wrong

• The app does not start. Re-run the installer or unzip the build again. If it still fails, note the exact message for your TechAppForce contact.
• “Not signed in, or no app selected”. Click Sign In, then pick an app with File › Switch App….
• “This app has no database yet”. Connect one with File › Connect Database…, then load the latest from the platform.
• A designer could not load something. Studio reads live data and never shows made-up data. Check that you are signed in and online, then load the latest from the platform.
• Anything else. Run TAF: Show Recent Requests or TAF: Show Recent Logs and pass the item, what you did and the message to your administrator.