App tiles in Landing page

Overview

App Tiles pulling in external data can now take advantage of a standardized caching layer, cutting external API call volume, reducing backend load, and improving load times for end-users. This is a performance change under the hood, there is no overall change to how App tiles function or appear on landing pages. This chapter covers what's new for App Tile caching, how to configure caching duration, the caching configuration panel, and the refresh controls that give users and App Managers visibility and control over data freshness.

What’s new for App tiles in Landing page

Previously, every App tile fetched fresh data from its external source on each load, driving high API call volume and slower load times.

Shared, Redis-backed caching. External App Tile data is now stored in a shared cache instead of being fetched fresh on every load. This is what significantly reduces external API call volume, in some cases from over a million repeated calls down to a fraction of that. Configurable at multiple levels. Caching duration is not one size fits all. It can be set at the API action level, the tile level, or the tile instance level, with more specific levels taking precedence over broader ones. Freshness stays visible and controllable. Reduced call volume does not mean users lose control. A last refreshed timestamp, a manual refresh option, and a global reset tool are all part of the same release.

Configuring caching duration

To configure caching duration, go to the app's configuration screen and locate the caching settings for the API action, tile, or tile instance you want to control. The configuration flow includes:

Level selection. Choose whether the setting applies at the API action level, the tile level, or the tile instance level. Quick select duration. Pick from common absolute intervals such as 1 minute, 5 minutes, or 15 minutes. Scheduled duration. Instead of an absolute interval, set the cache to refresh on a recurring schedule, weekly on a specific day and time, or monthly on a specific date and time. Save your changes and the new duration applies the next time the existing cache for that action, tile, or instance expires.

Refresh controls on the tile itself

Alongside the configuration panel, App Tiles now expose refresh controls directly to end-users and App Managers, without requiring a trip back into the app's configuration screen:

Last refreshed timestamp. Every cached App Tile displays when its data was last refreshed, so users can judge how current what they're seeing is. Manual refresh. For dynamic, user-specific tiles, users can refresh their own cached data on demand, independent of the configured cache duration and without affecting what other users see. Global cache reset. App Managers have access to a system tool that forces a global cache reset for an app, clearing cached data across all of its API actions, tiles, and tile instances at once.