A lightning-fast boilerplate for building Express Addons in Svelte, React, or Vue built on Vite + TypeScript + Sass

Features

• Lightning Fast Hot Reloading on changes
• Setup with TypeScript Definitions for Express in Frontend, Backend, and Manifest
• Optimized Build Size
• Easy Smart Bundling in Frontend UI and Backend Code contexts
• Spin a up a new project in Svete, React, or Vue
• Easily configure in express.config.ts
• Easy Package to Zip archive with sidecar assets
• GitHub Actions ready-to-go for Zip Releases

Backers

Huge thanks to our backers who have made this project possible!

Founding Backers

Founding backers have made substantial contribution to the project at the start which has made this project possible.

...

If you're interested in supporting this open-source project, please contact the Hyper Brew team.

Support

Free Support

If you have questions with getting started using Bolt Express, feel free to ask and discuss in our free Discord community Discord Community.

Paid Support

If your team is interested in paid consulting or development with Bolt Express, please contact the Hyper Brew team. More info on our Custom Addon Development & Consulting Services

Can I use Bolt Express in my free or commercial project?

Yes! Bolt Express is 100% free and open source, being released under the MIT license with no attribution required. This means you are free to use it in your free or commercial projects.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could provide a link back to this tool's info page in your product's site or about page:

Bolt Express Info Page Link: https://hyperbrew.co/resources/bolt-express

Built with Bolt Express button graphics:

PNG Files

SVG Files

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• Package manager either
  • NPM (comes with Node.js)
  • Yarn ( ensure by running yarn set version classic )
  • PNPM ( ensure by running pnpm --version )
• Express Desktop App

Quick Start

Create your new Bolt Express project (follow CLI prompts)

• yarn - yarn create bolt-express
• npm - npx create-bolt-express@latest
• pnpm - pnpm create-bolt-express

Change directory to the new project

• cd project

Install Dependencies (if not already done by create command)

• yarn - yarn
• npm - npm i
• pnpm - pnpm i

Build the addon (must run before dev, can also run after for panel to work statically without the process)

• yarn yarn build
• npm npm run build
• pnpm pnpm build

Setup Keys for development (Only Once Per Dev Machine)

The first time you debug an Express Addon on a machine you need to setup auth keys by following the CLI prompts. Once you've complted this once with Bolt Express or directly with @adobe/create-ccweb-add-on you don't need to do it again on that machine.

• yarn yarn cert
• npm npm run cert
• pnpm pnpm cert

Run the addon in hot reload mode for development

The first time you run yarn dev you will be promted to make a dev cert.

• On Windows, press OK on the popup dialog.
• On MacOS, enter your password in the CLI when prompted and press enter to create the cert.

You won't need to do this in the future.

• yarn yarn dev
• npm npm run dev
• pnpm pnpm dev

Bundle your addon and specified assets from copyZipAssets to a zip archive in the ./zip folder

• yarn yarn zip
• npm npm run zip
• pnpm pnpm zip

Add Addon to Express

1. Open Express in your browser (Edge on Windows, Safari on MacOS)
2. Open Document
3. Select Add-ons from left sidebar
4. Select "Your add-ons"
5. Toggle "Add-on testing"
6. With correct serve port number, check "I Understand..." and press "Connect"

Load and Debug Addon

1. Launch your addon by clicking on the icon of your Addon in the "In Development" section of "Your Add-ons"
2. Open the Dev Tools by right click > Inspect

Start Coding

• Write frontend UI code in src/main.svelte / src/main.tsx / src/main.vue
• Write backend express code in src-code/code.ts

---

Sending Messages between the Frontend and Backend

Bolt Express makes messaging between the frontend UI and backend code layers simple and type-safe.

Simply write your functions in code.ts on the backend, and import the sandbox variable to call the sandbox functions from the frontend with full type-safety:

1. Write Function in Backend src-code/code.ts

const sandboxApi = {
  myFunction: (a: string, b: number) => {
    // do stuff
    return true;
  },
};

2. Call that Function from the Frontend

Frontend: src/main.svelte / src/main.tsx / src/main.vue

import { sandbox } from "./utils/utils";

const helloWorld = async () => {
  let result = await sandbox.myFunction("hello", 400);
  console.log(result);
};

---

Info on Build Process

Frontend code is built to the .tmp directory temporarily and then copied to the dist folder for final. This is done to run the build process outside of the @adobe/ccweb-add-on-scripts process to improve speed in development.

The backend code is bundled into a single code.js file.

The manifest.json is generated from the express.config.ts file with type-safety. This is configured when running yarn create bolt-express, but you can make additional modifications to the express.config.ts file after initialization.