What is the main difference between Studio, App Engine Studio and UI Builder?

Kenneth3 · ‎04-26-2021

Hi All,

With the release of Quebec, we have new tools like App Engine Studio and UI Builder.

I am a little bit confused which tool I can use best for developping a simple App (in my case this is a simple dashboard App that have to be available in the ServiceNow Store).

I am able to build this in Studio, but with this new tools, is it not better to use these? Will Studio slowly disappears?

Hope somebody can clarify this for me.

Thanks,

Kenneth

DirkRedeker · ‎04-26-2021

Hi

All of these tools works hand-in-hand. They do not exclude each other and you can / need to use the tools depending on your need and level of no-code / low-code / procode.

AppEngine Studio (AES) is the new No-Code /Low-Code starting point for citizen developers, which helps easily to jump-start creating new applications. There is a growing number of application templates, you can leverage to build your own custom solutions on.

The resulting artifacts, created during / with AES are also accessible and changeable through ServiceNow Studio, as each new App will be located in it's own Application scope.

It is recommended to get as far as possible with AES, but you surely can continue to extend your custom applications with Studio.

So, for more advanced pro-code development, you may (today) need to switch from AES to Studio.

I never have heard, that Studio will disappear and will be replaced by AES. As said above, AES is the one-stop shop for citizen developers, to grow into application development.

Take a look at it, it is a GREAT extension to ServiceNow!

UI Builder is just the designer tool for the new UI Experience, which was first used in Agent Workspace and now is opened more and more to the public for development. With Quebec, the UI Builder now ships with a huge number of components OOB, which you can use to build your custom workspaces.

Workspaces may, but do not need to replace the Service Portal experience in ServiceNow.

It is just the next gen environment, with a fresh new environment for building your (customer and internally facing) custom UIs. UI Builder is a great new tools, and you also can create your own custom UI Experience Components to be used IN UI Builder.

So, just like designing Classic UI Pages with UI Designer, or Service Portsl Pages with the Portal Editor, you will use the UI Builder to create and manage you New Workspace like UI Experience Pages/Sites.

In this way, UI Builder adds as a new tool to ServiceNow and does NOT replace any existing tool.

If you are interested in how to jump start building your own UIX Components, you can have a look at my article following the link below:

Article #11 - Fast Track to your first "Now Experience UI Framework Component"

Let me know if that answers your question and mark my answer as correct and helpful.

Have fun building on ServiceNow and

BR

Dirk

View solution in original post

Kenneth3 · ‎06-21-2021

Hi Dirk,

Thanks.

My goal is to build an App that is (nearly) exactly the same as how you create a dashboard in ServiceNow.

What is the best approach to create an App in ServiceNow Studio where the App is like a Dashboard?

The approach I followed till now was to create CMS pages in Studio. So I did not use a Service Portal or Workspace, because I read that was not the best way to cover my needs to build a dashboard App (but I can be wrong here).
Offcourse, depending on the best approach, how can you configure settings? For example I have a report in the App about an Adobe integration, but the customer who bought the App don't have that kind of integration. Can we configure to don't show that widget if that is the case?
Other important questions are the ability to customize the layout and design of our App within Studio.

Really curious about your answer. Have a nice day!

Kind regards,

Kenneth

Merzot · ‎06-22-2023

Hi Dirk,
What happened to your Article #11 - Fast Track to your first "Now Experience UI Framework Component" ?

Can't find it through the link or search.

Thanks,
Merzot

Community Alums · ‎01-06-2023

Hi Kenneth,

I think it's important to point out a couple of things for people reading this post, that ServiceNow are keen for people to know (and that may not have been clear when Dirks reply was published):

Workspaces aren't replacing Service Portal (right now)
Workspaces (and UI Builder) are for fulfiller experiences, whereas Service Portal is for requester experiences

Thanks,

Jason