Documentation about Boxel
Prerequisites
The following VS Code addon helps to visualize a .mermaid file: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=tomoyukim.vscode-mermaid-editor
It also has a feature to save an .svg image, which be opened in Chrome for a decent pan and zoom experience.
Concepts
The following are important concepts:
- Card and Field Definition Relationships: There is a subtle distinction between card and fields to consider when creating cards.
- Inheritance: Cards can be extended based upon user’s custom needs – no reinventing the wheel.
- Rendering: Cards can be rendered easily in the browser. Each card renders differently based upon how it is related and what context it exists in.
- Serialization and Deserialization: Cards have to be adapted to a consistent JSON format before being sent over-the-wire to other consumers.
- Computed Fields: Computed fields work too! We can compute on the data that is already contained in a card to build more complex logic.
- Indexing: Indexing powers the re-rendering of cards when it’s dependencies get updated.
- Realm: Realms are storage for cards that have their own underlying permissions and indexer.
- Search: Every Card is searchable within and across realms.