
When it comes to deploying our app, there are two concepts we need to understand: **Workspaces** and **Apps**. Up to this point, I've been referring to the tool we're building, loosely as an "app". In this lecture, I'll start to use the term App and Workspace much more carefully.

<Callout type="info" heading="Workspaces and Apps - VIKTOR Docs">
I’ll explain the terms in my own words here, but the VIKTOR docs do a particularly good job of clarifying exactly what a Workspace is and how it differs from an App.

🔗 Read the docs here - [Workspaces and apps](https://docs.viktor.ai/docs/manage-apps/workspaces-and-apps/#:~:text=Workspaces%E2%80%8B,reports%20and%20do%20other%20work./?prt=sean)

</Callout>

In a nutshell, Workspaces are the thing the end user interacts with - it’s a Workspace that was embedded on EngineeringSkills.com which allowed you to interact with the truss analysis calculator [here](/posts/using-viktor-to-build-a-shareable-truss-calculator-app).

An App, on the other hand, is **NOT** something that an end user interacts with - you can think of an app as the container that holds the app’s code or logic. When a user interacts with our truss calculator, they’re interacting with a Workspace, which is an instance of the App that is unique to that user.

Probably the most helpful articulation of the differences is this line directly from the VIKTOR docs…

> If the app is a .exe, the workspace corresponds to the fully installed version of the simulation software on a particular computer.

If I’m honest, I think the naming convention here is slightly unfortunate as it runs somewhat counter to what we all think of as an App 🤷‍♂️ - but there we are.

In any event, the reason we need to know the difference between the two is that during deployment, we interact with both entities. By the time you’ve deployed your first App and associated Workspace, the distinction between the two will be clear in your mind.

In Fig 1. you can see a screenshot of my current Workspaces tab in my VIKTOR account, at the time of writing.

<Image
	src="/images/courses/using-viktor-to-build-a-shareable-truss-calculator-app/understanding-workspaces-and-apps/img1.png"
	alt="My Workspaces tab inside my VIKTOR account. | EngineeringSkills.com"
	width="1200"
	height="714"
	caption="Fig 1. My Workspaces tab inside my VIKTOR account."
/>

You can see two Workspaces, the one on the left is my development workspace. This is the workspace I open to interact with the project I’m currently developing. That development workspace is what I’ve been interacting with and taking screenshots of while I’ve been writing this project. We all get this workspace by default.

You can think of the development workspace as a development environment. It’s like a garage or shed at the end of your garden that you build stuff in - at least that’s how I think of it!

The workspace to the right represents the finished version of the calculator - the one I built first (before deciding to turn it into an EngineeringSkills project). This is the workspace that you will have interacted with if you engaged with the calculator on the EngineeringSkills website or followed one of the links that I shared to the calculator (like [this one](https://cloud.viktor.ai/public/perform-2d-elastic-truss-analysis-powered-by-openseespy/?prt=sean)).

In Fig. 2, you can see my _“App Store”_ tab - again, a slightly confusing term since we already have a picture in our minds of what an App Store is! The terminology makes more sense when we think of a larger organisation operating from within a VIKTOR account - this is probably the scenario that the VIKTOR team had in mind when naming this tab.

<Image
	src="/images/courses/using-viktor-to-build-a-shareable-truss-calculator-app/understanding-workspaces-and-apps/img2.png"
	alt="My App Store tab inside my VIKTOR account | EngineeringSkills.com"
	width="1200"
	height="707"
	caption="Fig 2. My App Store tab inside my VIKTOR account."
/>

Here we only see one App - this is the app behind the published version of the Workspace (the Workspace on the right in Fig 1 above). If I want to edit the metadata associated with my App or review the version history, I would do this through the App listing in my App Store.

If you’re still slightly confused about Workspaces and Apps, the next lecture, where we go through the publication process, will help clear things up!


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