Quickstarts are one-click installations that make launching fully-functional web applications quick and easy. This guide will walk through the different ways to launch a Quickstart as well as how to modify them after they've been launched. After reading it, you should be familiar with:
- Launching a Quickstart
- Managing and Modyfing the code of an app once it's been launched
Launching a Quickstart
There's a few different ways to launch Quickstarts on Pagoda Box. Here's a quick rundown.
From the App Cafe
The App Cafe is the online marketplace for Pagoda Box Quickstarts. You can browse, search, buy and launch Quickstarts–all from the App Cafe.
While Creating a New App
While launching a new application on Pagoda Box, you have the option of using any Quickstart available in the App Cafe. You can search and browse Quickstarts without ever having to leave the launch process. Once you find the Quickstart you want to use, just click "Launch."
From Your Quickstarts List
Any Quickstarts that you've personally published or a listed contributor on are available on the Home page of your App Dashboard. Just click the Launch button next to your Quickstart to launch a new app.
From a Quickstart's Public Launch URL
Every Quickstart created has a Public Launch URL associated with it. This is a URL that, when visited, will automatically launch a new app from that Quickstart.
Modifying a Quickstart
Once you've launched a Quickstart, it's likely that you will want to customize the codebase to meet your specific needs. Since Pagoda Box is a read-only environment, any changes to your codebase must be made locally and then pushed live. You have two options for pulling your code down from Pagoda Box: Git or SFTP (Vintage Mode).
Pulling Your Code Using Git
To pull your application code down from Pagoda Box using Git, in terminal, navigate to where you would like to house your application directory. Use the Git Clone URL provided in your App Dashboard to clone your application onto your local desktop.
Make any necessary changes and push them back up to Pagoda Box. For more on how to manage your codebase using Git, check out the Git Basics Guide or visit git-scm.com.
Pulling Your Code Using SFTP
To pull your application code down from Pagoda Box using SFTP, you'll need to enable Vintage Mode. Vintage mode allows you to connect to your Code Repo through an SFTP connection. Simply download the files you need to change then, once you've made your changes, re-upload those files back into your Code Repo. Before your changes will be viewable on your live application, you'll need to push them live by clicking the "Deploy Latest" button in your App Dashboard.
For more information on SFTP access, check out the Vintage Mode Guide.