Usage without a cloud?

[electrovir]

Are all browser files for this project hosted on a CDN somewhere for use without a cloud or login? I'm interested in using this but not interested in cloud persistence or login.

[progrium]

Can you tell me more about your use case? It should be possible with some minor changes.

[electrovir]

Nothing fancy:

• sandbox for experiments
• an editor
• an embeddable software playground
• trying out Apptron

Because of this line in the README:

Apptron runs entirely in the browser and does not depend on the cloud.

I assumed such a thing already existed.

[progrium]

That should have said Apptron environments run entirely in the browser, but without knowing how individual environments are used/deployed it's hard to know how to package/document that use case. Not sure if you need it to have internet access in your usage or just for setup or at all, but if so then we need a gateway and I'm not sure if that's okay to run in the cloud (you mentioned CDN which is cloud) or locally or as browser extension or what. Are you embedding or intending to use it standalone? If you just want to try it out, you can't use it as is? Is it just cloud persistence and login that you don't want?

[electrovir]

CDN which is cloud

Sorry I meant a CDN just for static frontend assets 😄

we need a gateway

It sounds to me like an external server of some kind is required for full functionality then, is that right?

Is it just cloud persistence and login that you don't want?

I was thinking that I could run Apptron purely from static frontend assets. My apologies for the misunderstanding!

[progrium]

Correct, the project as it is today at version 0.6 out of the box cannot be run from static assets, but it is close. The project as intended minimizes cloud dependency as much as possible to support the local-first model. Right now, as an in-development open source project, it is more focused on supporting the deployment at apptron.dev so it can be used and demonstrated easily. As it shifts to supporting the self-hosted use case, more things will be optional/pluggable and more readily usable in some form as static files.

However, it's not really a binary thing. I'm trying to collect information on the specifics of how/why you (or anybody else) want this so we can prioritize a particular path. For example, we have a desktop version on the roadmap, which can transparently run the internet gateway locally. That is not cloud, though it is more than static files.

Alternatively, we could let you export a static file version of an Apptron environment to run locally or put on a CDN. Unless configured with an internet gateway, it would not have internet access, but that would be static files. If internet is needed, a gateway is required, but that can be many forms: self hosted, desktop app, browser extension, etc.

If I knew more exactly what somebody wanted and their requirements (ideally with a why), I could incorporate that into our roadmap and give an estimate of when that would be possible. Rather than just saying no.

Anyway, good clarifying question. You can mark as answer if this is sufficient.

[electrovir]

Here are some specific use cases I was hoping to try out:

• trying out an npm package with minimal friction (like https://runkit.com which has been broken for a while)
• an embedded terminal (bash) on a website for trying out CLI commands (on a documentation website for a specific CLI command, for example)
• a containerized terminal environment for trying out things without messing up my own terminal config (yes, I could also do this with Docker)

[progrium]

Thanks for sharing! At least in the second case I can see how not depending on cloud or third-party would be ideal. This is also a good example of a case you could use apptron.dev to set up and then export static files for. I'll work on an example/demo for this.