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Build a Basic Extension App
This guide will provide an overview on how to use the Symphony App Developer Kit (ADK) to build the most basic extension app. This app will add a sample entry in the left navigation bar and a button to each available target zone in the Symphony user interface. For simplicity, the project will be minimal and not use any frameworks to demonstrate the bare neccessities required to build an extension app.
Create a working directory and initialize it using
npm.mkdir adk-example-basic && cd $_
npm init -y
Install the Symphony ADK along with the webpack bundler.
npm install @symphony-ui/adk
npm install --save-dev @symphony-ui/adk-webpack webpack-cli webpack-dev-server
Open the project directory in an editor of your choice
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 startfor starting the development web servernpm run buildto launch the production build process
Create a file named
webpack.config.js that will inject the ADK configuration into the webpack bundler.webpack.config.js
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const SymADKWebpack = require('@symphony-ui/adk-webpack');
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const packageJson = require('./package.json');
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module.exports = SymADKWebpack({}, packageJson.name);
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
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{
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"applications": [
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{
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"type": "sandbox",
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"id": "adk-example",
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"name": "ADK Example",
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"description": "Symphony ADK",
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"blurb": "Symphony ADK",
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"publisher": "Symphony",
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"url": "https://localhost:4000/controller.html",
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"domain": "localhost"
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}
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]
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}
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We are now ready to start building the app. Create a
src directory and a file named index.js within it.src/index.js
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import * as ADK from '@symphony-ui/adk';
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ADK.start({ id: 'adk-example' }).then(() => {
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ADK.navigation.add('ADK Example', () => alert('Navigate!'));
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const targets = [
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'hashtag', 'cashtag', 'single-user-im',
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'multi-user-im', 'profile', 'room'
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];
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targets.forEach((target) => {
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ADK.buttons.add(
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`Button on ${target}`,
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target,
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(payload) => { console.log(`You clicked on ${target}`, payload) }
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);
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});
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});
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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 to add an item to the left navigation bar. This item will have the label "ADK Example" and clicking on it will pop up an alert with the content: "Navigate!"
We then proceed to build an array of all the available target zones and loop through them, calling ADK.buttons to add a button into each target zone. Each button will be labelled "Button on" followed by the zone and clicking on them will log a message to the console. The message will report from which zone the button was pressed and the payload included with the event. Note that not all zones will contain a payload.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 in the next step.
There are 2 ways to load an extension app into Symphony. 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
Acknowledge the warning about being in developer mode. You should notice that a new left navigation item appears and triggers an alert when pressed.
Now that you know how to build a basic extension app, you can continue to use the ADK in building out the rest of your app, depending on what type of app you require.
Last modified 2mo ago