Custom App Full Access: how?

[osseonews]

In your Changelog for the custom app functionality, it says: "We've introduced a new kind of [application](https://docs.commercelayer.io/provisioning/getting-started/applications) that you can choose when creating a [custom app](https://docs.commercelayer.io/provisioning/getting-started/applications#custom-apps). [Generic apps](https://docs.commercelayer.io/provisioning/getting-started/applications) can have Full access (read and write) or Read-only permissions on all the [Commerce Layer Core resources](https://docs.commercelayer.io/core/api-reference/)"

How do you grant full access to all resources in the custom app? Or is this automatic? Right now, when we build custom apps, we can built on orders, shipments etc. But the auth for the custom apps is really annoying, as you need to log into each custom app to use it (tokens are not shared across apps). If we could use all the apps from just the custom apps, we would just move our code to that. But, how do you grant acess to all the apps? Thanks.

[marcomontalbano]

Hi @osseonews, I just updated the my_sample_app README to better explain how to properly create a custom app with a different kind. You can find it here. We'll also update the official app-elements documentation.

The kind property (you can find it in the main.tsx of each app) defines the set of permissions for your application. When you create your app in the dashboard, make sure the kind specified in the dashboard matches the kind defined in your application code otherwise you'll get an "unauthorized access" error.

When you customize an existing application like orders you can keep the kind=orders, but this will use a set of pre-defined permission that you cannot customize. If you wanna use different permissions you can set the kind to generic (within the main.tsx file) and create a generic custom app in the dashboard.

const Main = (props: ClAppProps): React.JSX.Element => (
  <StrictMode>
    <ErrorBoundary hasContainer>
      <SWRConfig
        value={{
          revalidateOnFocus: false
        }}
      >
        <TokenProvider
-         kind='orders'
+         kind='generic'
          appSlug='orders'
          devMode={isDev}
          ...

You can ship all your custom apps with the generic kind if you like.

[osseonews]

Thanks, so when kind = generic, the custom app can access all the endpoints, like orders, shipments etc.?

[marcomontalbano]

Exactly! Let us know if you need any other information. We'll use this card to improve the documentation about custom app 👍

[osseonews]

We are having issues in the build phase with custom apps. So we created a duplicate of my_sample_app. We renamed my_sample_app everywhere. We tested the new app in development and it works fine with the new slug we created. But in the build phase on Vercel, the new folder with our new app is not built and the slug is not available. The only thing that is built are main apps, like orders. We can see in the logs in Vercel that only the main apps are built. There must be some setting somewhere for this, but we can't find it. How do we get our new app to get built in the build phase?

[osseonews]

Actually, just an edit on the above, what's happening for us is that we can access our new sample app in the Commerce Layer dashboard, when we are in Test mode. Then everything works fine. But, when we move to the live mode, and we go to the App, the page is blank. No errors are shown or anything. But, we can't see anything. We switch back to the Test mode, and we can use the App. The same happens for the my_sample_app. Is there some setting to enable the app to work on both Test and Live? B/c even the my_sample_app doesn't work on live. Only in test mode. BTW, we haven't had any trouble with other custom apps working in Test and Live mode. They work in both. Just when we do a Generic app, it only works in Test mode? In Live Mode, the page is just blank and nothing is shown, but there are no errors.

[osseonews]

So the issue above, we figured out is related to a seeming bug with "generic" custom apps is that they do not show up for team users. The admin (Owner role) can see them, but if you give access to another team member to a generic custom apps, they do not show up for that user. For other custom apps, if you grant access, the user sees them. But, for "generic" custom apps, no matter what we do, other users cannot see them.

[marcomontalbano]

We are having issues in the build phase with custom apps. So we created a duplicate of my_sample_app. We renamed my_sample_app everywhere. We tested the new app in development and it works fine with the new slug we created. But in the build phase on Vercel, the new folder with our new app is not built and the slug is not available. The only thing that is built are main apps, like orders. We can see in the logs in Vercel that only the main apps are built. There must be some setting somewhere for this, but we can't find it. How do we get our new app to get built in the build phase?

The build:apps script uses --filter \"app-*\" so you'll need to name your app with a prefix app- inside the package.json (I'll update the documentation).

---

Actually, just an edit on the above, what's happening for us is that we can access our new sample app in the Commerce Layer dashboard, when we are in Test mode. Then everything works fine. But, when we move to the live mode, and we go to the App, the page is blank. No errors are shown or anything. But, we can't see anything. We switch back to the Test mode, and we can use the App. The same happens for the my_sample_app. Is there some setting to enable the app to work on both Test and Live? B/c even the my_sample_app doesn't work on live. Only in test mode. BTW, we haven't had any trouble with other custom apps working in Test and Live mode. They work in both. Just when we do a Generic app, it only works in Test mode? In Live Mode, the page is just blank and nothing is shown, but there are no errors.

Custom apps are independent between test and live modes. This means that when you create a custom app in the live move, it will only be available in live and will not be visible in test mode (and vice versa). If you need the same application (with the same endpoint URL) in both live and test environments, you’ll need to create the application twice: once for test and once for live. This separation is especially useful when your application integrates with third parties and you have different endpoints (for example, one for staging and one for production).

---

So the issue above, we figured out is related to a seeming bug with "generic" custom apps is that they do not show up for team users. The admin (Owner role) can see them, but if you give access to another team member to a generic custom apps, they do not show up for that user. For other custom apps, if you grant access, the user sees them. But, for "generic" custom apps, no matter what we do, other users cannot see them.

As admin, when you edit a member or a role, you should be able to see all available custom apps (this list contains only live custom app. We already planned to open this feature also for custom app in test mode. No ETA for the moment).

This flag makes all core apps available also in test mode for members.

Finally, when you login as member, you should be able to see all the enabled custom apps.

Remember that if you enabled the previous flag, you'll need to switch to live mode since custom app are not yet available in test mode for members.

[osseonews]

Thank you for clarifying everything. We seem to have got some things working. The custom app is an amazing addition.