Introducing Init - Feedback thread

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on a side project to build a fast prototyping tool for Ionic apps that I’m calling Init.

Init accelerates the creation of new apps built on Ionic, and would be useful for:

• Building out a PoC in Ionic to share with a team/boss/manager/client/etc.
• Quickly scaffolding out the routing for a new app (including tabs and, in v2, menu)
• Integrating with third party services or adding custom templates to your app quickly (v2)
• Having fun and learning from Ionic components and code output

I am releasing the first version as a Preview (see FAQ below) in order to get feedback and start involving the community in the evolution of the tool.

Current features

Init today supports the following functionality:

1. Three basic app templates (social network, basic utility, and blank)
2. ~10 pre-made templates covering common app functionality (login/signup/settings/feed/etc) (lots more to come)
3. Edit text and properties on elements on each page
4. Preview your app in realtime as you build it and link pages together
5. Quickly wire up tabs, add inputs to forms, edit slides, and other complex operations
6. Customize the theme and icon(*) for your app.
7. Import third party templates and build your own
8. Export engineer-quality Angular, React, and Vue* code with routing and theming wired up

These features are not finished yet as of 11/6:

• icon export not yet ready, in progress
• Vue tabs routing not correctly wired up

Feedback and Try it

Init is very new, and has only been in development for about a month in a half. My goal was to get an MVP out that showed the concept, had some functionality, and would be useful to elicit feedback and ideas about the direction of the tool.

Please reply to this forum thread with feedback or any thoughts about the tool!

You can try it here: https://init.page/

Roadmap

I’ve got plans to improve Init quite a bit based on the feedback during this Preview.

An extremely tentative roadmap looks like:

1. More templates! The primary focus of this tool is templates and opinionated design. Currently the templates you see were built by me, but the next release will have a ton of templates designed by @benjsperry which will look a lot better than what’s there today

2. More features for template extensions. I want to get to a point where you can add a Firebase or AWS Amplify template and it is usable in some way

3. Run apps directly on device w/ native functionality. Essentially a “live preview” app along with the support for templates to run actions (including accessing native code)

4. Data scaffolding using a global store approach. Imagine being able to mock up data by having a global store (used in redux/pullstate/MobX/etc.) and then setting values on buttons/labels/etc. bound to that global state. Then, exporting engineer-quality state management code.

5. Importing data from a spreadsheet or other data source. For rapid prototyping Spreadsheets have become incredibly popular. Along with the state management feature above, enabling pulling in data sources especially those in spreadsheets.

FAQ

How do I get started?

Just go to https://init.page/ and create your app.

How much does this cost?

Nothing! It’s 100% free and requires no sign up. That won’t change. If we do add signups or paid plans, it would be for optional, advanced features on top of what you see today.

Is this like Creator/Studio/etc.?

Yes and no. It’s inspired by and shares some code with those efforts, but instead of being a commercial/enterprise app building product, Init is a basic free tool to get more people building apps and doing it with Ionic.

How do I drag-and-drop?

You can’t! Init doesn’t support drag and drop (currently). Instead, it’s focused on templates and creating a “good enough” foundation to start customizing your app later in code.

That may change based on feedback and demand.

Will my Data be saved?

Don’t count on it. This is a preview. The backend for storing and managing apps only guarantees your app will be saved for a few weeks at best. Assume everything you do in the Preview is temporary.

What was it built with?

This is a React app built with Next.js and using some Ionic core components

Is this an official Ionic product?

No! At least not yet. I wanted to experiment with a different take on rapid app development tooling and see what people thought. If it’s a hit, we will definitely think about how to incorporate it into the Ionic experience.

This means please do not file Ionic support requests, issues, ping anyone from Ionic apart from @maxlynch on Twitter, etc. Please post issues and feedback in this thread as that is what I will be monitoring.

1 post - 1 participant

Read full topic