Use the preview

The preview is not a picture of your app. It is the app itself, running. When you add a record in the preview, it is saved in your app's database. When crisp changes a file, the preview reloads by itself.

The preview controls#

• Back and Forward move through the pages you visited in the preview, like a browser.
• Reload loads the current page again.
• The path bar shows which page you are on, such as /bookings, and follows along when you click links in your app. Type another path and press Enter to go there.
• Desktop, Tablet and Phone change the size of the preview, so you can check how your app looks on other screens. With Tablet or Phone chosen, Turn shows the screen sideways. These buttons are hidden on a phone, where the preview already has a phone width.
• Open in a new tab opens your app on its own, in a full browser tab.

When something breaks#

When your app hits an error, a card appears at the bottom of the preview. It says in plain words what broke and on which page, and the file and line where it happened. Technical detail shows the exact error. The same error is shown once, with a count, however often it happens. The card shows errors in the page, errors on the server, and requests that failed on the server.

• Fix it asks crisp to fix the error. crisp gets the error, the page and the file, so you do not have to describe it. Nothing happens until you press it.
• While crisp is building, there is no button: crisp already sees errors in the preview while it works and fixes them before it finishes.
• If the same error comes back after two fixes, the card offers Try a different approach instead: crisp steps back and plans another way, because trying the same fix again would only cost more.
• Press the cross to dismiss an error, or the arrow to make the card smaller.

What the messages in the preview mean#

If the preview stays blank or shows an error, see The preview does not load.

The preview and your live app#

The preview is for trying the app while you build it. It may be asleep, or show a half-finished change while crisp is working. When you want other people to use your app, publish it: your live app has its own address and its own data. See Publish your app.