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I understand the usecase of having your own google doc-like services or a note taking device, but reading through the docs I got the picture that everything use

I understand the usecase of having your own google doc-like services or a note taking device, but reading through the docs I got the picture that everything used would be behind the user wall; is there any way to expose apps from sandstorm as sort of standalone things? I.e., could I make 'forums.example.com', and the forums points to an install of nodebb, allowing for access/registration outside of sandstorm? I like the idea of having a system where I can deploy instances of open source systems for me/friends to use on my own domain/server (like a small message board or something), but if it's entirely behind the being-a-user-of-the-sandstorm-instance first, then the utility is lessened.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
paulproteus 11y ago
FWIW, one way Sandstorm addresses this is that anyone can sign in with their Google/GitHub/email if you give them a sharing link. So they don't have to have an account first. e.g. try this: https://mrdomino.sandcats.io/shared/bqY9H9opr0AnKa6XYtC1Obfu9Z3SaaSLal4ppwPvTDT https://mrdomino.sandcats.io/shared/bqY9H9opr0AnKa6XYtC1Obfu... This is my friend's bulletin board on his own personal Sandstorm server (admittedly ugly URL - we need to make it possible to make less ugly, but you could work around that with a redirect elsewhere). Visit it, and then sign in, and you're talking.
kentonv 11y ago
You can freely share any app in Sandstorm with other users using the "share access" button. If you want an app to be "public", you can create a sharing link and post it publicly. (Note that anyone can log into your Sandstorm server, but unless you share with them there is nothing they can do when they log in.) We have a lot of plans to make the UX better here, but it basically works. The experience does end up pretty different that traditional self-hosted apps, and not everyone will be happy with that, but there are some pretty big advantages to this approach. Users don't need to log into each app separately; instead, they log into Sandstorm once. Apps don't need to implement their own login systems, which means fewer opportunities for security bugs. Most importantly, having the Sandstorm UI makes it feasible to manage lots of fine-grained app instances that are isolated from each other. Fine-grained containerization in turn has all kinds of advantages, in particular in terms of security. See: https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works
ocdtrekkie 11y ago
Out of curiosity, what would be the point of someone logging into NodeBB but not your Sandstorm hosting it? Sandstorm takes care of the authentication by design, so you can ensure your users are protected even if a bug is found in the app in question. That's a large part of the benefit of it. There might be some sense in a way to present it without the sidebar to go to other apps or shared grains or some such, but I can't imagine you'd want to not authenticate users with Sandstorm in that scenario.
- mmanfrin 11y ago
  For instance if they don't want to sign up, just view content; or in the case of the meteor digg-like app, requiring sign up before use is a major turn-off. Or if I am away from my own computer but want to show someone something on the bulletin board; I don't want to have to log in to the full system to get a link to view (or a link to share) when the alternative is a normal self-hosted app where I could go to forum.mydomain.com.
  - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
    Ah, I think there's kinda two sides to this. 1. Apps should definitely work as a guest. Many do, some don't. But when a user wants to then log in, they should use the Sandstorm login button on the top right, rather than apps all having their own authentication code (and authentication bugs!). 2. Apps definitely need prettier links. Right now the grains that do work as a guest still are ugly links like example.sandcats.io/shared/gdgfdfhdsjfjsdfksdjfhsdkjfhsdkjf and you have to do a redirect to create a prettier link. Eventually I do believe Sandstorm devs intend to make it easier for you to set certain grains to be at subdomains or what-have-you. 3. Also note that for static content publishing, there's already an established method for as well, you can see my blog as an example: blog.jacobweisz.com is hosted on Sandstorm's alpha server.
  - kentonv 11y ago
    Just to be clear (and expand on ocdtrekkie's comment): - Most apps today do not require login when accessing a sharing link. It's an important design goal for us that your friends don't have to create accounts to collaborate. - <vaporware>We plan to add ways to bind grains to easier-to-remember names in the future.</vaporware>

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

paulproteus 11y ago

FWIW, one way Sandstorm addresses this is that anyone can sign in with their Google/GitHub/email if you give them a sharing link. So they don't have to have an account first. e.g. try this: https://mrdomino.sandcats.io/shared/bqY9H9opr0AnKa6XYtC1Obfu9Z3SaaSLal4ppwPvTDT https://mrdomino.sandcats.io/shared/bqY9H9opr0AnKa6XYtC1Obfu... This is my friend's bulletin board on his own personal Sandstorm server (admittedly ugly URL - we need to make it possible to make less ugly, but you could work around that with a redirect elsewhere). Visit it, and then sign in, and you're talking.

kentonv 11y ago

You can freely share any app in Sandstorm with other users using the "share access" button. If you want an app to be "public", you can create a sharing link and post it publicly. (Note that anyone can log into your Sandstorm server, but unless you share with them there is nothing they can do when they log in.) We have a lot of plans to make the UX better here, but it basically works. The experience does end up pretty different that traditional self-hosted apps, and not everyone will be happy with that, but there are some pretty big advantages to this approach. Users don't need to log into each app separately; instead, they log into Sandstorm once. Apps don't need to implement their own login systems, which means fewer opportunities for security bugs. Most importantly, having the Sandstorm UI makes it feasible to manage lots of fine-grained app instances that are isolated from each other. Fine-grained containerization in turn has all kinds of advantages, in particular in terms of security. See: https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works

ocdtrekkie 11y ago

Out of curiosity, what would be the point of someone logging into NodeBB but not your Sandstorm hosting it? Sandstorm takes care of the authentication by design, so you can ensure your users are protected even if a bug is found in the app in question. That's a large part of the benefit of it. There might be some sense in a way to present it without the sidebar to go to other apps or shared grains or some such, but I can't imagine you'd want to not authenticate users with Sandstorm in that scenario.

mmanfrin 11y ago
For instance if they don't want to sign up, just view content; or in the case of the meteor digg-like app, requiring sign up before use is a major turn-off. Or if I am away from my own computer but want to show someone something on the bulletin board; I don't want to have to log in to the full system to get a link to view (or a link to share) when the alternative is a normal self-hosted app where I could go to forum.mydomain.com.
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  Ah, I think there's kinda two sides to this. 1. Apps should definitely work as a guest. Many do, some don't. But when a user wants to then log in, they should use the Sandstorm login button on the top right, rather than apps all having their own authentication code (and authentication bugs!). 2. Apps definitely need prettier links. Right now the grains that do work as a guest still are ugly links like example.sandcats.io/shared/gdgfdfhdsjfjsdfksdjfhsdkjfhsdkjf and you have to do a redirect to create a prettier link. Eventually I do believe Sandstorm devs intend to make it easier for you to set certain grains to be at subdomains or what-have-you. 3. Also note that for static content publishing, there's already an established method for as well, you can see my blog as an example: blog.jacobweisz.com is hosted on Sandstorm's alpha server.
- kentonv 11y ago
  Just to be clear (and expand on ocdtrekkie's comment): - Most apps today do not require login when accessing a sharing link. It's an important design goal for us that your friends don't have to create accounts to collaborate. - <vaporware>We plan to add ways to bind grains to easier-to-remember names in the future.</vaporware>