Potential Cloudron Theme/Dashboard

[thetomester13]

@BrentHueth absolutely it's something you can try out! You can simply clone the repo and then do a cloudron build and cloudron install (there are some prerequisites to this, be sure to check the official Cloudron documentation). I gave you developer access to the repo in case you did want to contribute, just know that the git.cloudron repo is the Cloudron packaged app, you can find the actual application on Github here.

[BrentHueth]

@thetomester13 If I'm not your first thrilled user, well then I'm another

https://cln.sh/DboCtu

[murgero]

Is this project similar to Heimdall? It's what I am currently using as a dashboard (Currently Personal, but it is hosted on my Cloudron and displaying some custom links and apps)

[thetomester13]

@BrentHueth that makes me happy

@murgero yes, this is similar to Heimdall, it's based off of this Github project of which I'm the author. This particular app is purposefully packaged for Cloudron in that you give it an API key and it will auto-populate with all of your Cloudron apps, so no custom links at the moment.

[murgero]

@thetomester13 That's pretty cool!! I'll have to give this a shot then Thanks!

[thetomester13]

@murgero sure! Let me know if you have any notes/suggestions!

[girish]

@murgero Do you host heimdall on Cloudron? Is there a package?

[murgero]

@girish No package, it's a simple PHP script - just used the LAMP app. I'd be happy to package it though if there is enough demand for it. That said I do not want to take over this thread so if anyone wants it - start a new thread.

[will]

@murgero This would be dope to be rolled into cloudron if the owner & devs are open to that.

[girish]

We probably won't merge it into Cloudron itself but as a stand alone project which is packaged for Cloudron, we have no problems. Happy to publish it in our App Store as well (but it has to be a stand alone project like the rest of the apps we package).

[thetomester13]

@girish what do you think of implementing the 'read only' token permission for apps like this so they can automatically display a list of installed Cloudron apps without user intervention?

[marcusquinn]

@thetomester13 Very nice work!

Seems like an app to me, perhaps call it "Start Page", similar to: https://start.me

I'd like the links to open in a new window/tab, the ability to adjust icon size, number of columns, and additional non-cloudron links.

I like the Start Page feature in Vivaldi for inspiration: https://help.vivaldi.com/article/speed-dials/

Not a fan of frame scrollbars or hidden features, would prefer just to have it as a URL where they are always shown,, something like startpage.example.com that we can give to users to set as their browser home page with a search bar for a selection of search engines and cloudron itself.

[marcusquinn]

More inspiration:

• https://bonjourr.fr
• https://github.com/victorazevedo-me/Bonjourr

[robi]

@thetomester13
I don't think this is required, as users cannot install and manage apps, only admins can. That means that during the App install there can be a user selection for who it's for by an admin which injects their profile/API key into the app and installs it, becoming the default of what a non-admin user sees at their URL. Login only required per App.

Use of Rambox or WebCatalog can do something similar on the desktop, saving the need for crating entries for all the separate apps but just for their 'homepage' / startpage.

[thetomester13]

@marcusquinn thanks! I am trying to keep the project relatively simple so I don't want to get too deep into features. It is worth noting though that the original Homepage app does support opening links in new tabs. I could see a feature on the Cloudron app where it's an all-or-nothing boolean - all links will open in a new tab, or all links will open in the same tab. I also could see supporting non-Cloudron app links, and potentially number of columns. The way I see it, the icons should possibly adjust automatically based on the number of columns (again, this is a bit of the complexity I'm trying to avoid with a KISS app). The search bar I've also purposefully avoided this whole time, but I'm open to suggestions. It's also worth noting that you are free to create PR's into the Github repo if you want to contribute!

@robi that's an interesting point. Only admins are installing new applications indeed, but still, I'm not sure that all admins are capable or comfortable with going to an app's terminal, vim'ing (is that a verb??) the config file and adding in an API key. That being said, it's probably a good enough start for now, and could potentially revisit if/when @girish or @nebulon decide to add such a feature.

[robi]

Have you seen DashMachine?

Sounds like right up your alley!

[thetomester13]

@robi definitely looks like another good candidate for a Cloudron Theme app!

[rmdes]

@girish Damn, I just had a flash of a dashboard like this with centralized notifications widgets from different installed apps..imagine seeing emails, mastodon notifs, calendar events,task etc..all from one single space, in a self hosted cloudron

[thetomester13]

I just updated the Homepage Cloudron app such that you can feed it an array of custom_links that will render on the dashboard. You can also set ordinal's on both the custom links and Cloudron apps so you can reorder the links to your liking. Also, an open_links_in_new_tab option now exists if you prefer to have all the links open in a new tab instead of the current one.

I think this is in a mostly solid state and will try to come up with some tests for it for potential publishing in the Cloudron App Store.

As always, feedback welcome!

[marcusquinn]

@thetomester13 Can one just select a colour for the background? (always dark for me)