Creating a community app

Version 8.1 by mmorgan on 2023/06/21 15:29

Community apps in collabs

Community apps are services developed by the EBRAINS community of users, and that can be added to the navigation of any collab. For this, the app needs to be registered in a space called the "Community Apps Catalogue". Once the app is registered, adding such an app to a collab is as simple as creating a new Wiki page in the collab.

Becoming a contributor

The first step for an EBRAINS user to creating a community app is to get the service developer accreditation. Contributors can register and manage apps within the Community Apps Catalogue.

Users can request service developer accreditation by performing both of the following 2 steps:

  1. opening an EBRAINS support ticket at https://ebrains.eu/support with a short motivation for the request, and
  2. navigating the the Group https://wiki.ebrains.eu/bin/view/Identity/#/groups/app-collaboratory-iam--service-providers and clicking the big green "request to join" button.

The support team will apply the permissions to your user.

HBP accredited members will automatically be approved. Other EBRAINS users will be required to sign an an agreement in order to obtain service developer accreditation.

Making your app available to users

In order for users to install your app, it needs to be registered in the Community Apps Catalogue.

If the users of your app need to be authenticated, see managing authorisation in the Collaboratory  or OIDC clients explained and its sub-pages for a more detailed overview of authenticating EBRAINS users and creating an OIDC client.

Register your app in the Community Apps Catalogue

The Apps Catalogue is available at: https://wiki.ebrains.eu/bin/view/Apps/

To register an app, click on "Create App", if the button does not appear, you are probably not a member of the group previously mentioned. From that Group page, you can request to become a member which will in turn grant you permission to register apps.

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Then create a new space in the Apps Catalogue for your app using the "Community Apps" type.

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Fill the form in the following step with the following information:

  • main URL: the URL of the homepage of your app. This is where the users will be directed when they open your app in a collab.
  • settings URL: the URL of your app's settings management page, if there is one.
  • description: a description of what your app does. This helps users choose the apps they install.
  • under development?: if checked, your app will not be available to other users.
  • category: a category to help structure the list of apps.
  • maintainers: a list of users who maintain the app. The users need to have logged in the wiki at least once to appear on the list. Maintainers are granted the right to modify the app's registration.
  • documentation URL: if your app has online user documentation, a link will be provided to users when they use your app.
  • repository: a URL to a public repository so users can access the source code of your app.

Note that only users registered in the "maintainers" field will be able to edit this form. Don't forget to add yourself. When done, click on the "Save & View" button; it displays a summary of information you have just filled. Your app is now available to be used in the Wiki.

Add a logo (optional)

Some of users like to add a logo to their app. The logo is only visible when browsing the catalogue. To do so, the user has to add a PNG file attachment with the filename "logo.png" in the attachment tab at the bottom of the summary page displayed after the "Save & View" action above.

Add an app to your collab

Adding an app to a collab is a simple as creating a new wiki page. As an admin or editor of a collab, a user can add a community app by clicking the "+ Create" button at the top of any wiki page, and selecting the "Community App" type.

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Then click the Create button and the app will have been added in the collab's navigation menu.