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Your apps can now keep their data and files

· spawnpoint

A spawnpoint app can now have its own database and its own file storage. You do not need to ask for them. Your agent adds them when it builds an app that needs one: a to-do app keeps its list in a database, and a photo gallery keeps its photos in file storage.

Two apps showed us we needed them.

The first was a to-do app. A to-do list has to remember what you wrote yesterday, and keep remembering it after your agent fixes a bug and updates the app. Until now, an app kept its data in a folder on the computer it runs on. That works most of the time, but if that computer is ever replaced, the folder goes with it. A database lives apart from your app's computer, so your list is still there whatever happens to it.

The second was someone who tried to upload repair manuals for a Honda S2000, a stack of PDFs, to their app. Until now, every file went through the app and was saved on the computer it runs on, which is meant for running the app. File storage is meant for files. They go straight from your browser into storage, and there is much more room.

Your app's data and files belong to that app alone. No other app can open them, including your own other apps. They are kept when your agent updates the app, and they are deleted only when you ask. Your agent has to check with you before it removes a database or file storage, because what is in them cannot be brought back. Deleting an app deletes its database and files with it.

Files are private unless you ask for them to be public. A public file can be opened by anyone who has its link, even if you have not shared the app with them. That suits a photo gallery for everyone. If a file is only for the people you shared the app with, keep it private.

On the free plan, an app's database can hold 512 MB and its file storage 1 GB. On Pro, which is $50 a month, they can hold 4 GB and 25 GB. If an app goes over, nothing is deleted. It stops saving new things until you delete some or upgrade, and your agent sees a note about it the next time it checks on the app.