Read about why, here: https://blog.webmaker.org/product-update-for-appmaker-and-popcorn-maker
Welcome to Appmaker (beta).
Appmaker is a tool that helps anyone, not just developers, create mobile applications.
Appmaker apps are composed of web components, custom/resusable HTML tags, connected with events and listeners.
To learn more about web components, check out the Polymer Project.
More resources:
- The Appmaker website.
- The
#appmakerchannel on irc.mozilla.org. - A youtube video (that's already dated, but better than nothing).
- Appmaker -- why, what how provides additional context about the motivation and use cases for the project, written before any code was forged.
- The ROADMAP.md and CONTRIBUTING.md documents in this directory.
This section covers how to get Appmaker running locally. The workflow is optimized for contributors.
Make sure you have nodejs, npm, and git installed.
grunt is required to run the test suite. To install grunt on unix and OS X,
run sudo npm install -g grunt-cli.
We manage client-side dependencies using bower. In order to add/remove these dependencies, you need to have bower installed globally on your machine, which can be done on unix and OS X via
sudo npm install bower -g.
Webmaker Login is required to log into the app. Follow these instructions exactly to run it locally
Create a root mozilla-appmaker directory:
mkdir mozilla-appmaker
cd mozilla-appmaker
Fork this repository, and
then clone your fork into the mozilla-appmaker directory:
git clone git@github.com:<your GitHub username>/appmaker.git appmaker
Your directory structure should look like this:
mozilla-appmaker/
├── appmaker/
Configure remote:
cd appmaker
git remote add upstream git@github.com:mozilla-appmaker/appmaker.git
git fetch upstream
Install Node packages:
npm install
Configure your env:
cp sample.env .env
A short explanation of a complete .env file:
PRODUCTION: OPTIONAL - if this value is set, app.js will ignore "dev only" code paths
BUNDLE: OPTIONAL - if this has any value, components will be bundled into a single mozilla-appmaker.min.html file in ./public/bundles/components (modifying individual components will then only take effect on app start)
BUNDLE_MINIFY: OPTIONAL - if this has any value, it will also minify the resulting bundle(s)
MONGO_URL: REQUIRED - the URI for your mongod instance and database, for example mongodb://localhost/appmakerdev (or whatever your database is named)
LOGINAPI: REQUIRED - The URI of a Webmaker login server to use for user authentication. for exmaple http://localhost:3000
LOGINAPI_WITH_AUTH: - The URI of a Webmaker login server, including basic authentication credentials. for exmaple http://testuser:password@localhost:3000
COOKIE_SECRET: A long, complex string for cookie encryption (NOTE: You define this for your local use, the string can be anything).
FORCE_SSL: If using SSL, set this to true.
STORE: Storage approach for publishing apps. `local` is the default, `s3` requires additional environment variables (prefixed by S3_)
S3_BUCKET: S3 bucket name. e.g. "my.coolappmaker.com"
S3_KEY: An access key for the S3 bucket listed above.
S3_SECRET: The secret corresponding to the specified S3 access key.
S3_OBJECT_PREFIX: String to prepend S3 objects. Useful for storing objects in folders. E.g. "level1/level2" => <bucket>/level1/level2/<filename>.
PUBLISH_URL_PREFIX: String to prepend to filenames that are saved when publishing. Try use the URL that matches the protocol from which assets are hosted to avoid mixed content blockage.
REDIRECT_URL: The hostname and port that we want to redirect to for Appmaker
PORT: The port that the web process listens on for incomming connections
EXCLUDED_COMPONENTS: A comma-delimited list of component repositories to exclude from the mozilla-appmaker org. The name is the repo name rather than the component name, though this is usually the same.
ALLOW_CUSTOM_COMPONENTS: Optional flag to turn on using custom component for testing purposes (any value that coerces to true is accepted)
BUNDLE: Any non-null value will cause the application to bundle as many resources as possible
HSTS_DISABLED: if set to "true", [HSTS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security) is disabled. **(If you are not forcing SSL, you should turn disable HSTS by setting HSTS_DISABLED='true' in the .env)**
DISABLE_XFO_HEADERS_DENY: If set to "true", [X-Frame-Options Headers](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/X-Frame-Options) are not set. If not set to "true" / left unset, XFO headers are set to DENY.
