5 ms·

Deploy mobile apps from Dropbox

39 points by ujeezy 14y ago

twog 14y ago
This looks awesome. Any way I can get early access? Im working on a project I would love to try this on
- sintaxi 14y ago
  Rather than doing a long term private beta. We are gearing up to go directly to a public beta very soon. Those that sign up on the list will be first to be notified when we go public.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
bytefactory 14y ago
Awesome, can't wait to try this out!
charliesome 14y ago
I was about to have a conniption, but then I saw this: > Learn to Program > We created the absolute best Platform for learning web development. Harp removes all the complexity, and gives you the environment you are already comfortable with. This is a really awesome idea for getting beginners into mobile app development. PHP did a lot to reduce the barrier to entry for traditional web application development and I think this could have the potential to do the same for mobile. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
sintaxi 14y ago
Hey everyone, I'm one of the creators of the Harp Platform. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to address them.
- mvanveen 14y ago
  The site is sort of sparse on details. Just gave you my email addr. Can I link this up with my own DNS?
  - sintaxi 14y ago
    yep. we have CNAME support.
- RaphiePS 14y ago
  How does it tie in with Cordova?
  - lukifer 14y ago
    I'm curious about this as well. Does it handle the build? Does it handle the subtle differences between pure web and Cordova (deviceready vs ready, etc)?
    - sintaxi 14y ago
      these are precisely the problems we are thinking of. Harp came about from what we learned developing and using PhoneGap. Nothing in the architecture makes Harp a mobile specific platform but these are the use cases that drive the platform.
- knes 14y ago
  I noticed you can deploy your "blog" using jekyll. Can I deploy other Flask or Celery app easily with harp.io ?
  - sintaxi 14y ago
    As a general rule of thumb anything that generates static assets will be a perfect companion for Harp. There are some other goodies too, but we are still experimenting with those features.
smarx 14y ago
This looks very similar to my startup's product, Site44: www.site44.com. I'm not sure I follow the connection to "mobile," though. Some of the examples (like a static blog or landing page) don't sound at all specific to mobile. Can someone explain? Is this general-purpose static hosting, like Site44, or is it something different?
- spindritf 14y ago
  > This looks very similar to [...] www.site44.com. That was my first thought (site44 is pretty awesome btw). Will Harp do anything more than serve content from a Dropbox folder?
  - sintaxi 14y ago
    I got an email asking the same question. Without going into specifics here is what I can say at this time. I have not used site44 so I cant speak in depth about the differences. I can say Harp will be focused on solving domain specific problems, rather than focusing on the technical solution. This means that we look at the problems developers are having and adapt the Platform to address those needs. I believe strongly that people really just want pain removed from their development process. You can expect Harp to have things like rollbacks, diffs, preview urls, staging and production releases etc. Harp does not just turn a Dropbox directory into a website. We see Dropbox as a great way to get files into the cloud in a way that offers a low barrier of entry for beginners. Dropbox is not tied in any way to our architecture and Harp may support other competing services (or even git) if that appears to be the desire of our users. Hope this answers your question.
    - smarx 14y ago
      This certainly helps my understanding; thanks for responding.
mvanveen 14y ago
I've wanted to tackle this idea forever, it's always seemed like low-hanging fruit. I'm super excited to see someone take it on full-time. Best of luck!
- sintaxi 14y ago
  Thanks! Agreed. Dropbox is a significant step forward when it comes to getting assets into the cloud. I think it will make life much easier to be able to iterate on sites within a directory on your file system with no extra bagage.
j95tin 14y ago
This looks like an interesting project ;) I'll definitely check it out.
D9u 14y ago
The site crashes Dolphin on Android 2.2.x
D9u 14y ago
A mobile accessible interface is a big deal for many. A simple SSH / SFTP / etc connection for file management will suffice, rather than having some proprietary client model restricted to a couple of operating systems. Just my $0.02
federicoweber 14y ago
This is an interesting concept. I'm developing a blogging platform leveraging dropbox—that it's actually powering my website—but I've taken i different approach and I'm parsing on the server the markdown files. I haven't actually thought about using it with static html files, this approach have the benefit of greater flexibility in the type of content you can provide.
BillSaysThis 14y ago
Just to be clear, this only supports HTML, CSS and Javascript? So learning to program web applications doesn't include anything with a database or that requires secure access (i.e., authentication/authorization) unless (possibly) something like Parse is used as a backend and no Ruby, Python, PHP or other server-side languages.
jeffehobbs 14y ago
The Public folder in my Dropbox is already my Poor Man's CVS, this is a great idea. Best of luck!

