FAQ

Here you can find answers to your questions about Bonita UI Builder.

Bonita UI Builder

What is Bonita UI Builder?

Bonita UI Builder (sometimes abbreviated UIB) is a development environment used for creating all kinds of interfaces, whether they are pages or forms or else, that make up an Application. It is a web-based tool that is launched from a Bonitasoft custom docker image. It is the new and only standard used in the Bonita ecosystem for designing interfaces.

What does it mean for my workflows?

There should be no change in your logic, continuous integration, and workflows. You can still manage them the way you’re managing them today. Just download the docker image and follow the initiation manual.

How to subscribe?

Bonita UI Builder is available by default and for no additional cost in all Scale subscriptions. It is also available as a payable add-on in Access subscriptions.

How to use?

Please refer to the initiation manual. If you have any other additional questions, reach out to our Support team.

Can I expect any support from Bonitasoft?

Yes, you can!

  • Support and resources: We offer extensive documentation, tutorials, and support to help you make the most of Bonita UI Builder.

  • Facilitated transition: We are dedicated to facilitate the transition, with detailed guides on how to use Bonita UI Builder, as well as professional services support.

I am using the Open source edition of Bonita, can I use Bonita UI Builder?

Unfortunately, no. You’ll need to either use Bonita UI Designer or design your interfaces with the language or tool of your choice and integrate them to Bonita. Upgrade to an Access or Scale edition if you want to use Bonita UI Builder.

Is Bonita UI Builder compatible with all supported versions of Bonita?

Bonita UI Builder is compatible with all Bonita versions starting from 2024.3.

What is an applicationLink?

It is a tag used to describe an Application made with Bonita UI Builder in the Studio’s Application descriptor.

Can I use other datasources than Bonita’s?

Yes you can. You can call external REST APIs, GraphQL APIs and PostgreSQL database.

Avoid using the DB datasource to connect to a Bonita database. Use the Bonita API datasource instead.

How do Bonita UI Builder and Bonita UI Designer compare?

Feature Bonita UI Designer Bonita UI Builder

Widgets

~25

~45

Custom widgets

Yes

Yes

Downloadable array data

Yes (custom code)

Yes (native)

Form’s auto-generation from a contract

Yes

Yes in a future release

Themes

Yes (using CSS bootstrap 3)

Yes (native feature)

Custom code

Yes (HTML, CSS, JS)

Yes (HTML, JS, custom JS libraries)

Code completion

No

Yes

Native debugging options

No

Yes

Application import/export

Yes

Yes (JSON)

Page components' hierarchy

No

Yes

Page preview

Yes

Yes

Undo/redo, copy/paste

No

Yes

Stack

AngularJS

React

Philosophy

Form-centric

App-centric

Works best for…​

Quick development tests, simple use cases

Fully-fledged applications, complex use cases

What does it mean for my existing forms and pages?

Your existing forms and pages will always be compatible with Bonita. Eventually, Bonita UI Designer will be phased out as we fully transition to Bonita UI Builder. We cannot guarantee you will be able to edit your existing interfaces made with Bonita UI Designer in the future versions of Bonita.

Our goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible, minimizing any disruption to your workflow:

  • Continued access: Bonita UI Designer will remain fully operational for an extended period, allowing ample time for adaptation.

  • Support and resources: We offer extensive documentation, tutorials, and support to help you make the most of Bonita UI Builder

  • Facilitated transition: We are dedicated to facilitate the transition, with detailed guides on how to use Bonita UI Builder, as well as professional services support

Are the interfaces made with Bonita UI Builder compatible with platform mode and self-contained applications?

Yes, they are compatible with both deployment modes.

Is Bonita UI Builder Bonita Cloud compatible?

Yes, it is. Reach out to your customer service representative to explore how you can migrate to Bonita Cloud.

Is it possible to deploy multiple UI Builder node instances for redundancy?

No, the UI Builder node cannot be deployed with redundancy. Currently, only a single container instance is supported, which means multiple instances for redundancy are not allowed.

Can multiple users collaborate on the same local Bonita UI Builder development server?

No, the local Bonita UI Builder server is mono-user, meaning it only supports one Bonita user account at a time. To collaborate, each user should run their own local server and work with a shared Git repository for syncing and integrating their changes.

Troubleshooting

My application link is incorrect when accessing the Application Directory from my custom application.

Application has incorrect Link

Cause If you have customized e.g. the Bonita User Application, you may be using an old version of the layout.

Application with old layout

In that case, the Application Directory opened from that application only will not display Application Links correctly, but the same way as Legacy Applications.

Solution Fix this by using custompage_layoutBonita as the layout value, which will automatically migrate to the latest layout.

You may also encounter this issue if you use a customized layout instead of the official one. In that case, update your application’s layout by re-applying your modifications to the latest layout version that implements the improvements for Application Links.

The same applies to the Application directory page that is used in the default application directory app: if you use a customized version of it, you need to re-apply your changes on the latest version packaged with Bonita runtime.

I am running Bonita with Windows and Bonita UI Builder with WSL does not work.

Cause When using Windows and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), the localhost URLs do not have the same IP address.

  • From Windows, localhost is automatically redirected to Linux WSL when needed.

  • From Linux WSL, you need to use a specific IP address to access to Windows.

Solution Once you know that specific IP address, if Bonita is hosted on Windows, you must adapt the docker-compose.yml to use it instead of host.docker.internal where Bonita is concerned.

Set the following environment variables: * BONITA_API_URL under the bonita-ui-builder service. * BONITA_HOST under the bonita-ui-proxy service.

I’m encountering 500 or 502 errors in UIB. What do these errors mean?

Cause These errors are likely related to your Bonita server being down.

Solution Ensure that your Bonita server is active and running.

The Document Viewer widget doesn’t seem to be functioning as expected. How can I view my documents?

Cause The Document Viewer widget currently doesn’t support the Bonita Document viewer links (formsDocumentImage).

Solution You can use an Iframe widget as an alternative solution.