Aufbau

A desktop app that loads a hand-curated, artisanal selection of local web apps.

What's it for?

This app is aimed at being a collection of tools that you want access to all in one place. Each app needs an index.html flat file endpoint and for that project to be added to the main Aufbau package.json. If an app requires any additional build step, put that command, usually npm run build in the apps.json file under the buildCmd key. See more info in Configuration below.

Configuration

Change the name of apps.sample.json to apps.json and fill out the information for your app. Here's a sample json object for Chartbuilder

[
    {
        "displayName": "Chartbuilder",
        "packageName": "chartbuilder",
        "indexPath": "build/index.html",
        "buildCmd": "npm run build",
        "icon": "chartbuilder.png"
    }
]

Currently, it only supports one build command. That is to say, you can't do something like gulp && npm run build.

Development

$ npm install
$ npm start

Build apps

After you've added a new app to apps.json that has a build process, run the following:

$ npm run build-apps

This will run npm install and any specified build commands on those modules. npm install is required in case dev dependencies are required to build.

Build the binaries

$ npm run build

Builds the app for OS X, Linux, and Windows, using electron-packager.

What's Aufbau mean?

Aufbau means "to build up" in German. The Aufbau principle is the process by which electrons fill orbital levels around an atom's nucleus. Because this app is about building a collection of Electron apps, it seemed appropriate.

License

MIT © mhkeller