Newbie question:
So far, the hardest thing I am finding in developing on Appian (working on an app developed by Appian resources) is finding where I am in the code. I am on a page in one browser, have the designer open in another, and despite what I do cannot find where I am, given the page that is open. I know it sounds very stupid, but is there a best practice or tricks to figure out where you are? (I have searched by expression etc and am stymied).
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If you're on a Site, you can pretty quickly open the site definition, then open the interface/object for the site tab in question, and eventually drill down to the interface, process, task, or form in question. It really just takes some getting used to - if you're new to Appian and trying to handle an established system I'd strongly recommend you have someone who knows the system show you around.
It always helps to consider what I like to call your "top level design objects". Any user interface you access in Tempo or Sites must originate from either a Report, Record Type, or Process Model (both Actions and Tasks come from a process model). So you should start by looking at what you're starting from at the top level. Then, if you find the corresponding object in the Appian Designer, you can search for the Precedents of that object, which is any object that supports the top level object. You can even expand the objects to see the full tree of everything that makes up your top level design objects.
I feel your pain! Appian has made steps to implement a "flow forward" mechanism for development, where you can be developing an object, realise you need another to act as a 'helper' perhaps, and to be able to jump forwards to implement that, without losing your position in the current object. This is still work in progress. For existing objects there is a degree of being able to "zoom" to a referenced object - using CTRL+Click when hovering over a rule! referenced in an Interface, for example; or the embedded hyperlink to a Process Model that is referenced in a constant. Yes, this leaves a trail of open browser windows which can quickly become overwhelming. To help with this a little (and a few other productivity tools) there is the 'Appian Dev Tools' browser plug-in:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/appian-dev-tools/kihgnmoaccmngafihnnaanaijigdbpje
which will (amongst other things) provide a visual cue for what object type is open in a given browser tab.
If you have any suggestions as to improvements or a way in which you'd like to work that Appian doesn't currently support we'd love to hear it!