Exporting and importing team apps

A team app can be exported to a single .cosmoapp file and imported into another team, in the same organization or a different one. Use it to hand a finished app to another organization, keep a backup, or start a new app from a proven design.

Who can do it

Export, import and delete each have their own bar:

• Export — the team's owner, or any of the app's authors. The same people who can already change the app's design in place.
• Import — the team's owner only, because importing is how an app comes to exist in a team that has never seen it, the same as creating one.
• Delete — organization owners and admins only. This is the one action stricter than the rest of Team Apps, because it permanently drops the app's real database.

A person who doesn't meet the bar for a given action doesn't see its control, and the server refuses the request even if it is sent directly.

Exporting an app

Open the app menu on the app's card and choose Export. Pick what to include:

• Structure only (default): the manifest, the published version and its UI bundle, and the shape of every collection.
• Records: the rows in the app's collections.
• Files: attachments stored with those records.

The file is named after the app, for example Job Tracker (export).cosmoapp. It records the app name and version, the Cosmo version it came from, the export date, who exported it, and a checksum.

An export never contains secrets or access details: no database logins or connection strings, encryption keys, storage keys, connector tokens, user accounts or team membership. Connectors are not carried over; the importer reconnects them.

Importing an app

Choose Import app in the team's app list, pick the destination team, then choose a .cosmoapp file or drop one onto the dialog.

Cosmo checks the file before anything is created: the file type, its structure, the checksum, that this Cosmo version can read it, its size, and that the UI bundle is safe. Nothing is written yet.

The review screen then shows the app name and version, the Cosmo version and date it was exported from, what it contains (collections, records, files) and which connectors need reconnecting. When you confirm, Cosmo creates the app with a new database and new IDs, and you become its owner and author.

When the name already exists

If the destination team already has an app with the same name, Cosmo never overwrites it silently. You choose one of:

• Import as a new copy: creates a separate app, for example Job Tracker (2).
• Import as a new version: available only when the file came from that same app. It replaces the app's draft design and leaves its existing records untouched; records in the file are skipped and the summary says how many.

If something goes wrong

An import is all or nothing. If any step fails, the app, its database and any files already written are removed, and you see a plain explanation. The existing app, if you were updating one, is restored to how it was.

Deleting an app

Choose Delete from the same menu and confirm. Deleting removes the app, its versions, its files and its database, and cannot be undone. Export first if you may need it again.

Limits

• A .cosmoapp file can be up to 64 MB, with up to 20,000 records and 200 files.
• Links between records are remapped on import, but a reference stored inside a free-form json field is copied as is and is not remapped.
• Data is never imported into an existing app. To move data into an existing app, import as a new copy.