Saltcorn

Saltcorn is an extensible open source no-code database application builder. Use it to build web and mobile database applications with flexible views, datatypes, layouts and actions

This repository contains the core codebase, including the code necessary to self-host an instance and to host a multitenant instance.

Acknowledgements

Saltcorn is using PostgreSQL, node.js, node-postgres, express, live-plugin-manager, craft.js, jQuery-Menu-Editor, Blockly, CodeMirror and other awesome free and open source projects.

Trying out Saltcorn

Online

A multitenant instance of Saltcorn is running at saltcorn.com, and you can create a new application under a subdomain at https://saltcorn.com/tenant/create. This service is free but there are no guarantees about the security or availability of your application or the information you are storing. This service should only be used to explore the capabilities of Saltcorn.

Desktop

To try out Saltcorn on your desktop, make sure you have node.js 16+ (18+ preferred) and npm installed. Then run these commands on the command line:

npm config set prefix ~/.local
npm install -g @saltcorn/cli
export SQLITE_FILEPATH=~/saltcorn.sqlite
.local/bin/saltcorn reset-schema -f
.local/bin/saltcorn serve

Now open http://localhost:3000/ in your browser. When you want to run this again, you need to run the export line and the saltcorn serve line. or simply run SQLITE_FILEPATH=~/saltcorn.sqlite .local/bin/saltcorn serve.

Server

To install Saltcorn on a fresh virtual machine, simply install node.js and run npx saltcorn-install -y; see Quick install server on Linux. To try out Saltcorn with docker-compose see Quickstart with Docker.

Hosting options

For self-hosting, a 2 GB virtual private server is sufficient to run Saltcorn unless you expect high traffic volumes. Installation instructions are given below. Saltcorn can also run on a 1GB virtual machine, but there can be issues with upgrading.

DigitalOcean and Linode have one-click install options for Saltcorn

If hosting on DigitalOcean, which offers a 2GB virtual machine for $12 per month, please consider using our referral code which will give you $100 credit over 60 days.

Quickstart with Docker

You can run a local instance for quick testing by running the following command:

cd ./deploy/examples/test && docker-compose up -d

and then go to http://localhost:3000 in your web browser.

NOTE: The dependencies to build mobile apps are quite large, they are not installed in the standard docker image (saltcorn/saltcorn). To use an image that includes the mobile dependencies as well, either use 'saltcorn/saltcorn-with-mobile' directly or replace 'saltcorn/saltcorn' with 'saltcorn/saltcorn-with-mobile' in the docker-compose file.

Quick install server on Linux

This has been tested on Debian 10, 11 and 12, Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 and 22.04, OpenSuSE, AlmaLinux, and Fedora. All you need is to run these three lines on the command line shell, as root or as a user with sudo access:

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -qqy nodejs
npx saltcorn-install -y

The first two lines will install Node.js 18 (you can also use 20). The last line will call the Saltcorn install script accepting all the defaults, which installs PostgreSQL and sets up Saltcorn as a service listening on port 80.

If you want a different port, different database backend, or to not install as a service, you can omit the final -y to get an interactive installation:

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -qqy nodejs
npx saltcorn-install

Install from NPM packages

Instructions have been tested on Ubuntu 20.04 on a 1GB VM.

TL;DR: npm install -g @saltcorn/cli && saltcorn setup

Installing node and npm

For a recent version (v18) of Node.js:

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs libpq-dev build-essential python-is-python3

You can also use Node 18 or 20.

Install Saltcorn

npm install -g @saltcorn/cli

If this fails, you may need to tell npm to disregard file permissions during compilation:

npm install -g @saltcorn/cli --unsafe

Sometimes, the above commands fail to install the library sd-notify (which is useful for integrating with systemd) even though it is installable. You can rectify that by installing it subsequently:

npm install -g sd-notify

Setup (automated)

if you are root, create a user with sudo and switch to that user:

adduser saltcorn
adduser saltcorn sudo
su saltcorn
cd
mkdir -p ~/.config/

then run

saltcorn setup and follow the instructions given.

Setup (manual)

NOTE: this is somewhat out of date; see instead https://wiki.saltcorn.com/view/ShowPage?title=Install%20on%20Ubuntu, in paticular the last section.

