Packaging and Distributing Apps

Packaging your apps empower other users to install and run them on their own Dropserver instance with minimal effort. A package contains an archive of the application files and assets, and a manifest describing the app.

Create an App Package

Developers should follow the guidelines for building an app.

Note that the backend code might import code from deno.land/x and possibly other sources. This is acceptable. The ds-host instance will fetch and cache these dependencies as necessary.

Package The App

Make sure all built assets get built before running the app packaging tool.

To actually create an app package you must have ds-dev installed. Run the following command:

ds-dev -app=/path/to/app -create-package=/path/to/dist -package-name=my-super-app

Note that the app directory is not necessarily the root of your code repository. See the section on directory structure in building and app.

The directory passed to -create-package is where the package file and manifest will be written.

The -package-name is the base file name of the package. ds-dev will append the version (as specified in the manifest) and the tar.gz extension. In this case: my-super-app-0.1.0.tar.gz.

ds-dev will also output a complete manifest alongside the package with extension .json. This is a convenience and will be used in the future as part of the distribution mechanism.

Use Your Packaged App

Once a package is created you can use it via ds-dev:

ds-dev -app=my-super-app-0.1.0.tar.gz

You can also upload it to your ds-host instance via the user interface. If you don’t have a ds-host instance, you can spin one up temporarily via Docker.