Frappe Apps

Frappe Apps are Python packages which use the Frappe platform. They can live anywhere on the Python path and must have an entry in the apps.txt file.

Creating an app

Frappe ships with a boiler plate for a new app. The command bench new-app app-name helps you start a new app by starting an interactive shell.

% bench new-app sample_app
App Name: sample_app
App Title: Sample App
App Description: This is a sample app.
App Publisher: Acme Inc.
App Icon: icon-linux
App Color: #6DAFC9
App Email: info@example.com
App URL: http://example.com
App License: MIT

The above command would create an app with the following directory structure.

sample_app
├── license.txt
├── MANIFEST.in
├── README.md
├── sample_app
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── sample_app
│   │   └── __init__.py
│   ├── config
│   │   ├── desktop.py
│   │   └── __init__.py
│   ├── hooks.py
│   ├── modules.txt
│   ├── patches.txt
│   └── templates
│       ├── generators
│       │   └── __init__.py
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── pages
│       │   └── __init__.py
│       └── statics
└── setup.py

Here, "App Icon" is a font awesome class that you can select from http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/icons/.

The boiler plate contains just enough files to show your app icon on the [Desk].

Files in the app

hooks.py

The hooks.py file defines the metadata of your app and integration points with other parts of Frappe or Frappe apps. Examples of such parts include task scheduling or listening to updates to different documents in the system. For now, it just contains the details you entered during app creation.

app_name = "sample-app"
app_title = "Sample App"
app_publisher = "Acme Inc."
app_description = "This is a sample app."
app_icon = "fa-linux"
app_color = "black"
app_email = "info@example.com"
app_url = "http://example.com"
app_version = 0.0.1

modules.txt

Modules in Frappe help you organize Documents in Frappe and they are defined in the modules.txt file in your app. It is necessary for every [DocType] to be attached to a module. By default a module by the name of your app is added. Also, each module gets an icon on the [Desk]. For example, the [ERPNext] app is organized in the following modules.

accounts
buying
home
hr
manufacturing
projects
selling
setup
stock
support
utilities
contacts

Adding app to a site

Once you have an app, whether it's the one you just created or any other you downloaded, you are required to do the following things.

Download the app via git

bench get-app https://github.com/org/app_name

Install the app to your site

bench --site site_name install-app app_name