RED Interactive Agency - Ad Technology
Webpack - Creative Server
Configurable interface designed to simplify the process of building properly packaged, highly optimized, technically respectable banner campaigns.Getting Started
Features
Technical Overview
Plugins
CS Frontend Development
Getting Started
We recommend you start with a working template. Once you have a feel for the eco-system, adapt CS as needed to your process.
Webpack 4 Migration
We migrated our build process to Webpack 4 on July 18, 2018. You can read more about it here.Features
Dashboard
Utilize Webpack in a browser interface for ES6 banner development:- many sizes, many indexes
- non-redundant, modular builds
- watch states per size/index, optionally concurrent
- debug & production bundles
Deploy Profiles
Manage deploy-profiles, Webpack settings, and any other collection data:Browser
Enable navigation of assets/outputs:- Open files in associated editor app
- Open directories in system file manager
Preview
Provide a localhost for quickly testing builds:- Run compiled units in browser
- Easily refresh
- Open units in a stand-alone tab for measuring k-weight
Plugins
Plugin architecture for running additional, custom processes.Technical Overview
The Webpack scripts are independent of Creative Server. They run as their own process & communicate with Creative Server's REST API via https://github.com/ff0000-ad-tech/wp-process-manager.
Otherwise, Creative Server data is a proxy of the file-system, the only source of truth.
Persistant state is maintained by
profile.json
, plugins.json
, and the like. Said state is then acquired by the Express/NodeJS runtime and is made available to the React/Redux view via RPC, on-demand, providing low-latency indication of:- available sizes/indexes
- deploy profiles
- busy-state
- error-state
- last conpile time
- a view of the project file-system
Default Hierarchy
Creative Server can be installed in your banner project. CS expects the following hierarchy:. Project Context
├── 1-build
| ├── 300x250
| | ├── index.html
| | └── ...
| ├── 320x50
| | ├── index.html
| | └── ...
| └── ...
|
├── 2-debug
| └── ...
|
├── 3-traffic
| └── ...
|
├── package.json
├── plugins.json
├── webpack.config.js
└── ...
npm install --save-dev @ff0000-ad-tech/wp-creative-server.git
Installing adds the following to your project:
├── node_modules
| └── @ff0000-ad-tech
| └── wp-creative-server
| ├── index.js
| └── ...
Size Targets
Sizes will be discovered in./[context]/['1-build']/...
on folder-names that match /[0-9]+x[0-9]+/
.Index Targets
Indexes will be discovered in./[context]/['1-build']/[size]/...
on file-names that match /index/
.Plugins
Declaring a Plugin
Add a./plugins.json
at your --context
location. It will contain an object with NPM-style dependencies, like:{
"ad-es6-particles": "git+ssh://git@stash.ff0000.com:7999/at/ad-es6-particles.git",
"@ff0000-ad-tech/cs-plugin-bulk-compile": "git+ssh://git@github.com:ff0000-ad-tech/cs-plugin-bulk-compile.git",
"@ff0000-ad-tech/cs-plugin-vendor-indexes": "git+ssh://git@github.com:ff0000-ad-tech/cs-plugin-vendor-indexes.git"
}
Writing a Plugin
A plugin can be a frontend tool that runs in the browser ("app" style plugin) and makes calls to a system-level backend. Or it can simply hook into various UI elements in the app and spawn system-level operations ("api" style plugin).To make your plugin compatible, the following object must be added to your plugin's
package.json
:"name": "ad-es6-particles", // standard NPM name
...
"wp-creative-server": {
"routes": {
"app": "/dist", // route to the directory in your plugin that will be served as the app root
"api": "/lib/api.js" // route to the Node script in your plugin that will be used as the API endpoint
},
"hooks": {
"size-control": {
"Particle Simulator": "/app/index.html" // the query to either "/app/" or "api", plus whatever static paths & params are needed
}
}
}
Plugin Routes
Once a plugin is installed in your--context
's node_modules
, Creative Server will create several routes, based on the plugin's package.json
.
These will be available on the server like:http://10.0.7.126:5200/ad-es6-particles
All plugin routes are sent the following:
api
- Creative Server endpoint URLfolders.build
- name of the build folderfolders.debug
- name of the debug folderfolders.traffic
- name of the traffic folder
Plugin Hooks
Hooks are various UI-elements in Creative Server to which plugins can be attributed. Depending on the hook, additional data is passed.Currently available hooks are:
size-control
- your command will appear in a menu next to each ad-size. It will be passed:
- `size` - the requested size-folder name.
bulk-control
- your command will appear in a drop-down that will execute when the 🔥 is clicked. It will be passed:
- `profile` - name of the currently selected deploy profile (also the folder to which traffic-compiled ads are output)
- `targets` - an object with keys specifying paths to traffic-compiled output folders
CS Frontend Development
To build the React/Redux/ES6 frontend:
- Install all of the dev-dependencies.
- Run
npm run build