Publish your own app in the App Market

You can add an app of your own to the App Market from a public GitHub repository. The app is saved under your account, and you can describe it and edit it.

Adding an app does not list it for other customers

The button is named Publish Blueprint, but it saves your app as Draft or In Review. Only you find an app with these statuses in the list of apps. Other customers find an app only when it is Published, and the screens in the menu have no button for that step. See Draft, In Review and Published.

What your repository must contain

The repository must be public and on GitHub. Give its address in this form: https://github.com/<owner>/<repository>. Doprax reads it without a login, so it cannot read a private repository. GitLab, Bitbucket and other hosts are not accepted.

What else it needs depends on the target platform you choose.

Target platform	Required file	Where Doprax looks
Virtual Machine	An Ansible playbook named playbook.yml or playbook.yaml	At the top of the repository first. If it is not there, the first file in any folder whose name ends in playbook.yml or playbook.yaml
App Space	A file named doprax-compose.yml or doprax-compose.yaml	At the top of the repository first, then in any folder

A README at the top of the repository is optional. Doprax uses its text to suggest a description.

You do not write a manifest or any other Doprax file. Nothing else in the repository is checked.

Apps for App Spaces

You can save an app with the target App Space, but nothing installs it today. The install bar only installs on virtual machines.

How your playbook is run

When a customer installs your app, Doprax downloads your repository and runs the playbook with Ansible against the customer’s VM.

• The inventory holds one host, the customer’s VM. Write your plays for hosts: all.
• Ansible logs in as root.
• The log of the run is shown to the customer, line by line.
• The run counts as a success when Ansible ends without a failed task.

These variables are passed to the playbook:

Variable	Value
SERVER_IP	The public IPv4 address of the customer’s VM
SERVER_DOMAIN	A domain that was added to the VM in the dashboard. Empty when there is none
INSTALL_ID	A unique code of this install
APP_SLUG	app
APP_DIR	/opt/doprax/apps/app

APP_SLUG and APP_DIR have the same value for every app that is added through these screens. Do not rely on them to keep your app apart from another one.

Which commit is installed

When you save the app, Doprax records the newest commit of the repository’s default branch. Installs use exactly that commit. A commit you push later does not change what customers install, and the screens in the menu have no way to add a new version.

Add your app

1. In the dashboard menu, select App Market, then Blueprint Marketplace.
2. Select Publish App. The page Publish App Blueprint opens.
3. Under TARGET PLATFORM, select Virtual Machine or App Space.
4. Under REPOSITORY, paste the address of your repository and select Verify.
5. When the page says “Repository verified.”, fill in APP BLUEPRINT DETAILS (see the table below).
6. Select Publish Blueprint. The message “App blueprint saved” appears and you are back on the list of apps.

If Verify fails, the page shows why:

Message	Cause
“Invalid GitHub repo link.”	The address is not of the form https://github.com/<owner>/<repository>
“Repo does not have a playbook.yml file.”	No playbook was found. You get the same message when the repository is private or its name is misspelled, because Doprax cannot read it
“Repo does not have a doprax-compose.yml file.”	The same, for the target App Space
“This repository already exists.”	You already added an app from this repository. A repository can be added once per account

If you change the target platform after a successful check, select Verify again.

The details

Field	What to enter
App blueprint image	Optional. A .png, .jpg or .jpeg file
Status	Draft or In Review
Title	Required. Filled in with the name of the repository
Version tag	A name for the version, for example v1.0.0. If you leave it empty it becomes v1.0
Description	Required. Filled in from your README, or from the repository’s description. Links are not allowed
Tags	At least one. Choose from the list, or select Add New to create a tag. Customers filter the list of apps by these tags
Readme content	Three texts: About, Guidelines and Access. They appear on your app’s page under ABOUT, GUIDELINES and ACCESS. Links are not allowed

Use Access to tell customers how to reach the app after the install: the address, the port and where to find the login. The dashboard shows no address or password by itself for an app that is installed from a repository playbook.

Draft, In Review and Published

An app has one of these statuses. Your own apps show it as a label on the card.

Status	Who finds the app in the list	How an app gets it
Draft	Only you	You choose it in the form
In Review	Only you	You choose it in the form
Published	Every customer. The app can be installed	Not possible from the screens in the menu

Choosing In Review starts nothing by itself. It is a label, like Draft.

The title of an app that is not published can still be seen in one place: your publisher profile lists your top apps by name, whatever their status.

An app is listed for everyone only when one of its versions is published. The platform publishes a version only after a test install of that version succeeded on one of your own VMs. Today:

• The screens in the menu have no button to run that test or to publish.
• Test runs of an app that is installed by a repository playbook are refused, unless our team has switched them on for your account. The platform’s message says: “Repository-playbook apps cannot be tested from this environment while installs are being moved onto the target machine. Apps already published keep working, compose apps are unaffected, and support can enable this for your account.”

To have your app listed, write to our team through Support and name the app.

Find your apps

On Blueprint Marketplace, tick My apps. The list then shows only your apps, in every status, each with its status label. Search, the platform filter and the categories work together with My apps.

Without the tick, your apps that are not listed for everyone appear at the top of the first page, for you only.

Other customers find your published apps on your publisher profile, on the Apps tab.

Edit an app

1. Open your app’s page and select Edit. Only you see this button.
2. Change what you need on the page Edit Blueprint.
3. Select Save changes.

You can change the image, the status, the title, the version tag, the description, the tags, and the texts About, Guidelines and Access.

You cannot change the repository (“Repository cannot be changed after blueprint creation.”) or the target platform.

Saving an edit takes a published app off the list

The Status field offers only Draft and In Review. For an app that is Published, the form opens with Draft selected, and Save changes stores the status that is selected. The app then leaves the list that other customers see, and the screens in the menu cannot publish it again. Do not save an edit of a published app unless you accept this. Ask our team first.

What is not possible

• Delete an app. The screens in the menu have no delete button.
• Add a new version. See Which commit is installed.
• Ask the customer for settings. The install bar asks only for the VM. Your playbook gets the variables in the table above and nothing else.
• Install your own app from the install bar. The platform answers “Market app version not found”.
• Review your own app. The Write review button is not shown to the publisher.