Viewing your app

So you’ve built an app on Codebots, but now you want to see what it actually looks like. Well never fear; Codebots Launch is here!

If you are after instructions on how to run your app on your local computer, take a look at How do I run my app?.

What is Codebots Launch?

Codebots Launch is the ability for you to view on an online version of your app. When you click the “Preview app” button in the Build diagrams, the bots go away and launch the code which is currently in your repo, creating a site which is live for 24 hours. It uses all the code, including anything custom your team has written, making it the perfect way to preview your app.

It takes about 10 minutes to set up, then you are sent a link which you can send out to as many people as you like. This can be very handy if you have someone non-technical who wants to see the app, or if you want to share it for some user testing. The app will include an initial walkthrough of the admin section, but you can just direct your users to skip that.

It will retain all data which is entered into it for those 24 hours, so it is easy enough for you to pop in quickly and populate the app before sharing it. Alternatively, you could also make migration scripts which run when the app is compiled so it has dummy data in it anytime you launch.

What can’t it do?

Release broken builds. If your codebase is unable to be built, it can’t be released. Likewise, if you have errors in your code which prevent it from compiling, the bots won’t be able to compile it either.

Store long-term data. It is just a temporary site and won’t retain any data after it expires. Likewise, if you edit your app and spin up another launched site, that won’t have any information from the other app.

Have proper security access. Since this is a sample app, it comes with sample user accounts for each role (along with the default passwords). This is a security vulnerability, which is another reason why this is not a true production release.

How do I launch my app?

To launch your app, you must have built it at least once. Once an app has built, on the Fireworks screen, you will see a large button pop-up that says “Preview app”. Click on this to launch.

If you aren’t on the Fireworks screen and don’t want to re-build, you can use the drop-down Build menu to launch. This will use the latest code in the Git repo to compile the app without building your app on the Platform again.

Once the Launch is ready, which normally takes about 10 minutes, you will receive an email with the link to the app.