package.md

Editing a package.json for apps

All apps need to have a package.json file to describe themselves with a few required fields. This is based on the CommonJS Packages format and NPM, with the additional data needed in the repository field.

Minimum template to start

{
    "name": "myapp",
    "version": "0.0.0",
    "description": "This is my awesome app!",
    "repository": {
        "title": "My App"
    }
}

The name field is a short name or 'handle', required but not visible anywhere.

The version is good to start with 0.0.0 and only increment the first two (x.x.0) if you want to track your own versions here, the last one (0.0.y) is auto-incremented every time an app is published.

Set description to a sentence describing what the app does in the gallery or details page before someone installs it.

For repository.title choose a short recognizable title (show in the list of apps after it's added).

Screenshot

The default screenshot used to describe the app is simply the screenshot.png file included with it. The preferred size is 360x360, and it should represent what the app looks like in use (not an icon or cover).

Optional repository fields

To better describe what data an app needs in order to be useful, the uses field can express those requirements ahead of time:

{
    "name": "myapp",
    "version": "0.0.0",
    "description": "This is my awesome app!",
    "repository": {
        "title": "My App",
        "uses": {
            "services": [ "twitter", "foursquare", "instagram" ],
            "types": [ "places" ]
        }
    },
    "author": "My Name <my@email>"
}

Add any helpful or required services to the repository.uses.services array.

If any collections are used, add them to the repository.uses.types array.

By default the author is set to your github information when you publish, but you can override it here too.

Problems/Questions?

Just ask! Check out the IRC for a quick answer or post to our forum or mailing list for anything bigger, thanks!