Skip this section if you ran saltcorn setup or npx saltcorn-install

1. Install PostgreSQL: sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-client

2. Either,

   • Create a JSON file .saltcorn in your XDG config directory (on Ubuntu this is normally $HOME/.config) with these values:

     • host: address of PostgreSQL server
     • port: port of PostgreSQL server
     • database: PostgreSQL database
     • user: PostgreSQL user name
     • password: PostgreSQL user password
     • sslmode: PostgreSQL SSL Mode
     • sslcert: PostgreSQL SSL Certificate
     • sslkey: PostgreSQL SSL Key
     • sslrootcert: PostgreSQL SSL Root Certificate
     • session_secret: Saltcorn session secret
     • multi_tenant: run as multi-tenant (true/false)

     For example:

     {
        "host":"localhost",
        "port":5432,
        "database":"saltcorn",
        "user":"tomn",
        "password":"dgg2342vfB",
        "session_secret":"hrh64b45b3",
        "multi_tenant":true
     }
     

     Or,

   • Set environment variables. SALTCORN_SESSION_SECRET, SALTCORN_MULTI_TENANT (defaults to false), and either DATABASE_URL or PGHOST, PGPORT, PGUSER, PGDATABASE, PGPASSWORD. You can also set PGSSLMODE, PGSSLCERT, PGSSLKEY, PGSSLROOTCERT (see Postgres Documentation)

Run

saltcorn serve

Server install

Install Saltcorn as a service

Installing saltcorn as a service will mean it runs in the background and restarts automatically if the system reboots.

create a file /lib/systemd/system/saltcorn.service with these contents:

[Unit]
Description=saltcorn
Documentation=https://saltcorn.com
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify
WatchdogSec=5
User=saltcorn
WorkingDirectory=/home/saltcorn
ExecStart=/home/saltcorn/.local/bin/saltcorn serve -p 80
Restart=always
Environment="NODE_ENV=production"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

run:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start saltcorn
sudo systemctl enable saltcorn

This may be in a different location in non-Debian systems, e.g. in /etc/systemd/system instead.

In order to allow the saltcorn user to open port 80, you need to permission node.js to allow this by running:

sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' `which node`

SSL certificate

Use Let's Encrypt or Cloudflare to get a free SSL certificate (for https).

Install from source (for Saltcorn developers)

Installing node and npm on Ubuntu

sudo apt install nodejs npm libpq-dev

will give you a usable version. For a more recent version (v18) of Node.js:

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs libpq-dev

Prepare Node

assuming you have cloned this repository to $HOME/saltcorn (otherwise adjust PATH)

npm config set prefix ~/.local
echo 'export PATH=$HOME/saltcorn/packages/saltcorn-cli/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Install packages

run

npm install --legacy-peer-deps
npm run tsc

to install everything. If successful, you should now be able to run saltcorn in your shell.

NOTE: the installation builds the 'saltcorn/cordova-builder' docker image, and the first build takes several minutes. You can set the environment variable SKIP_DOCKER_IMAGE_INSTALL to 'true' (or disable docker) if you don't want to build it.

Packages

• @saltcorn-cli: command-line interface

Deployment tips

• If your Saltcorn server is running behind a reverse proxy such as Nginx, refer to the Socket.io reverse proxy documentation. This configuration is essential for Socket.io, which powers the chat, log-viewer, and streaming API functionalities (e.g. for the recorder plugin).

Development tips

Prettier

we use prettier:

npm install -g prettier

to format code:

git ls-files | grep -v builder_bundle | xargs prettier --write

Run this before every pull request.

dev server

nodemon packages/saltcorn-cli/bin/saltcorn serve

to also watch a local module

nodemon --watch ../saltcorn-kanban/ packages/saltcorn-cli/bin/saltcorn serve

React build builder

cd packages/saltcorn-builder
npm install
npm install styled-components@4.4.1
npm run build

React rebuild on save

in saltcorn/packages/saltcorn-builder/ run:

git ls-files | entr npm run builddev

but this is not a production build, so run

npm run build

when done.

If you get this error: Error: error:0308010C:digital envelope routines::unsupported, run this and try again: export NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider.

Build tsdocs

npm install --legacy-peer-deps
npm run tsc

then

npm run docs

TSDocs will then be available in docs/.

To deploy these to https://saltcorn.github.io/tsdocs/:

cp -R docs/* /path/to/tsdocs
cd /path/to/tsdocs
git add .
git commit -am 'version number or other message...'