Migrate from Airplane.dev to Superblocks
Superblocks is a low-code platform for developers to build custom enterprise-grade internal apps at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional development.
Similar to Airplane, you can use Superblocks to build custom UIs and dashboards, and automate business processes with schedules and workflows. With Superblocks you don't need to know React or how to write complex code-like task definitions. Simply use Superblocks’s drag-and-drop UI and APIs builders to create beautiful user experiences and robust business logic faster than ever before.
In this guide, you’ll learn how core concepts in Superblocks translate to the features you’re familiar with in Airplane. We’ll also cover how to migrate Views, Tasks, and Schedules from Airplane to Superblocks.
To see all the core concepts of Superblocks, see:
5 min Quickstart Guide
Create your first Superblocks app in just 5 minutes.Core Concepts
Explore core concepts and features so you'll be building your own tools in no time.Pre-Migration
Before you start migrating your tasks and views to Superblocks, you’ll want to prepare your organization to start building internal tools in Superblocks.
Setup your Superblocks org
If you haven’t already, Sign up for Superblocks to create a new Superblocks organization. Once you have a Superblocks organization, you can invite members to your organization to help migrate your tasks and views from Airplane.
Choose a hosting option
Superblocks Application APIs, Workflows, and Scheduled Jobs all run server-side using Superblocks’ stateless and lightweight agent architecture.
Customers can choose between two hosting options for the agent:
- Cloud - Superblocks Cloud agents execute server-side code and act as a proxy to your Integrations. Superblocks sends data back to the browser and never stores your customer data keeping your data secure.
- On-Premise Agent - your self-hosted Superblocks agents execute server-side code and connect directly to your Integrations. Customer data never leaves your VPC.
Review your infrastructure requirements and choose the hosting option that meets your organization’s needs. For more help choosing a hosting option, see the guides below:
On-Premise Agent Architecture
Discover how the Superblocks On-Prem Agent provides top-notch data security, performance, and extensibility without the hassle and high costs of traditional On-Premise software.Agent Deployment Guide
Learn how to deploy the Superblocks on-premise Agent to keep all customer data in your VPC.Evaluate Airplane.dev usage
Before building in Superblocks you’ll want to review your team’s current Airplane.dev usage. Identify the tasks and views that are actively in use that you want to migrate. Document each task’s resources, permissions, and other configurations.
You’ll also want to document any critical settings, project structures, 3rd party dependencies, and custom configurations that you want to replicate in Superblocks.
Migration
Connect to your data
Superblocks connects to your data through Integrations. Integrations are similar to Resources in Airplane, letting you easily configure connections to external systems. Once configured, Integrations can be used in Application APIs, as well as Workflows and Scheduled Jobs.
Integrations can connect using credentials entered directly in the Superblocks UI, by fetching credentials from a Secrets Manager, using a Workflow, or with Environment Variables if using the Superblocks On-Premise Agent.
Integrations Overview
Learn how to read and write data to any of your business systems, including databases, APIs, and more with Integrations.Integration Library
Browser Superblocks' catalogue of 50+ pre-built Integrations and discovery how to get connected in minutes.Secrets Management
Securely fetch credentials and passwords from your Secret Managers with Superblocks.Migrate Views
Views in Airplane let you create customer user interfaces for your team to interact with your business systems. In Superblocks, instead of Views, you’ll build Applications.
Unlike Airplane, Applications in Superblocks are built using an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Build beautiful UIs quickly without any frontend code with Superblocks’s built-in Component Library or port over your custom React components build in Airplane by using Custom Components.
Components receive data from Application APIs which are similar to Tasks in Airplane. APIs can be used by a single or multiple components and can be run at different times, for example:
- On Page Load
- Based on user interactions with Event Handlers
- On some interval using Timers
- Based on events consumed from a Stream to create real-time applications
Similar to Airplane, you can customize the styling and layout of your Application’s interface with Themes and Layouts. Instead of managing these in code, you’ll use the Superblocks App Builder to quickly and easily update settings across your Application.
