App Framework Features
The Wix App Framework is a React-based framework that allows you to build apps for Wix sites. The framework provides a way to define app components, their React based UI, styling and more.
The Wix App Framework is:
- React-based: Use React components to define your app's UI. You can use React components from the Wix Design System to build your app's UI or bring your own components.
- Boilerplate-free: You don't have to write any boilerplate code. Focus on your app's business logic and let the framework handle the rest.
- Declarative: Define your app's components and their UI in a declarative manner using React and the app manifest.
Vite
The Wix App Framework is based on Vite as the toolchain for building your app's code. Vite is a fast and opinionated web dev build tool that focuses on providing a great developer experience.
You can use all the Vite features, including:
We suggest you read the Vite Features Guide to learn more about Vite.
App manifest
The app manifest is a declarative definition of your app's components and their UI, including:
- Dashboard pages
- Sidebar configurations
- App's settings
The app manifest is created from your local project files. For example, the app's dashboard pages are defined by the different page.json files in the src/dashboard/pages folder and the app's sidebar categories are defined by the wix.config.json file in the root of the app project.
- When you build your project, the app manifest is located at
dist/devcenter/app-manifest.json - When you run your app locally, the app manifest is managed in-memory and updated on the fly when you make changes
wix.config.json
The wix.config.json file in the root of the app project defines basic information about your app, such as its appId. The file also defines app level configurations like dashboard.sidebar.categories.
To learn more about sidebar categories in the wix.config.json file, see Sidebar Categories.