Build an Extension App with App Views

This guide will provide an overview on how to use the Symphony Messaging App Developer Kit (ADK) to build an extension app that has app views. This app will add entries into the left navigation that will each launch a separate app view. The project will use React and ADK's React and Webpack configuration for app view generation.

Prerequisite: Install NodeJS first, either directly or via nvm

Create Project

Create a working directory and initialize it using npm.

mkdir adk-example-views && cd $_
npm init -y

Install Dependencies

Install the Symphony Messaging ADK, the ADK React and Webpack configurations, React itself, Symphony Messaging UI Toolkit for UI Components, Typescript, Webpack and the required loaders.

JavaScript

npm install \
  @symphony-ui/adk \
  @symphony-ui/adk-react \
  react \
  react-dom
npm install --save-dev \
  @symphony-ui/adk-webpack \
  @symphony-ui/uitoolkit-components \
  css-loader \
  style-loader \
  babel-loader \
  @babel/preset-react \
  webpack \
  webpack-cli \
  webpack-dev-server

TypeScript

Open the project directory in an editor of your choice

Add Script Commands

Edit the package.json file, replacing the scripts section with the following:

"scripts": {
  "start": "webpack-dev-server --mode=development",
  "build": "webpack --mode=production"
},

This adds two commands:

• npm start for starting the development web server

• npm run build to launch the production build process

Add Configuration

JavaScript

Create a .babelrc file with the following contents:

.babelrc

{
  "presets": [ "@babel/preset-react" ]
}

Create a webpack.config.js file with the following contents:

webpack.config.js

const SymADKWebpack = require('@symphony-ui/adk-webpack');
const packageJson = require('./package.json');
const config = {
  devtool: 'source-map',
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.(js|jsx)$/,
        exclude: /node_modules/,
        loader: "babel-loader"
      },
      {
        test: /\.css$/,
        use: [
          'style-loader',
          'css-loader',
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
  resolve: {
    extensions: ['.js', '.jsx'],
  }
};
module.exports = SymADKWebpack(config, packageJson.name);

TypeScript

Add Application Manifest

Each extension app requires a manifest (also known as the bundle.json file) to describe the application. Create a file named bundle.json with the following contents:

bundle.json

{
  "applications": [
    {
      "type": "sandbox",
      "id": "adk-example",
      "name": "ADK Example",
      "description": "Symphony ADK",
      "blurb": "Symphony ADK",
      "publisher": "Symphony",
      "url": "https://localhost:4000/controller.html",
      "domain": "localhost"
    }
  ]
}

Build the App

We are now ready to start building the app. Create a src directory and a file named index.js (or index.ts if you're using TypeScript) within it.

src/index.js

import * as ADK from '@symphony-ui/adk';

ADK.start({ id: 'adk-example' }).then(() => {
  ADK.navigation.add('ADK View A', () => {
    ADK.modules.open('view-a', { title: 'ADK View A' });
  });
});

The code ADK.start() initializes the ADK with an app id (adk-example) that must correspond with the value provided in the bundle.json manifest from the previous step. Once the initialization is complete, we use ADK.navigation.add() to add an item to the left navigation bar. This item will have the label "ADK View A" and clicking on it will use ADK.modules.open() to open a module with the app view called view-a. This parameter can either be an actual navigational route (e.g. view.html) or a string that will correspond to a JavaScript or TypeScript file with the same name located in the src/views directory.

Let's proceed to build the app view itself in a file named view-a.jsx (or view-a.tsx if you're using TypeScript) within src/views.

src/views/view-a.jsx

import * as React from 'react';
import * as ADKReact from '@symphony-ui/adk-react';
import { Badge, Icon } from '@symphony-ui/uitoolkit-components';
import { useClientTheme, useUserReferenceId } from '@symphony-ui/adk-react';
import './view-a.css';

const ViewA = () => {
  const { name: theme, layout } = useClientTheme();
  const userId = useUserReferenceId();

  return (
    <div className="main-view">
      <header>
        <h1>
          <Icon iconName="market-place" className="header-icon" />
          Welcome to ADK View A!
        </h1>
      </header>
      <main>
        <hr className='tk-my-2' />
        <h3>Meta Information</h3>
        <div>
          <strong>Theme</strong>: current theme is <Badge variant='positive'>{theme}</Badge> and <Badge variant='positive'>{layout}</Badge>
        </div>
        <div>
          <strong>User Reference Id</strong>: <Badge variant='positive'>{userId}</Badge>
        </div>
        <hr className='tk-my-2' />
      </main>
    </div>
  );
};

ADKReact.createView(<ViewA />, { id: 'adk-example' });

The contents of this app view are entirely arbitrary. You can choose not to use Symphony Messaging's UI Toolkit and employ other component libraries of your choice. The only required line here is calling ADKReact.createView() at the end, passing in your component and a configuration object pointing to the same app id as before.

For aesthetics, let's define some styling in src/views/view-a.css.

src/views/view-a.css

.main-view {
  font-family: "Segoe UI", Roboto, sans-serif;
  margin: 1rem;
}
.main-view header .header-icon { margin-right: 1rem }
.main-view main {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  gap: .5rem;
}
.main-view main hr { width: 100% }

Start the App

We can now start the app using:

npm start

This starts a local development server on https://localhost:4000. Note that this is a TLS-enabled site because all extension apps need to be loaded from TLS-enabled sites. However, because this is a development server, the certificate is self-signed and not trusted by any browser.

Visit https://localhost:4000 in your browser to accept the security warning about the untrusted self-signed certificate. Skipping this step will cause the extension app to not load within Symphony Messaging in the next step.

Load the App in Symphony Messaging

There are 2 ways to load an extension app into Symphony Messaging. For development purposes, we will be using the bundle injection method to temporarily load the app into the current session.

Beyond local development testing, you should get your pod administrator to create a corresponding app entry in the Admin Portal by uploading the bundle.json file.

We can now load the app by injecting the bundle URL as a parameter named bundle behind a pod URL. For example, if you are using the developer sandbox located at develop2.symphony.com, visit the following URL in your browser:

https://develop2.symphony.com/?bundle=https://localhost:4000/bundle.json

Test the App

Acknowledge the warning about being in developer mode. You should notice that a new left navigation item appears and opens an app view when clicked on.

Next Steps

Now that you have built a view-driven Extension App, you can proceed to build out your view and add more as required to complete your app.

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