The Loklak applications site now has a functional store listing page where developers can showcase their apps and users and other developers can get all sorts of information about an app. However, for an app to be showcased properly on store listing page, the app must contain a properly configured app.json file and some necessary assets. But while creating an app a developer might miss out some vital information from app.json or forget to provide some of the required assets, which he will later come to know from his co-developers or reviewers.

Now this will cause inconvenience, both for the developer and reviewer. So to overcome this apps.loklak.org has now got a new script to review a given app. It checks whether the necessary fields are present in app.json or not. If present then it checks whether the fields are empty or not. If any invalid or missing information problem is encountered then it is reported to the developer along with information on what should be the actual case. If the app passes all the checks then the developer is informed that his app is ready to be published.

In order to use this script all the developer needs to do is open his app directory in terminal and execute the following command

../bin/review.sh

This will present the developer with all the necessary informations.

How the script works?

Now let us delve into the working of the script. The initial call to the shell script review.sh calls a python script review.py. This python script performs all the checks on the app and displays necessary informations.

The first thing the script does is, it checks whether there is an app.json present in the app directory or not, if yes then the process continues otherwise it ends immediately with an error.

if "app.json" not in dir_contents:
    print_info("Please include a well configured app.json")
    print_problem("review failed")
    exit(0)

Next it performs one of the most important checks. It verifies whether the name of the app and app directory name is same or not. If it is same then there is no problem else it shows the corresponding error message.

app_dir_name = os.getcwd().split("/")[-1]
    if app_dir_name != app_json.get("name"):
      print_problem("app directory name and name mentioned in app.json are different")
      print_info("app directory name and name mentioned in app.json must be same")
      problems_no += 1

Next the script checks whether there is an index.html present or not. Index.html is a must as it serves as the entry point of the app.

if “index.html” not in dir_contents:
print_problem(“index.html is missing”)
print_info(“app must contain index.html”)
problems_no += 1

After this the script checks whether a number of key fields are present or not. These field includes applicationCategory, oneLineDescription, author. If they are present, it checks whether the fields are empty or not. If the fields are either absent or empty, error is shown to the developer.

if app_json.get("applicationCategory") == None:
    print_problem("key applicationCategory missing in app.json")
    print_info("app.json must contain key applicationCategory with category as value")
    problems_no += 1
  else:
    if app_json.get("applicationCategory") == "":
      print_problem("applicationCategory cannot be an empty string")
      problems_no += 1
  
  if app_json.get("oneLineDescription") == None:
    print_problem("key oneLineDescription missing in app.json")
    print_info("app.json must contain key oneLineDescription with a one line description of the app")
    problems_no += 1
  else:
    if app_json.get("oneLineDescription") == "":
      print_problem("oneLineDescription cannot be an empty string")
      problems_no += 1
  
  if app_json.get("author") == None:
    print_problem("author object missing in app.json")
    print_info("app.json must contain author object containing information about author")
    problems_no += 1
  else:
    author = app_json.get("author")
    if author.get("name") == None:
      print_problem("name of author is mssing in author object")
      print_info("name of author must be mentioned in author object")
      problems_no += 1
    else:
      if author.get("name") == "":
        print_problem("author name cannot be an empty string")
        problems_no += 1

After the above checks are performed, it checks whether the fields corresponding to the image assets are present or not and whether the assets being referred in app.json exist in the directory. If not, then the developer is informed about the same.

if app_json.get("promoImage") == None:
    print_problem("key promoImage missing in app.json")
    print_info("app.json must contain key promoImage with path of promo image as value")
    problems_no += 1
  else:
    if os.path.isfile(app_json.get("promoImage")) == False:
      if app_json.get("promoImage") == "":
        print_problem("promoImage cannot be an empty string")
      else:
        print_problem(app_json.get("promoImage") + " does not exists")
      problems_no += 1
  
  if app_json.get("appImages") == None:
    print_problem("key appImages missing in app.json")
    print_info("app.json must contain key appImages with paths of preview images as value")
    problems_no += 1
  else:
    for image in app_json.get("appImages"):
      if os.path.isfile(image) == False:
        if image == "":
          print_problem("appImages cannot contain empty strings")
        else:
          print_problem(image +" does not exists")
        problems_no += 1

Finally after all the checks are performed, the developer is informed whether his or her app is ready to be published or not. The number of errors are also presented along with all other details.

if problems_no > 0:
    print_problem("Number of problems detected : " + str(problems_no))
    print_problem("App cannot be published")
    print_info("Please check https://github.com/fossasia/apps.loklak.org/blob/master/docs/tutorial.md")
  else:
    print_success("App is ready for publishing")
    print_info("Check https://github.com/fossasia/apps.loklak.org/blob/master/docs/tutorial.md to publish your app")

Here is an sample output for a faulty app

Here is an sample output for app which is ready to go.

The script is presently functional and can be used to review your apps before sending it for being published on apps.loklak.org. However there are a number of things which are presently not checked like version, getStarted.md, appUse.md, etc. These checks will be included soon.