IEXSS_PROTECTION_DISABLED: If set to "true", iexss vulnerability headers are not set. If set to false or left unset, iexss protection for IE8 will be enabled.
GA_ACCOUNT: Optional google analytics account setting. (https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/methods/gaJSApiBasicConfiguration#_gat.GA_Tracker_._setAccount)
GA_DESIGNER_DOMAIN: Optional google analytics domain setting for the designer. (https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/methods/gaJSApiDomainDirectory#_gat.GA_Tracker_._setDomainName)
GA_PUBLISH_DOMAIN: Optional google analytics domain setting for the published apps. (https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/methods/gaJSApiDomainDirectory#_gat.GA_Tracker_._setDomainName)
PUBLISH_HOST: Host of URL which points to a published app. Does not include a protocol prefix (e.g. `http://`). Use `{{ip}}` in this string to automatically insert your machine's IP address (useful for debugging apps on mobile devices in dev environment).
ASSET_HOST: URL used to provide assets to published apps. Use `{{ip}}` in this string to automatically insert your machine's IP address (useful for debugging apps on mobile devices in dev environment).
PUBLISH_HOST_PREFIX: Prefix of URL which points to a published app. Usually `http://` or `https://`.
POSTMARK_API_KEY: An API key that needs to match a valid [Postmark](https://postmarkapp.com) API key.
POSTMARK_FROM_ADDRESS: A valid email address that acts as the "from" address on emails sent out to users. This address must be added to the Sender Signature list associated with the Postmark API key provided in `POSTMARK_API_KEY`
POSTMARK_INBOUND_ADDRESS: The "inbound email address" associated with the Postmark API key provided in `POSTMARK_API_KEY`
POSTMARK_SMTP_SERVER: The SMTP server used by Postmark (default: `smtp.postmarkapp.com`)
MongoDB is used for saving the user-created apps before publishing.
Visit http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/installation/ for platform-specific installation instructions. Be sure an install MongoDB outside of your local Appmaker repo.
Either configure MongoDB to run on startup or manually start the mongod daemon.
To manually start mongod once it is installed:
mongodThe mongod process will, by default listen on port 27017. If you have it configured to listen on an alternate port, be sure to adjust your MONGO_URL in your .env file.
node app- Fix issues by submitting Pull Requests
- Submit new components (See Component Docs)
- Add issues
- Build apps
- Run workshops
- Join our weekly call
So you want to make a component? That's great, we want to work with you! Here's a guide where you can learn what components are, how they are built, how to make your own and finally how to submit your finished component to Appmaker.
Guide to Contributing a Component
Technical reading: https://github.com/mozilla-appmaker/appmaker/blob/develop/public/ceci/README.md
Ceci is a set of foundational elements used in a AppMaker app, implemented as a set of Polymer components. If you create a new component, it's really an HTML tag that Polymer processes and then injects a variety of capabilities into that tag / JS object
TODO link to the Counter example, provide explanation
Switch to develop branch:
cd mozilla-appmaker/appmaker
git checkout develop
Pull the latest version:
git pull
Create a new branch (for example a feature branch):
git checkout -b your-feature-branch-name
Make changes to the local copy, commit your changes, and then make sure your patch still works with latest version of develop branch:
git checkout develop
git pull
git checkout your-feature-branch-name
git rebase develop
Test commits:
grunt
Submit changes:
git push origin your-feature-branch-name
Submit the pull request at https://github.com/mozilla-appmaker/appmaker. For more assistance, see Github's help page on creating a pull request.
Appmaker uses the Webmaker-i18n module for localization of both the designer and (ceci) components.
If you have created your own component, see: https://github.com/mozilla-appmaker/appmaker/wiki/How-components-are-built#localization
Spotted any typo or want to help translate appmaker into your own language?
Appmaker uses Transifex for translation platform. You can check this how to article if you want to contribute for translation and visit Appmaker on Transifex to start translate.