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- This is completely reworked but based on /Developer page in the FreedomBox Manual. - This documentation can be made available as static site on https://docs.freedombox.org and the /Developer page in the FreedomBox Manual can be dropped. Signed-off-by: Sunil Mohan Adapa <sunil@medhas.org> Reviewed-by: James Valleroy <jvalleroy@mailbox.org>
66 lines
2.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
66 lines
2.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0
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Part 1: Beginning
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-----------------
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Before we begin
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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FreedomBox Service (Plinth) is a web interface built using Python3 and Django.
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FreedomBox apps are simply Django applications within the project. Hence, for
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the most part, writing a FreedomBox app is all about :doc:`writing a Django
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application <django:intro/tutorial01>`.
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You should start by reading the :doc:`Django tutorial <django:intro/index>`. All
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the concepts described there are applicable for how FreedomBox and its apps are
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be built.
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Picking an app
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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We must first, of course, pick an application to add to FreedomBox. For the
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purpose of this tutorial, let us pick Transmission. Transmission daemon handles
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Bitorrent file sharing. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol.
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.. important:: Choosing an app
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When choosing an application we must make sure that it respects users'
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freedom and privacy. By choosing to use FreedomBox, users have explicitly made
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a choice to keep the data with themselves, to not provide privacy compromising
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data to centralized entities and to use Free Software that respects their
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Software Freedom. These are not properties of *some* of the applications in
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FreedomBox but all applications *must* adhere to these principles. Apps should
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not even ask the users questions to this effect, because users have already
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made a choice.
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Packaging the application
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Majority of the effort in creating an application for FreedomBox is to package
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it for Debian and get it uploaded to Debian repositories. Going through the
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process of packaging itself is outside the scope of this tutorial. It is,
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however, well documented elsewhere. You should start at the `Debian Packaging
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Portal <https://wiki.debian.org/Packaging>`_.
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Debian packaging might seem like an unnecessary process that takes time with its
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adherence to standards, review process, legal checks, etc. However, upon close
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examination, one will find that without these steps the goals of the FreedomBox
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project cannot be met. Some of the advantages of Debian packaging are listed
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below:
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* Legal check ensures that proprietary licensed code or code with bad licenses
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does not inadvertently creep in.
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* Libraries have to be packaged separately easing security handling. When a
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security vulnerability is identified in a library, just the library will have
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to be updated and not all the applications that depend on it.
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* Upgrades become smoother. The dependency handling of the packaging system,
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configuration handling tools, tools to deal with various types of well known
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files help with ensuring a proper upgrade.
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* Collaborative maintenance teams ensure that the package is well cared for even
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if you get busy with other work and can't spend time on your package.
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Following standards and using common infrastructure is critical to enable this
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development methodology.
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