How to quickly create elements using only drag and drop?
Someone wise once said, “I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” … or something.
I’m a lazy person, nice to meet you :) and I love figuring out ways to make my life easier. So I’m here to share some ways to speed up and make your developer life easier too.
Let’s go over a few tricks to create new elements and automatically relate them to other existing elements.
Logic elements
- When a variable of type entity identifier is dragged into the logic flow, it turns into an aggregate filtered by that variable.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758dba614335afaec904_MXl3l20AetXcxxZH5IhnYLmZ_FvZ4wLkpfDBjwhXtaLI6Io0ygTPCVN2Nkyhx2ep2aZm01-ggFBF9dy--IuwUcmjiw_4K4iYDHz5rkNC6akeVu2uWOGi2QgvdVoS6vMNUV98qIGN.png)
- We can also open the data layer and drag an entity into the logic flow to create aggregates. It generates a simple query over the dragged entity. If filters are required, it’s possible to add them after the drag and drop.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758d0c7e2a36b7b3827a_mBHwqivnTtzruzC0OIIdXCMYC7vJXWsaNE6179c-3zBPfDeiVal7nUorhBn-nYcoPkSI5A3ZtBV9BPg2BFd-C2WLZb86kf6ciZOCWESpUZpWwECFXRYxBVtL1OD5UgOiokzF7IcC.png)
- Then, to quickly create an if node, drag a variable of type boolean into the action flow. The If is created with the dragged variable as its condition.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758d0c7e2a1d16b38278_x5N-sKhvejnm6wpxVy6BgAIfvAJ-hSgHM7_gaLe6-5kUfdKZh_6QyuulPvSQKI2wL3RKcABWEKbQuQ88dzDrn7b1sYw6r8-Ztr0lYhza30KQOlzzevAR4HXfvNphWOyhsr8_7_Wo.png)
- Dragging other types of variables into the logic flow is also possible: When we do that, the platform creates an assign node to set the variable’s value.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758d39128566bcba4eb5_VMY_GB1STFCH47GLwDiCzxiMv6Jxbo1RqRoFlpclDCzKO5hhD528zRdt4_S6GIATmrdcWFxGIJrKxl2tAl4d98L7TtQuTiAhCTrpIpu0gWkVm5vDdSijOrtpfnBRTk9-w2vvw2AO.png)
Interface Layer
- When we have a screen action and want to create a button to execute it on click, dragging that action into the screen turns it into a button linked to that action.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758df12a5cf57722ec49_9LgkN7-JyAd4mu1ThPSD9wFHuWmTils7gAvMlWd7wZrROk5BPRUFyZfk8-DcJICF4EIjjz8r4Z551JMKd2mH5We14_6L8plugpZ7FAb_9PePsz1WjpPPhnvcKq_m7Hvx4p16GD7Y.png)
Additionally, double-clicking an existing button creates a screen action linked to it.
- And of course, one of the most famous drag and drops: drag an entity to a UI flow to quickly scaffold the list and detail screens for that entity.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758dede087596f7ee16b_3eXEYzqh9WNPny5M_-Ln0L1FFiCjAaO9LJa-zIHzMsaNTbi58KMTSburXDaw-VZq9b9khFCsJh1f8U0b7i-JWV2Ft9i3lv2AdGp5q6uExuLzXBS3kWoqlVwHiOkEmCCDUNC1gLyR.png)
- At last, if we change the previously scaffolded entity by adding a reference identifier attribute to it, it's possible to easily create a way for the user to edit that value. Since this is a reference attribute, we want to let the user choose from an existing list of options: iIn the detail screen of this entity, drag the new attribute to the form to create the dropdown list.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758e8a35cf0f5d02233f_ofaatl_2Ivh5iBh_g6QJRl0I5X3_xBEl8J-zd8guPQ1duTd3m5GNgp9D7DccEAieV2RDPfpRIEZCMyOrORNv6712JOwKqf0FdyK_7i3GT2ijf_6-OZB565Uz3xxdSzy-0RaAzCMQ.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60a67935233c0d08098719d3/6213758dc46baec0b6274738_-wh0wvMcgePZM5AWvucl2DlgtgzL8XQ5sVq6dlY_iui6xpx9RWX1AgHPqfkO0oF1S4BBbg_2_xrO76Ywojo-Bw4XM4JTeQxG82gBdBhMtETKuAvgTnES-uc3xJ9pCwKeLGOTfEbw.png)
These are just some of the accelerators I use in my everyday work routine, and now you can too.
And this is just one small yet significant step to becoming a supersonic developer with Outsystems!