appily

Generate an application form a simple json configuration. Perfect for MVP's and admin sites. Built on ideas from smalltalk and other data-model driven application creation.

Build an appilcation in minutes not months!

Status

Alpha. We have met our alpha goals!
Appily can generate a react app that is able to perform full CRUD operations, with an Express, Postgres backend.

See change log for more details.

Getting started

Install

$ npm install appily -g

Dev Setup

Environment Requirements

1. Node >= 14.x
2. Yarn

1. clone repo
2. $ yarn install
3. $ yarn link

Usage

$ appily config.json

config.json

{
  "name": "video-game-app",
  "models": {
    "Video Game": {
      "Title": "String",
      "Year Published": "String"
    },
    "Publisher": {
      "Name": "String"
    }
  }
}

Config

Property	Description	Default
name	The name of your app	app
dir	The relative directory the app will be created in	/
api	express, indexedDB or stub	express
db	postgres, indexedDB or none	postgres
models	The data and relationships that make up your app, see below for more details	{}

To use indexedDB you must set indexedDB for api and db

The above is based on the react template, you can make your own templates

Models

models is a collection of models which are used to generate the UI, Api and DB

models {
  modelName: {
      "plural": modelNamePlural,
      "properties": properties
  },
  ...
}

You can also use the short form

models {
  modelName: properties,
  ...
}

modelName: should be the name of your model as you want displayed in the app. It is recomended to include spaces.

Examples: "Theme Park Ride", "Car Part"...

properties

Properties are a colection of the properties in your model.

properties {
  propertyName: {type: type},
  ...
}

You can also use the short form

properties {
  propertyName: type,
  ...
}

propertyName: should be the name of the model's property as you want displayed in the app. It is recomended to include spaces.

Examples: "Year Made", "Color"...

required property

To make a property required simple add an * to the end of its name

properties {
  propertyName*: type,
  ...
}

Note the * will not be part of the properties' name

you can also do

properties {
  propertyName: {type: type, required: true},
  ...
}

types

Types should be in quoutes like

properties {
  propertyName: "String",
  ...
}

Supported types

Type	Description	Renders As
"String"	A simple string	An Input
"Boolean"	True or false	A Checkbox

More types are coming

Contributors welcome

This project is in early stages and looking for contributers. See design.

Goals

Aim for progressive development with something useful asap See the road map.

Todo

• add github test badge
• add github test action (pipeline)
• add options cli option, print out options from manfesto
• add tests for cli
• try to fix nested app issue (apps don't run from manual folder - nested npm package issue confuses npm install)
• make tests cross OS
• add support for nested models
  • add validation
  • detect relationships
  • create api/db to support this
  • support single model relationship UI: add, remove
  • support multi model relationship UI: add, remove
• add types
  • Number - Alex calls dibs
  • DateTime
  • Enum
  • link
• add better formatting/styling to types
  • string elipses, wrapping, etc
• add spinner progress button
• internationalize app (setup)
• improve validation
  • [ ] add validation on type
  • [ ] Support validation rules

Appily

• add config validation for model and properties

Client

• add cancel edit button

Sever

• move base out of express
• have docker include express server
• add logger (Pino?)
• add env support
• change createdAt, updatedAt to created_at, updated_at

Later

• Pull validation into is own npm package
  • remove shared code
• add better table filter
• add types
  • tags
  • address
  • phone
  • year
  • dob
  • date range
  • time range
  • time
  • curency
  • quantity
• add computed properties