39 points by ujeezy 14y ago

twog 14y ago

This looks awesome. Any way I can get early access? Im working on a project I would love to try this on

sintaxi 14y ago
Rather than doing a long term private beta. We are gearing up to go directly to a public beta very soon. Those that sign up on the list will be first to be notified when we go public.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

bytefactory 14y ago

Awesome, can't wait to try this out!

charliesome 14y ago

I was about to have a conniption, but then I saw this: > Learn to Program > We created the absolute best Platform for learning web development. Harp removes all the complexity, and gives you the environment you are already comfortable with. This is a really awesome idea for getting beginners into mobile app development. PHP did a lot to reduce the barrier to entry for traditional web application development and I think this could have the potential to do the same for mobile. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

sintaxi 14y ago

Hey everyone, I'm one of the creators of the Harp Platform. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to address them.

mvanveen 14y ago
The site is sort of sparse on details. Just gave you my email addr. Can I link this up with my own DNS?
- sintaxi 14y ago
  yep. we have CNAME support.
RaphiePS 14y ago
How does it tie in with Cordova?
- lukifer 14y ago
  I'm curious about this as well. Does it handle the build? Does it handle the subtle differences between pure web and Cordova (deviceready vs ready, etc)?
  - sintaxi 14y ago
    these are precisely the problems we are thinking of. Harp came about from what we learned developing and using PhoneGap. Nothing in the architecture makes Harp a mobile specific platform but these are the use cases that drive the platform.
knes 14y ago
I noticed you can deploy your "blog" using jekyll. Can I deploy other Flask or Celery app easily with harp.io ?
- sintaxi 14y ago
  As a general rule of thumb anything that generates static assets will be a perfect companion for Harp. There are some other goodies too, but we are still experimenting with those features.

smarx 14y ago

This looks very similar to my startup's product, Site44: www.site44.com. I'm not sure I follow the connection to "mobile," though. Some of the examples (like a static blog or landing page) don't sound at all specific to mobile. Can someone explain? Is this general-purpose static hosting, like Site44, or is it something different?

spindritf 14y ago
> This looks very similar to [...] www.site44.com. That was my first thought (site44 is pretty awesome btw). Will Harp do anything more than serve content from a Dropbox folder?
- sintaxi 14y ago
  I got an email asking the same question. Without going into specifics here is what I can say at this time. I have not used site44 so I cant speak in depth about the differences. I can say Harp will be focused on solving domain specific problems, rather than focusing on the technical solution. This means that we look at the problems developers are having and adapt the Platform to address those needs. I believe strongly that people really just want pain removed from their development process. You can expect Harp to have things like rollbacks, diffs, preview urls, staging and production releases etc. Harp does not just turn a Dropbox directory into a website. We see Dropbox as a great way to get files into the cloud in a way that offers a low barrier of entry for beginners. Dropbox is not tied in any way to our architecture and Harp may support other competing services (or even git) if that appears to be the desire of our users. Hope this answers your question.
  - smarx 14y ago
    This certainly helps my understanding; thanks for responding.

mvanveen 14y ago

I've wanted to tackle this idea forever, it's always seemed like low-hanging fruit. I'm super excited to see someone take it on full-time. Best of luck!

sintaxi 14y ago
Thanks! Agreed. Dropbox is a significant step forward when it comes to getting assets into the cloud. I think it will make life much easier to be able to iterate on sites within a directory on your file system with no extra bagage.

j95tin 14y ago

This looks like an interesting project ;) I'll definitely check it out.

D9u 14y ago

The site crashes Dolphin on Android 2.2.x

D9u 14y ago

A mobile accessible interface is a big deal for many. A simple SSH / SFTP / etc connection for file management will suffice, rather than having some proprietary client model restricted to a couple of operating systems. Just my $0.02

federicoweber 14y ago

This is an interesting concept. I'm developing a blogging platform leveraging dropbox—that it's actually powering my website—but I've taken i different approach and I'm parsing on the server the markdown files. I haven't actually thought about using it with static html files, this approach have the benefit of greater flexibility in the type of content you can provide.

BillSaysThis 14y ago

Just to be clear, this only supports HTML, CSS and Javascript? So learning to program web applications doesn't include anything with a database or that requires secure access (i.e., authentication/authorization) unless (possibly) something like Parse is used as a backend and no Ruby, Python, PHP or other server-side languages.

jeffehobbs 14y ago

The Public folder in my Dropbox is already my Poor Man's CVS, this is a great idea. Best of luck!