New to OutSystems, but completed the course, and now you are not really sure what you have to do?
Well, OutSystems is a platform that doesn’t look very diverse, but there are hundreds of things, if not thousands, to explore inside Service Studio alone. But exploring all those features could be overwhelming for a beginner, even when they had walked on the path of a guided course, which is becoming a web developer.
So if you wanted to know what the forge components are, which you should explore as a beginner, then you have landed on the right blog. In this blog, we will discuss the 5 most important Forge components for beginners, which they must explore for better understanding.
As a low-code platform, OutSystems did its best to empower the developers, but still, there are some of the shortage of features in it, and that’s when the community of OutSystems decided to take the matter into their own hands, and they created almost all of the components that could be needed for a developer to make a full-fledged application easily.
So, before we dive into the ocean of knowledge and the most valuable pearls like components, let’s first discuss what are the topics we are going to explore in this blog.
What is Forge?
The Froge in OutSystems serves as a place, or more suitably a marketplace, where a user, or we can say developer, can find thousands of OutSystems components, connectors and widgets created by experts of OutSystems worldwide, making it a precious inventory for the community.
In other words, we can say that the Forge in OutSystems is like an app store where you can find all the applications that you can use on your device, when they are not built-in.
Why Forge Components Matter?
Forge components increase OutSystems’ capabilities by giving the community the liberty to create or use the extended functionalities in their applications without any need to make them from scratch.
Forge not only increases the efficiency of the developer, but it also helps them to save their precious hours of productivity by just using a functionality that is already there in Forge.
5 Most Important Forge Components
Now, let’s get to the juicy stuff of the blog, the most important part. What are those top 5 important Forge Components, which I personally recommend every developer should be familiar with?
Datagrid
Tables are an efficient way to represent a large amount of data in OutSystems, but still, they have some drawbacks, one of which is handling the large amount of data and performing the dynamic filters.
The key components are as follows:-
– Built for Reactive Web apps
– Data selection and editing in a familiar interface
– Data sorting by parameter
– Data grouping
– Virtual Scrolling
Want to try this Forge Component, click here. https://www.outsystems.com/forge/component-overview/9764/outsystems-data-grid-o11
## Advanced Excel
Not every client wants to use the in-built database of OutSystems, or there are mostly the time, clients want to export a large amount of data in Excel with some of the columns with dynamic calculations.
While OutSystems provide the import and export feature of data from/ to Excel, it is limited to it.
But while using the Advanced Excel, you can integrate the import/ export files and can form the custom changes according to the requirement. This Froge Component is mostly used when there is a custom design or format for exporting the data in Excel.
Try this component, click here. https://www.outsystems.com/forge/component-overview/355/advanced-excel-o11
## Ultimate PDF
Every business model deals with PDFs at some point or the other, and the client expects you to know how to download a certain page or template as a PDF, especially dynamically.
And for the same, Ultimate PDF is one of the best and most commonly used Forge components.
To try this component, click here. https://www.outsystems.com/forge/component-reviews/5641
pdfJS Viewer Reactive
When there is data, there are times when users want to ensure that they have uploaded the right documents or downloaded the right document, so where there is an upload requirement, every project demands a preview to ensure the accuracy of data.
While OutSystems don’t have a dedicated feature for that, this Froge component is the one that solves all these issues.
To download this component, click here. https://www.outsystems.com/forge/component-overview/7529/pdfjs-viewer-reactive-o11
## React File Pond Upload
Not only a document is needed to upload or download but there are times when multiple downloads and uploads are required, and no matter what, the client is not ready to alter its requirement.
While this task sounds tricky and you might be imagining the number of loops you need to apply to achieve it, this is not as difficult as it seems.
With React File Pond, you can achieve the following functionality.
– Multiple file upload
– Asynchronous file upload
– Instant or click to upload
– Automatic file upload (no submit button required)
– Disable the submit button while files are uploading
– Select file via browse or drag/drop
– Image preview
– Image editing (purchase of [Doka image editing library](https://gumroad.com/a/528594035) required)
– Restrict to specific MIME types
– Maximum file size
– Maximum number of uploaded files
To download this component, click here. https://www.outsystems.com/forge/component-overview/7405/reactfilepondupload-o11
Conclusion
OutSystems Forge is one of the most important parts of the OutSystems development process as it transforms the problems that arise from the low-code platform into opportunities by providing reusable, community-suggested tools and functionality that are no less than assets for the platform, which mostly provides connectors, dashboards, and UI Widgets.
So, start experimenting in Service Studio today, download all these components and get familiar with them, as you will surely need them in the future while serving the clients.
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Happy Coding !!!
