CustomD: Beginner Tutorial

Create Your First Setup -- a simple journaling dashboard

In this tutorial we will create a simple setup with a dashboard so you can keep a journal. We will save it to the cloud so you can sync it to your multiple devices. Then we will add to it with geolocation and mood trackers.

* "Menu" refers to the hamburger menu in the upper left. Virtually everything in the app is available from this menu.
* Note that wherever in the app you see a question mark in a circle, you can click it for some contextual info about what the item does.

1) Create your first Tracker
a) go to Menu < Objects... < Trackers. This opens the tracker editor. A tracker is sort of like a single row in a spreadsheet or a column in a database table. 
b) Select a datatype. Go with Text for now. We can call this a journal tracker. But note the other datatype options for future.
c) At the bottom, click "save as new" and enter a name for your tracker.
  - now you have your first tracker saved locally. You can preview it and enter data by hitting the previw button at the bottom of the tracker editor. 
  - If you go to Menu > Manage > TRCK, you should see it in your list of objects. If you click on it in this list, you can begin entering data into your tracker. Or you can edit its settings using the edit button on the right.
  
2) Create your first Dashboard
a) go to Menu < Objects... < Dashboard. To open the dashboard editor. Simply hit 'save as new' and give your new dashboard a name.
b) close the dashboard editor and open the menu. You should see your new dashboard at the top of the list. Click on it to navigate to your new dashboard.
  - your new dashboard currently looks like the default app homescreen with the logo and accordion menu.
c) Add your tracker to your dashboard by going to Menu < "add item to dashboard"
d) select your tracker from the list that pops up.
  -You should now see your tracker's input on your dashboard. You can now enter data right from the dashboard. You can move your tracker around, remove it, or edit it by going to Menu < Edit Home Cards and using the controls that show up. Enter some strings of text a few times so you have some test data to work with.
  
3) Create your first Report to display your journal
a) go to Menu < Objects... < Reports
  - in the report editor you will see three rich text editors. You can enter a title or intoduction text into the first text editor.
b) the important field here is the second one. Click inside this textfield.
c) With your cursor in the second text field, click the "insert shortcode" button below the third textfield. This will open a list of possible shortcodes.
d) select 'value'. This will open another menu where you can select your tracker.
e) select your tracker, which will open yet another menu with some text modifcation options. 
f) Just click the 'create' button for now.
  - You should now see a shortcode in the second textfield that looks like this: ((value "trck your tracker name" "")). 
  - The text in this textfield will repeat once for every datapoint in your tracker. The shortcode will be converted to the actual value that you entered into your tracker's input.
  - optionally you can add more text or shortcodes. If this is a journal for example, you would likely add a date shortcode set to the same tracker, to show the date before the actual journal entry.
g) click the "save as new" button and name your new report.
  - You can hit the "preview" button to see your new report and make sure the items you entered are correctly displaying
  
4) add report to dashboard
a) go back to your dashboard and go to Menu < Add item to dashboard. Your new report should be in the list the pops up. click it to add it to the dashboard.

Now you have a simple dashboard with an input and display system for your new journal. However, currently it is only saved to your current browser on your current computer. Let's sync it to another device using a "save instance". First we need to create an account.

5) create your user account
a) go to Menu < Settings < Login button < Register tab
b) fill out your email, choose a username, enter your password into both fields
c) click the register button at the bottom
d) you may need to go back to the log in tab and log in again.

Now that you have an account, you can create saves and synchronize them to the cloud.

6) Create your first save instance
a) go to Menu < Objects... < Saves. This will open the save editor.
b) You will see a list of your objects: your dashboard, report, tracker and one additional item for your tracker's data called "data your tracker name". Select all of these items.
c) Click the "save as new" button at the bottom and choose a name for your save
  - Your tracker, report and dashboard are now saved to the cloud. For now this is just a snapshot. This save instance will NOT automatically save when you add data or change things. But we will fix that in the next step.
d) To make your save auto-save when you make updates, go to Menu < manage < save tab
e) click on your save.
f) a menu will pop up with a few options that you can do with your save.
g) click "enable quicksave"
  - your save will now auto-update to the cloud when you make updates to your dashboard, report, tracker, or the tracker data. You can now go into Menu < Settings to see your "quicksave" entry and turn on and off it's auto-update and auto-save features. Leave them on for now.
  
At this point you can go to another device, log in, find your save in the save list and enable the quicksave. Now your data and setup will be synchronized between your two devices.

At this point there are numerous other features that can be explored. Let's start by adding more complexity to the journal. We can add more datapoints to your journal via new trackers and combine them using cards.

7) create your first card
a) go back and do step 1 twice more, creating two more tracker objects. This time, select Number datatype for one tracker and geolocation for the other. 
  - Let's say the number tracker will be for your mood, a value 1-5, and the geolocation will record the location you are at whenever you make your journal entry.
b) go to Menu < Objects... < Cards. This opens the card editor.
  - note the checkbox labeled "lockTrackers". Ensure this stays checked so that the app understands that the trackers you select stay synchronized with each other.
c) click the userObjects selector. This will open a list of the objects you have created.
d) select all three of your trackers.
  - you will see your trackers display below the selector. You can reorder them if you want.
e) click "save as new" button.
f) go to your dashboard and select Menu < Edit home cards.
g) delete the tracker input on your dashboard using the trash icon that shows up in the bottom corner of the input
h) select Menu < Add Item to Dashboard and select your new card. This card is now the input for your journal, which includes the main text, the number tracker representing your daily mood, and your geolocation tracker which will automatically record your location whenever you make an entry.
 - at this point there is a bug in the app where it does not properly handle this situation where you already have data in your first tracker, but are trying to sync them into a card with new trackers without data. You will need to fix this manually by going into your tracker editor, hitting the "Edit Data" button at the bottom, then deleting all the items. Or you can find this same "Edit Data" button in the card editor for your card.
 
 Note: any objects you've created you can edit by finding them in the manage page and clicking their edit button on the right, or by opening an editor of that type and selecting it from the dropdown at the top labeled "saved [object]". You can also edit reports, cards, charts, or trackers if they are on a dashboard by clicking Menu < Edit Home Cards and selecting their edit buttons.
 
Will need to add more to this. I still need to cover:
 
 - how to create links to and share your save with other users 
 - how to manage the save's permissions so only the people you trust can access it
 - how to create links to objects in your reports so you can enter data or navigate around the app right from links in your reports
 - how to create complex math equations in your reports
 - how to use other data types like true/false, options list and single point in time (I am currently working on a file/image datatype feature.)
 - how to create charts and graphs for your number trackers
 - how to get the embed code to display a report or chart on your website using an iFrame
 - how to use the "Replace" feature so you can create saves that act as templates for others to use while giving them the ability to customize certain things
 - how to create and share themes so you can control all the colors of the app and color code it to your exact brand palette
 - how to create a new language defintion so you can easily translate the core app into whatever language you want