nRF Connect SDK Add-on index

This repository includes a collection of index pages for publicly available nRF Connect SDK Add-ons, which are supplementary components that extend the nRF Connect SDK. You can access the index from the nRF Connect for VS Code extension, and browse it on its webpage.

Contributing

If you or your organization has a project that you'd like to include in this repository, open a pull request against it. Read the CONTRIBUTING file for more information.

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Development

To create an add-on index page of your own, you need to generate a new, custom index.json file and contribute it to this repository (using a different name). Use the information in the following sections to make sure that the JSON file is set up correctly.

Generating index.json

To generate an index.json template file:

1. Open a command terminal in the ncs-app-index root directory.

2. Install the required dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Generate index.json:

   npm run generate-index-json
   

   The index.json file is created in the resources directory.

4. Copy index.json to ./site/public/.

Creating a custom index.json

To create an index.json of your own, you can either generate a template or create a custom file from scratch. Your custom JSON file must include the following information:

• Information about your account or organization (name and description).

• Inside the apps array, an entry for each add-on you want to be shown in the index:

  • name must match the add-on's GitHub repository in your account.
  • title is the human-readable name of the repository.
  • description is the short description of the add-on.
  • manifest is the alternative name of the west manifest. Defaults to west.yml.
  • kind is the type of add-on.
  • tags are the tags that will be used to categorize the add-on.
  • license is the license type name.
  • apps is the global pattern to find directories containing add-ons.
  • compatibleNcs are the nRF Connect SDK's versions the add-on is compatible with.

Most of the information provided in these entries will be displayed on the add-on index page. For more information about each entry, see appMetadataSchema in the resources/schema.json file.

Schemas

JSON schemas are provided to enforce the shape of the data in the index. They are located in the resources directory. To edit the schemas, make any changes in site/src/schema.ts and run npm run generate-schemas from the root directory.

Serving a local server

Once you have your index.json file, you can set up a local server to test it:

1. Go to the site directory.

2. Install the required dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Build the website locally:

   npm run build
   

   This will create a static build in the /site/out directory.

Verifying website locally

This repository includes a static website that displays the contributed add-ons in a searchable frontend. It's developed using the Next.js React framework, and uses Tailwind for styling.

To verify your application index website locally:

1. Start the website locally:

   npm run dev
   

2. Access the site in the browser by going to localhost:3000/ncs-app-index.

3. Check if the index.json is available by going to localhost:3000/ncs-app-index/index.json.

Website customization

You can customize the local website in the following ways:

• By default, the site runs on port 3000, but this can be overridden by setting the PORT environment variable.

• Add-on data is read at build time. For development purposes, sample data can be imported from sampleData.ts.

Verifying index in the extension

To verify that your add-on index is correctly picked up by the [nRF Connect for Visual Studio Code extension], set the extension to fetch the add-on index from the custom URL:

1. In Visual Studio Code, open the settings.json workspace settings file.

2. Add the following line to the file:

   "nrf-connect.appIndexUri": "http://localhost:3000/",
   

3. Save your changes.

4. In the extension's Welcome View, select Create a new application > Browse application index.

Your custom nrf-connect.appIndexUri will be used to list the add-ons in the index.

Query parameters

The add-on index exposes several query parameters for filtering its contents.

Parameter	Type	Description	Example
app	string	Show add-ons that include the app in their name, title, description, or tags.	?app=air+quality
ncs	string	Show add-ons that are compatible with a given nRF Connect SDK version.	?ncs=v2.5.0