212 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
212 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
# Contributing
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From opening a bug report to creating a pull request: every contribution is appreciated and welcome. If you're planning to implement a new feature or change the api please create an issue first. This way we can ensure that your precious work is not in vain.
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### Not Sure Where to Start?
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Budibase is a low-code web application builder that creates svelte based web applications.
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Budibase is a monorepo managed by [lerna](https://github.com/lerna/lerna). Lerna manages the building and publishing of the budibase packages. At a high level, here are the packages that make up budibase.
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- **packages/builder** - contains code for the budibase builder client side svelte application.
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- **packages/client** - A module that runs in the browser responsible for reading JSON definition and creating living, breathing web apps from it.
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- **packages/cli** - The budibase CLI. This is the main module that gets downloaded from NPM and is responsible for creating and managing apps, as well as running the budibase server.
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- **packages/server** - The budibase server. This [Koa](https://koajs.com/) app is responsible for serving the JS for the builder and budibase apps, as well as providing the API for interaction with the database and file system.
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## Glossary of Terms
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To understand the budibase API, it can be helpful to understand the top level entities that make up Budibase.
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### Client
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A client represents a single budibase customer. Each budibase client will have 1 or more budibase servers. Every client is assigned a unique ID.
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### App
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A client can have one or more budibase applications. Budibase applications would be things like "Developer Inventory Management" or "Goat Herder CRM". Think of a budibase application as a tree.
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### Database
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An App can have one or more databases. Keeping with our [dendrology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrology) analogy - think of an database as a branch on the tree. Databases are used to keep data separate for different instances of your app. For example, if you had a CRM app, you may create a database for your US office, and a database for your Australian office. Databases allow us to support [multitenancy](https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/multitenancy) in budibase applications.
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### Table
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Tables in budibase are almost akin to tables in relational databases. A table may be a "Car" or an "Employee". They are the main building blocks for the creation and management of backend data in budibase.
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### View
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A View is an advanced feature in budibase that allows you to write a custom query using [MapReduce](https://pouchdb.com/guides/queries.html) queries. Views enable powerful query functionality and calculations, allowing you to do more with your data.
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### Page
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A page in budibase is actually a single, self contained svelte web app. There are only 2 pages in budibase. The **login** page and the **main** page.
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### Screen
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A screen is a component within a single page. Generally, screens represent client side routes, and can be switched without refreshing the page.
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### Component
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A component is the basic frontend building block of a budibase app.
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### Component Library
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Component libraries are collections of components as well as the definition of their props contained in a file called `components.json`.
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## Contributing to Budibase
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* Please maintain the existing code style.
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* Please try to keep your commits small and focused.
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* Please write tests.
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* If the project diverges from your branch, please rebase instead of merging. This makes the commit graph easier to read.
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* Once your work is completed, please raise a PR against the main branch with some information about what has changed and why.
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### Getting Started For Contributors
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### 1. Prerequisites
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*yarn -* `npm install -g yarn`
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*jest* - `npm install -g jest`
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### 2. Clone this repository
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`git clone https://github.com/Budibase/budibase.git`
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then `cd ` into your local copy.
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### 3. Install and Build
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`yarn` to install project dependencies
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`yarn bootstrap` will install all budibase modules and symlink them together using lerna.
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`yarn build` will build all budibase packages.
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### 4. Initialising Budibase and Creating a Budibase App
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`yarn initialise` will initialise your budibase installation. A Budibase apps folder will have been created in `~/.budibase`. You can also just start up the budibase electron app and it should initialise budibase for you.
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This is a blank apps folder, so you will need to create yourself an app.
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```
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cd packages/server
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yarn run budi new your-app-name
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```
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This will create a new budibase application in the `~/.budibase/<your-app-uuid>` directory, and NPM install the component libraries for that application. Let's start building your app with the budibase builder!
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### 4. Running
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To run the budibase server and builder in dev mode (i.e. with live reloading):
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1. Open a new console
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2. `yarn dev` (from root)
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3. Access the builder on http://localhost:4001/_builder/
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This will enable watch mode for both the builder app, server, client library and any component libraries.
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### Running Commands from /server Directory
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Notice that when inside `packages/server`, you can use any Budibase CLI command via yarn:
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e.g. `yarn budi new mikes_app` == `budi new mikes_app`
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This will use the CLI directly from `packages/cli`, rather than your globally installed `budi`
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## Data Storage
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When you are running locally, budibase stores data on disk using [PouchDB](https://pouchdb.com/), as well as some JSON on local files. After setting up budibase, you can find all of this data in the `~/.budibase` directory.
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A client can have one or more budibase applications. Budibase applications are stored in `~/.budibase/<app-uuid>`. Files used by your budibase application when running are stored in the `public` directory. Everything else is dev files used for the development of your apps in the builder.
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#### Frontend
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To see the current individual JSON definitions for your pages and screens used by the builder, have a look at `~/.budibase/<app-uuid>/pages`.
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For your actual running application (not in dev), the frontend tree structure of the application (known as `clientFrontendDefinition`) is stored as JSON on disk. This is what the budibase client library reads to create your app at runtime. This can be found at `~/.budibase/<app-uuid>/public/clientFrontendDefinition.js`
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The HTML and CSS for your apps runtime pages, as well as the budibase client library JS is stored at:
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- `~/.budibase/<app-uuid>/public/main`
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- `~/.budibase/<app-uuid>/public/unauthenticated`
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#### Backend
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The backend schema, models and records are stored using PouchDB when developing locally, and in [CouchDB](https://pouchdb.com/) when running in production.
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### Publishing Budibase to NPM
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#### Testing In Electron
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At budibase, we pride ourselves on giving our users a fast, native and slick local development experience. As a result, we use the electron to provide a native GUI for the budibase builder. In order to release budibase out into the wild, you should test your changes in a packaged electron application. To do this, first build budibase from the root directory.
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```
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yarn build
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```
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Now everything is built, you can package up your electron application.
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```
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cd packages/server
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yarn build:electron
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```
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Your new electron application will be stored in `packages/server/dist/<operating-system>`. Open up the executable and make sure everything is working smoothly.
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#### Publishing to NPM
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Once you are happy that your changes work in electron, you can publish all the latest versions of the monorepo packages by running:
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```
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yarn publishnpm
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```
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from your root directory.
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#### CI Release
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After NPM has successfully published the budibase packages, a new tag will be pushed to master. This will kick off a github action (can be found at `.github/workflows/release.yml`) this will build and package the electron application for every OS (Windows, Mac, Linux). The binaries will be stored under the new tag on the [budibase releases page](https://github.com/Budibase/budibase/releases).
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### Troubleshooting
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Sometimes, things go wrong. This can be due to incompatible updates on the budibase platform. To clear down your development environment and start again:
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```
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rm -rf ~/.budibase
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```
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Follow from **Step 3. Install and Build** in the setup guide above. You should have a fresh Budibase installation.
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### Running tests
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#### End-to-end Tests
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Budibase uses Cypress to run a number of E2E tests. To run the tests execute the following command in the root folder:
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```
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yarn test:e2e
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```
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Or if you are in the builder you can run `yarn cy:test`.
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### Other Useful Information
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* The contributors are listed in [AUTHORS.md](https://github.com/budibase/server/blob/master/AUTHORS.md) (add yourself).
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* This project uses a modified version of the MPLv2 license, see [LICENSE](https://github.com/budibase/server/blob/master/LICENSE).
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* We use the [C4 (Collective Code Construction Contract)](https://rfc.zeromq.org/spec:42/C4/) process for contributions.
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Please read this if you are unfamiliar with it.
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