Saltcorn

Saltcorn is an extensible open source no-code database application builder. Use it to build web applications based on relational data with flexible views, datatypes and layouts.

This repository contains the core codebase, including the code necessary to self host an instance and to host a multitenant instance.

Trying out Saltcorn

A multitenant instance of Saltcorn is running at saltcorn.com, and you can create a new database under a subdomain at https://saltcorn.com/tenant/create this service is free but there are no guarantees about the security or availability of your application or the information you are storing. This service should only be used to explore the capabilities of saltcorn.

For self hosting, a 1 GB virtual private server is sufficient to run Saltcorn unless you expect high traffic volumes. Installation instructions are given below. If hosting on DigitalOcean, which offers a 1GB virtual machine for $5 per month, please consider using my referral code which will give you $100 credit over 60 days.

Acknowledgements

Saltcorn is using PostgreSQL, node.js, node-postgres, express, live-plugin-manager, craft.js, jQuery-Menu-Editor, Blockly and other awesome free and open source projects.

Quickstart with Docker

You can run a local instance for quick test by running the following command

cd ./deploy/examples/test && docker-compose up -d

and then point your browser to http://localhost:3000

Quick install server on Debian/Ubuntu

This has been tested on Debian 9, 10 and 11 and Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 and 21.04. All you need is to run these three lines on the command line shell, as root or as a user with sudo access:

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -qqy nodejs
npx saltcorn-install -y

The first two lines will install Node.js 14. The last line will call the Saltcorn install script accepting all the defaults, Which installs PostgreSQL and sets up Saltcorn as a service listening on port 80.

If you want a different port or a different database backend, or not install as a service, You can omit the final

-y

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -qqy nodejs
npx saltcorn-install

Install from NPM packages

Instructions have been tested on Ubuntu 20.04 on a 1GB VM.

TL;DR:

npm install -g @saltcorn/cli && saltcorn setup

Installing node and npm

For a recent version (v14) of Node.js:

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs libpq-dev build-essential python-is-python3

Install saltcorn

npm install -g @saltcorn/cli

If this fails, you may need to tell npm to disregard file permissions during compilation:

npm install -g @saltcorn/cli --unsafe

Setup (automated)

if you are

root

adduser saltcorn
adduser saltcorn sudo
su saltcorn
cd
mkdir -p ~/.config/

then run

saltcorn setup

Setup (manual)

NOTE: this is somewhat out of date; see instead https://wiki.saltcorn.com/view/ShowPage?title=Install%20on%20Ubuntu, in paticular the last section.

Skip this section if you ran

saltcorn setup

npx saltcorn-install

1. Install PostgreSQL:

   sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-client

2. Either,

• Create a JSON file

  .saltcorn

  in your XDG config directory (on Ubuntu this is normally \$HOME/.config) with these values:

  • host

    : address of PostgreSQL server

  • port

    : port of PostgreSQL server

  • database

    : PostgreSQL database

  • user

    : PostgreSQL user name

  • password

    : PostgreSQL user password

  • session_secret

    : Saltcorn session secret

  • multi_tenant

    : run as multi-tenant (true/false)

  For example:

   {
      "host":"localhost",
      "port":5432,
      "database":"saltcorn",
      "user":"tomn",
      "password":"dgg2342vfB",
      "session_secret":"hrh64b45b3",
      "multi_tenant":true
   }
  

  Or,

• Set environment variables.

  SALTCORN_SESSION_SECRET

  ,

  SALTCORN_MULTI_TENANT

  (defaults to

  false

  ), and either

  DATABASE_URL

  or

  PGHOST

  ,

  PGPORT

  ,

  PGUSER

  ,

  PGDATABASE

  ,

  PGPASSWORD

  .

Run

saltcorn serve

Server install

Install saltcorn as a service

Installing saltcorn as a service will mean it runs in the background and restarts automatically if the system reboots.

create a file

/lib/systemd/system/saltcorn.service

[Unit]
Description=saltcorn
Documentation=https://saltcorn.com
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify
WatchdogSec=5
User=saltcorn
WorkingDirectory=/home/saltcorn
ExecStart=/home/saltcorn/.local/bin/saltcorn serve -p 80
Restart=always
Environment="NODE_ENV=production"
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

run:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start saltcorn
sudo systemctl enable saltcorn

SSL certificate

Use cloudflare or lets encrypt to get a free SSL certificate (for https).

Install from source (for saltcorn developers)

Installing node and npm on Ubuntu

sudo apt install nodejs npm libpq-dev

will give you a usable version. For a more recent version (v14) of Node.js:

wget -qO - https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs libpq-dev

Prepare Node

assuming you have cloned this repository to \$HOME/saltcorn (otherwise adjust PATH)

npm config set prefix ~/.local
echo 'export PATH=$HOME/saltcorn/packages/saltcorn-cli/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Install packages

install lerna with

npm install -g lerna

run

lerna bootstrap

to install everything. If successful, you should now be able to run

saltcorn

Packages

• @saltcorn-cli: command-line interface

Development tips

Prettier

we use prettier:

npm install -g prettier

to format code:

git ls-files | grep -v builder_bundle | xargs prettier --write

Run this before every pull request.

dev server

nodemon packages/saltcorn-cli/bin/saltcorn serve

to also watch a local module

nodemon --watch ../saltcorn-kanban/ packages/saltcorn-cli/bin/saltcorn serve

React build builder

cd packages/saltcorn-builder
npm install
npm install [email protected]
npm run build

React rebuild on save

in

saltcorn/packages/saltcorn-builder/

git ls-files | entr npm run builddev

but this is not a production build, so run

npm run build

when done

Build jsdocs

npm istall -g jsdoc

then

jsdoc -c deploy/jsdoc.conf.json

JSDocs will then be available in

docs/

To deploy these to https://saltcorn.github.io/jsdocs/:

cp -R docs/* /path/to/jsdocs
cd /path/to/jsdocs
git add .
git commit -am 'version number or other message...'