Application Quickstart
Create your first Superblocks app in just 5 minutes.Application Guide
Learn how to build web pages, dashboard, and mission-critical apps that power your business using Superblocks Applications.Component Library
Browser Superblocks' library of drag-and-drop Components. Build beautiful user interfaces quickly, no React required.Migrate Tasks
The equivalent of Airplane Tasks in Superblocks are Application APIs and Workflows. Both Application APIs and Workflows are multi-step processes that run server-side before returning some output.
- Application + Application APIs are great when you want to give your users an input form that they'll use to execute a process, or for building robust internal applications that can be used to execute many tasks.
- Workflows can be used for processes users should be able to execute from multiple Applications, or that are triggered from a 3rd party service using a webhook.
Unlike Tasks in Airplane, Application APIs and Workflows can be made up of many steps, including steps that:
- Read and write data to your business systems using Integrations
- Run custom code using Python or JavaScript
- Represents complex business logic using Control Blocks, including conditions, loops, parallels, error handling, and more
APIs and Workflows are developed and tested from within the Superblocks editor and are then deployed with Version Control.
Workflows Guide
Learn how to create automated processes that can be triggered from anywhere.Backend Logic
Explore how to build custom business logic in backend APIs using Control Blocks.Writing Code
Extend your backend APIs infintely by writing code in Python or JavaScript.Migrate Schedules
Schedules in Airplane can be migrated to Scheduled Jobs. Scheduled Jobs are similar to Workflows in that they can contain multiple steps to create custom business logic. The difference is that Scheduled Jobs can be configured to run on a recurring schedule.
The schedule for your process is set and managed from the Superblocks UI. Scheduled Jobs can even be paused and resumed at the click of a button from the Superblocks homepage.
Configure Source Control
To manage changes to your Superblocks Applications, Workflows, and Scheduled Jobs from a Git repository, set up Source Control with Git.
From your organization's settings, you can connect to your GitHub or GitLab repository. Once an initial version of your apps, workflows, and jobs are in the connected repository you’ll have access to branches in the Superblocks UI.
Source Control provides a bi-directional sync between Superblocks and your git repo. Create a commit in Superblocks to push changes from the Superblocks editor to Git, or push commits directly to your Git repo and sync changes to Superblocks using a CI-based workflow.
When your changes are approved and ready to deploy, use Superblocks' built-in Version Control to make your changes live.
Post-Migration
After your tasks and views have been migrated, tested, and deployed, you're ready to start going live with your Superblocks tools. As you go live, you may want to explore the following features to help manage Superblocks and roll it out to your organization.
Auditing & Observability
Superblocks provides several ways to monitor activity.
- Audit Logs let you search and view each user action and API execution in Superblocks. Logs include who initiated the action or API run, the
- Observability integrations let you stream logs to the log management system of your choice, including Datadog, New Relic, Confluent, and more.
Use Audit Logs like you would Airplane ’s Activity feed to view the runs of your APIs, Workflows, and Scheduled Jobs in either Test or Deployed mode.
User Management and Permissions (RBAC)
Superblocks provides a similar role and permission model as Airplane to manage access.
- Users are identified by a unique email and belong to a single Superblocks organization. Users can belong to one or more Groups and can be either an Admin or Standard User for the organization.
- Admins have the role of owner for all organization resources. They’re also able to manage all organization-level settings.
- Standard Users have access based on their role for any given resource.
- Groups are used to create shared permissions for a set of users.
- Roles are used to indicate the permission set users or groups will receive for an Application, Workflow, Scheduled Jobs, or Integration.
- Owners are the users who first created a resource. They will always have both builder and viewer roles for resources they’ve created.
- Builders are the users who can edit the resource.
- Viewers are the users who can view Applications.
Superblocks users can be managed directly from the UI, or automatically from an external identity provider using SSO and SCIM.