Summary

This Dev Pulse is looking backward and forward at Holo development. We’re highlighting recent updates to the Holo Hosting App and Nix packages, as well as noting a few others relating to the HoloFuel App, HP Admin Dashboard, and Holo tools and products. Our hAppy team also wanted to add a note on how they've been improving their own processes for maintaining momentum toward Open Alpha. For more detailed updates on these subjects, keep an eye on the Holochain Blog.

Highlights

  1. Updates to Holo Hosting and Holo Nix Packages
  2. Coming Soon: Updates to HoloFuel App and HP Admin Dashboard
  3. hAppy Team Update

                                           Holo Hosting Activity Dashboard

Updates to Holo Hosting and Holo Nix Packages

Holo Hosting

We’ve made a few updates in the last few weeks to the Holo Hosting App, the main way HoloPort owners will interact with their devices. (See our recent tour of the HP Admin Dashboard.) These updates include upgrading to version 0.0.39-alpha4 of Holochain-Rust and removing an unnecessary import function.

Holo Nix Packages

Similarly, we’ve been updating the Nix packages that Holo Hosting will draw on during the build process, which we discussed in Dev Pulse 48. We’ve enabled Holo-Router-Agent to access the HP Admin UI, and fixed a bug involving MIME type handling that caused vector images to not be displayed. We also added a new function, buildDNA, which will provide new standard files (shell.nix and default.nix) to develop DNAs that require additional components for testing or other tasks. We’ve also set up HoloPortOS so that it now defaults to the public sim2h server for testing (see our previous discussion of sim2h and why it’s important for this phase of testing).

                                           Holo Hosting Activity Dashboard

Details

Coming Soon: Updates to HoloFuel App and HP Admin Dashboard

HoloFuel App

Back in October, we provided a tour of the HoloFuel App showing how you will be able to send and receive HoloFuel, and keep track of your funds. As we mentioned at the time, we showed only the working version of the app, which did not include branding, colors, and stylized components. Since then, we’ve made several updates and gotten much closer to a full-fledged release. We’re not able to share the updated screenshots right now, but wanted to let you know that when we release them, we will be sure to provide a thorough rundown of the changes made.

HP Admin Dashboard

We discussed the HP Admin Dashboard in Dev Pulse 49 and introduced screenshots showing how it will look in Dev Pulse 55. If you haven’t already seen them, check them out! There are some new updates happening, that though we are not yet able to release, have been made and will be shared with you in the near future.

Usability

As we approach Open Alpha, we want to deliver on customer expectations and make sure that Holo products and tools are easy to use. The hAppy Team has been working through a lot of the feedback involving usability, including defining the criteria we should use during testing, desired outcomes, and guidelines for designers and developers. They’re also offering to help internal team members involved in HoloPort testing to determine what improvements are needed to meet our usability goals.

hAppy Team Update

As we get closer to Open Alpha, the hAppy Team continues to do a lot of integration work and cross-team collaboration with the HoloCentral Team. The cross-team communication impacts the work related to the HoloPort owners in the Open Alpha Release and the use of the HoloPorts. Some recent examples of the integration work done by the team are the HP Quickstart HP Init (HoloPort first-time initialization) process and the UI enhancement for the HoloFuel App.

As with any big release, teams are depending on one another and communication is critical. The hAppy team has focused on maintaining clear and open channels of communication with its members, as well as the other teams. To this end, one solution we’ve implemented is inviting the Product Owner of HoloCentral, Alastair Ong, to attend our Stand-ups and help bring clarity to important pending items when blockers occur. This alone has resulted in several bottlenecks being avoided and prevented many misunderstandings. We hope to come up with new solutions going forward, resulting in the improved effectiveness and appeal of Holo and Holochain.

Holochain Core Concepts and Tutorials

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