Custom Web Development in Losant

Help
1

Hello,

I have just started exploring Losant for a week now and, as a Software Engineer, I have a few development-related questions:

  1. Is it possible for me to upload my own Angular application onto the Losant platform and, if so, is there a tutorial on how to do this?
  2. Could I integrate Losant’s own application templates into my Angular application?
  3. Is there way I could implement the templates directly from my development environment?

I am impressed with the application templates offered by the platform, so my questions pertain more to a a situation where I wanted to built a new, custom application template.

Thanks,

Lucas

2

Hi @Lucas_Liberman, and welcome to the Losant Forums!

  1. Is it possible for me to upload my own Angular application onto the Losant platform and, if so, is there a tutorial on how to do this?

Yes, it is possible, and while we don’t have a tutorial specifically for Angular, we do have a React.js library template that demonstrates the core concepts …

If you are familiar with React, I would start by importing that template I mentioned, and you should hopefully be able to use that as a starting point for your Angular app.

  1. Could I integrate Losant’s own application templates into my Angular application?

You could use them as a starting point, yes - though the templates that make use of Application Experiences assume you are using our Experience Views for building your interface, which is rendered server-side using Handlebars templates. So while starting from a template is a good idea, it will still take some adjustments to convert it to an Angular application.

  1. Is there way I could implement the templates directly from my development environment?

You can import templates using our API directly, so you could write a tool that queries those and applies them to your application. Alternatively, I would suggest using the Losant UI to browse and import templates and then use the Losant CLI to pull the files you need for local development.

Hopefully this helps. If you have any questions about these responses please let me know. And again, welcome to Losant!

1 Like
3

Hi Dylan, I have some follow-up questions to my initial post.

  1. Am I limited by what versions of the Angular CLI I choose to build my web application with? For example, could I upload an application using the latest version of Angular?
  2. By extension, do similar limitations apply to third-party node dependencies that I include in my Angular application?
  3. In general, how often does Losant keep its own dependencies up-to-date?
  4. Alternatively, is it possible to host web applications built using .NET core on Losant?

Thanks again for your assistance,

Lucas L.

4
  1. Am I limited by what versions of the Angular CLI I choose to build my web application with? For example, could I upload an application using the latest version of Angular?

Sure, any version of Angular. It being just a front-end framework that compiles down to static HTML and CSS, which you will then serve out of Application Files, the version does not really matter.

  1. By extension, do similar limitations apply to third-party node dependencies that I include in my Angular application?

Again, since Losant is not doing any building/compiling of your application experience files - be they built in Angular, React, or vanilla HTML, CSS and JS - the third-party dependencies you use to build your application are up to you.

I should also note that you do not necessarily have to serve your application’s end-user interface out of Losant; rather, you could host the UI anywhere and simply use Losant’s Application Experiences as a data API. You could even do your user management through an SSO provider and skip experience users entirely, though doing so would add some additional complications when it comes to authorizing specific requests for specific data.

  1. In general, how often does Losant keep its own dependencies up-to-date?

We have resources dedicated to package upgrades and security fixes in every release cycle - be it for Losant’s user interface (app.losant.com) or the platform back-end.

  1. Alternatively, is it possible to host web applications built using .NET core on Losant?

You cannot host a .NET application on Losant, no. The back-end of any application is powered mainly by Losant’s drag and drop workflow builder, which can be used for user authentication/authorization; retrieval of application data; integrations with third-party services; and rendering of templated HTML.