Run hApp-bundles during develpment with hc run
#1939
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This looks pretty good, but I don't see any tests whatsoever, which worries me, because this is the kind of thing that folks will start to rely on. Also I thought that at one point we removed from the conductor the ability to do static serving, so I'm surprised that's still here. Are you sure that still works?
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Looks good Nico except that as a web dev I really want to use the React tools to run the front end, so could we make it run an npm command for the web server step? That way it addresses Zippy's issue as well. |
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This is great. It would be really easy to wasm-bindgen this integrity check code for holoscape so it isn't duped in Rust and Javascript
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@zippy, the static web server works. I used the Community bundle for testing and had it running in my browser pointing to localhost. Agree that tests should be added. I don't fully understand how the npm step could help with that though, @philipbeadle? |
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Because I'd like to be able to make changes to my web code and see those changes. Rather than have to make a change, build, and rerun hcrun. |
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@philipbeadle @lucksus we can include npm in the wrapped hc in holonix if we need... |
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i do approve and am also concerned about the lack of tests around this and hc in general like @zippy is, as i'm seeing things like https://forum.holochain.org/t/nix-shell-does-not-have-latest-version-of-holochain/1450/5?u=thedavidmeister hc generate not working being reported in the forums
a lot of my time recently has been spent retroactively fixing hc issues after the binary is built and hits holonix then problems are picked up by the integration tests there
also i appreciate that adding tests might need to be a "next sprint" thing 🤷♂️
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@philipbeadle, the static web server of the conductor does not cache files. If you change a file and reload the page you will get the new content without having to restart |
PR summary
Currently hApp developers can only run very simple, one DNA hApps with
hc run. And they even have to host their own local HTTP server for the UI.Every hApp that is a bit more complex (multiple DNAs, bridges, etc.) can't be easily run during development. This lead devs to run the production conductor with a real conductor config. That in turn required them to couple the UI to this development setup for instance by injecting interface URLs/ports via ENVs. These patterns are not compatible with production deployments.
What hApp devs should do is start their hApp by writing a hApp-bundle as the hApps manifest. That conveys all information to setup any run-time to run the hApp (be it dev, production Holoscape or production Holo).
This PR adds the needed capability to
hcto read hApp-bundles and start a development conductor accordingly.hc runwill now first look for a filebundle.tomlin the current working directory and if it is present will read it and configure the internal conductor to implement that hApp bundle, i.e. add all the instances and UIs (via its static HTTP server) and run that. If there is nobundle.tomlfile present it will proceed as before.hc runwill not follow HTTP links to download DNAs or UIs and will also not unzip UI archives. It expects the URIs to be of typefile:for DNAs and of new typedir:for the UIs. The latter has to point to a directory and will be served by the static web server of the conductor at the given port. It should be exactly that UI directory that will be packaged into a zip file when deploying the bundle.Main benefit
This makes it possible to run complex hApp setups with multiple DNAs and bridges without having to write and maintain a conductor config. With that it enables a hApp development workflow that is centered around hApp-bundles from start and thus future-proof for deployment. It solves the problems discussed in #1600.
followups
Add functionality to
hcfor creating hApp bundles and updating them with the right DNA hash and UI directory path.changelog
documentation