Introduction
We’re excited to unveil our revamped Holochain Developer Portal. We’ve made it easy for anyone, whether you’re new to Holochain or a veteran, to find the information you need. For newcomers in particular, we have an introductory section that explains what Holochain is in an accessible, jargon-free way, as well as how it might benefit you or an organization. Those who want to learn more can get their feet wet with the Core Concepts of Holochain and even build your own hApps through a series of Tutorials. Whatever your Holochain interest level or proficiency with the technology, we have the information that’s right for you.
Why it Matters
If you’ve been building applications in Holochain, you’re likely familiar with the basic concepts and know how to turn an idea into a fully implemented hApp in the real world. However, it’s important to remember that we’re still at the very beginning of the development cycle for Holochain. Very few people have even heard of it at this point, let alone are in a position to take advantage of the technology. As Holochain becomes a more mature ecosystem, we want to make sure that everyone, regardless of their level of experience, has an inroad to learning more and discovering how Holochain can be of benefit.
Get Started
The Get Started section is aimed at people who are entirely new to Holochain and may not know what it is, but might be curious about what it can do.
- Why Holochain? We outline Holochain’s unique ability to be connectable, evolvable, scalable, and configurable, plus the benefits that result from it.
- What is Holochain? We provide details on the Holochain technology and explain why we consider it to be the “Linux of distributed apps.”
- Who is Holochain for? We list the kinds of people and organizations for whom Holochain may be useful.
- Ready to Develop? We invite developers who are ready to take the leap to install and read Core Concepts.
- Install Holochain: We provide installation instructions for Holochain and building your first DNA.
- Create a New App: These are the commands you will need when creating a new application.
- Get Involved: We invite developers to learn more via the Core Concepts and Tutorials and connect with the Holochain community.
- Holochain Glossary: Here are the definitions we use throughout our documentation.
Core Concepts
The Core Concepts articles are designed to ease the reader into the world of Holochain. Each has a summary expressing the main points, though readers interested in a deeper understanding will want to read the entire article. After discussing the basics, we lay out:
- How hApps are designed, including how they promote agent-centric computing
- How data is kept private on your source chain
- How the integrity of public data is maintained on the DHT
- How to link entries together
- How to remove or modify data
If you are new to Holochain, we hope these articles will help you become confident that you can figure out how you could create solutions using the framework.
Tutorials
Along with the Core Concepts articles, we also have a set of Tutorials that will help developers learn the ropes. They’re linked within the Core Concepts articles themselves, in order for readers to move straight from reading about a concept to seeing it in practice. We currently have four tutorials, each of which builds upon the previous one:
- Building a hApp teaches how to get a simple, yet functional hApp up-and-running in minutes.
- Testing a hApp explains how testing frameworks operate in Holochain and how to create testing scenarios.
- Adding a GUI shows you how to move your hApp from the command line to a simple web page.
- Adding an Entry Type shows you how to work with user data in your hApp.
The tutorials break down each step of the process and include code examples and screen recordings. We think these tutorials are a great jumping-off point for building your own apps on Holochain!
