Best practices: Building a page through Page Configuration or IFS Developer Studio?

I’d use IFS Developer Studio for packages which will become part of deliveries, where you register pull requests against the customer solution repository. They’ll need downtime to deploy and will become part of your ecosystem.  The ACP deployment only using page designer / page configuration (nobuild) is an option for minor changes when they can be deployed without downtime, but these will NOT become part of the solution (i.e. when you request a DEV environment in buildplace you’ll have to re-deploy the changes every time). This fits both worlds. 

​@jamie.malangyaon   Hi Jamie!

There is some pretty useful information in the Tailoring Guide about when to choose configuration over customization.

https://docs.ifs.com/techdocs/24r2/040_tailoring/100_tailoring_overview/

We have found that customizing using IFS Developer Studio yields a more robust solution. 

• The customization is made a part of your repository.
• You can refer to the custom fields in reports and other utilities.
• You don’t need to struggle with conflicts and unexpected results when various Application Configuration Packages are delivered.

If you do go with a Page Configuration, you must add the configuration to an Application Configuration Package (ACP).  That package must be committed to your repository with a pull request and should be tested with a topic build just like any other change.   The ACP will then be delivered to your Use Places.

You may be able to use Conditional Formatting to hide certain values on a page.  I have not used that functionality for Cloud.  You’ll probably get more responses addressing that last question.

https://docs.ifs.com/techdocs/24r2/060_development/022_user_interface/030_aurena_dev/130_aurena_component_reference/120_client_controls/conditional_formatting/

#3 is documented here: Conditional Fields - Technical Documentation For IFS Cloud

​@jamie.malangyaon 

for #1 I would make the decission based on the purpose of the new page.

1. If you want to create new features/functionality, meaning that your page will also have some business logic (commands that do some actions), then I’d go for IFS Developer Studio where I’d develop the client file + projection + any PL/SQL entities/logic needed

2. If all you wanna do is a simple page with a bunch of fields where users could create new records/edit existing records then I’d go for Page Configurations.

From what I’ve seen, most customers need some pages in IFS Cloud to store some data that would be later on pulled into some reporting (quick reports / BI), with no real business logic behing that data.

Thank you all for your responses, this is great information and suggestions. I have a much better understanding of which approach to take when editing or creating a page. I wish I could mark more than one comment as the best answer.