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    App Builder Capabilities & Limitations

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    OrangeHRM Administrator
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    This article summarises what App Builder can do, where it has limits, and what is not currently available, so you can plan applications with confidence and set accurate expectations. Each item is marked Supported, Supported with limits, or Not currently available.

     

    Forms

    • Multi-section forms — Supported. Use the Section Separator widget. Sections are visual only; they can't expand or collapse, and permissions apply to the whole form or to individual fields, not to sections.
    • Wide range of field types — Supported. See the widget list in the article on building an application.
    • Mandatory / optional fields — Supported. Set per field.
    • Static default values — Supported. Set per field. Not supported on Dropdown fields.
    • Help text / tooltips — Supported. Shown inline to the user.
    • Read-only fields — Supported. Any field can be Read-Only, Editable or Hidden via workflow step permissions.
    • Character limits on text — Supported. Set per text field. The Text Area maximum is 5,000 characters.
    • File upload fields — Supported. One file per field; file types follow global system settings. For multiple files, add multiple fields.
    • Conditional field visibility — Supported. Choice-based fields only (Dropdown, Radio, Checkbox).
    • Save form as draft — Supported. Add a Save step before the Submit step in the workflow.
    • Master data fields — Supported. System master data (Job Title, Location, Sub Unit, and others) can be used in dropdowns.
    • Master Data forms — Supported. Forms without a Record Owner, used to store reference data for Lookup Fields.
    • Form preview — Supported. Available after saving; there is no live preview during editing.
    • Copy / duplicate a form — Supported. Fields, workflow and templates are copied.
    • Form versioning — Supported with limits. Form fields are versioned; the workflow is not.
    • Lookup Fields — Supported with limits. Must reference a choice-based or short-text field; the source form must have no Record Owner and be published.
    • Maximum fields per form — Supported with limits. 100 fields maximum.
    • Dynamic field values — Not currently available. One field's value cannot be set from another's.
    • Calculated / formula fields — Not currently available. On the roadmap.
    • Nested (one-to-many) forms — Not currently available.
    • Page breaks / advanced layout — Not currently available.
    • Undo / redo in the designer — Not currently available. Save frequently.
    • Custom field-level validation — Not currently available. Only default system validations apply.
    • Rich media (video, iframes) — Not currently available. Static images only.
    • E-signature — Not currently available. Requires a third-party integration.

     

    Workflows

    • Linear multi-step approvals — Supported. Step 1 to Step 2 to Step 3, and so on.
    • Parallel approvals — Supported. Multiple approvers at the same stage; the first to act moves the record forward.
    • Routing by org hierarchy — Supported. Direct manager, skip-level, department head.
    • Routing to an employee on the form — Supported. Use an Employee Autocomplete field as the action owner.
    • Approve / Reject / Return actions — Supported. Each can lead to a different step; the terminology is fully configurable.
    • Approver comments — Supported. Configurable; not added automatically.
    • Withdrawal by submitter — Supported. Configurable per form.
    • Add-record permission for a role — Supported. Configured in the workflow.
    • Loop back on rejection — Supported. Can loop back more than one step.
    • Change workflow at runtime — Supported. Changes apply to in-progress records too.
    • Rename workflow steps — Supported. All steps except the first (Initial) can be renamed.
    • Conditional branching — Supported with limits. By action outcome, not by field value.
    • Workflow versioning — Not currently available.
    • Auto-approval rules — Not currently available.
    • SLA deadlines per step — Not currently available.
    • Time-based escalation — Not currently available. Escalation is action-triggered, not time-triggered.
    • Trigger from an external event — Not currently available. Must be started by a user action; no inbound webhooks.
    • Call external APIs mid-workflow — Not currently available. On the roadmap.
    • Routing by form field value — Not currently available.

     

    Permissions

    • Control who can submit — Supported. By user role or department.
    • Control who approves at each step — Supported. Configured per workflow step.
    • Control who can view submissions — Supported. Per step and per field.
    • Three permission levels — Supported. Read-Only, Editable, Hidden — at form and field level.
    • Field-level permissions per role — Supported. Different roles can see or edit different fields at each step.
    • Row-level access in lists — Supported. Governed by workflow permissions.
    • Custom roles — Supported. Any configured role can be used. System-derived roles (for example, Hiring Manager) cannot.
    • ESS self-mode — Supported. ESS permissions apply only when the user is the record owner.
    • Delegate configuration — Supported. System Admin, Global Admin, and permitted Custom Admin roles.
    • Remove a role from an adjacent step — Supported with limits. A role can't be removed from the step where it performs an action, but it can be set to read-only.
    • Restrict app by org unit — Not currently available.
    • Data-driven permissions at runtime — Not currently available. Permissions are role-based, not field-value based.
    • Auto-expiring access — Not currently available. Must be set and removed manually.

     

    Notifications

    • Email notifications — Supported. Configurable per workflow action.
    • Trigger on submit / approve / reject / return / complete — Supported. All standard workflow events.
    • Custom subject and body with tokens — Supported. Use %TokenName% syntax.
    • Multiple recipients per trigger — Supported.
    • Notify by role — Supported. For example, all users with an HR Manager role.
    • CC / BCC — Supported.
    • Notify Record Owner / Next Action Owner — Supported. When added as a subscriber.
    • Notify people outside the platform — Supported. Via an email field on the form.
    • HTML / rich formatting in the body — Supported.
    • Reminder notifications — Supported. Available from version 8.1.2 onwards.
    • In-app / bell notifications — Not currently available. Email only; there is no notification centre.
    • SMS or WhatsApp — Not currently available. Email only.
    • Attach documents to emails — Not currently available. Link to the record instead.

     

    Document templates

    • Generate documents from records — Supported. Triggered by the Document Generator widget.
    • PDF and DOCX output — Supported.
    • Token substitution — Supported. PIM tokens, common tokens and form values via %TokenName%.
    • Multiple templates per form — Supported.
    • Respects field-level permissions — Supported. Access is checked for the generating user at generation time.
    • Templates copied with the form — Supported. Included when a form is duplicated.
    • Generate from outside the platform — Not currently available. Must be initiated from within a form record.

     

    Platform limits at a glance

    • Maximum fields per form — 100.
    • Maximum characters in a Text Area — 5,000.
    • Files per upload field — 1 (multi-file upload is not supported).
    • First workflow step name — always "Initial".
    • Menu label uniqueness — must be unique across the whole platform.
    • App visibility in the sidebar — only after at least one form is published.
    • Number of bespoke apps — unlimited.
    • Supported action-owner roles — any configured Admin or Supervisor role (default or custom), plus Owner and HOD. System-derived roles are not supported.
    • Multi-language support — UI labels are configurable; form values and comments are not auto-translated.
    • Mobile support — web only; there is no mobile app.
    • Bulk submissions / import — not supported; each submission is individual.
    • Offline access — not supported; requires an internet connection.
    • Reporting & Analytics — supported from version 8.1.2 onwards for employee-based forms, under Reports & Analytics > Employee Management.

     

    Licensing

    • A single App Builder licence covers all bespoke apps — there is no cap on how many you create.
    • Bespoke apps do not need separate licences.
    • If the licence expires, access to App Builder and all bespoke apps is suspended, but all submitted data is retained intact.
    • When the licence is renewed, access and data are restored exactly as before.