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Open OpenBuild for the first time

A first look at OpenBuild — what the app is for, what the navigation gives you, and how to tell the seed Hello World virtual app is ready to play with.

Goal​

By the end you will have opened OpenBuild, recognised the dashboard tiles and the left-hand navigation, and seen the seed Hello World virtual app in the Virtual apps list.

Prerequisites​

  • A Nextcloud account on an instance where the OpenBuild app is installed and enabled.
  • The OpenRegister app installed and enabled — OpenBuild stores virtual apps, schemas, templates and version snapshots in OpenRegister.
  • The OpenBuild repair step has run, so the Hello World seed virtual app is present (the repair runs once on first enable; an admin can re-trigger it from Nextcloud admin → Overview).

Steps​

  1. Open the Nextcloud app menu in the top bar and pick OpenBuild. You land on the dashboard.

    OpenBuild dashboard

  2. Read the dashboard tiles — Virtual apps, Published, Templates, Published versions. They show counts pulled from OpenRegister; on a fresh install the Virtual apps and Published tiles read 1 (the seed Hello World app), Templates reads however many the template gallery ships and Published versions sits on the snapshot count.

    Dashboard stat tiles

  3. Open the left-hand navigation. The entries map one-to-one onto what OpenBuild manages: Virtual apps (your draft and published apps), Schemas (the OpenRegister schemas you can re-use across apps), Templates (the gallery you can clone from), Exports (zipped manifest exports). Below the divider sit Documentation and Features & roadmap.

    OpenBuild navigation

  4. Click Virtual apps. The list view opens with a Cards / Table toggle, an Add Application button, and the OpenRegister side filters. The seed Hello World row is the one to start poking at.

    Virtual apps list, Hello World seeded

Verification​

You are set up correctly when: the OpenBuild dashboard renders without an error banner, the left navigation lists the entries above, and Virtual apps shows at least the Hello World row.

Common issues​

SymptomFix
"OpenRegister is not installed or enabled" bannerInstall and enable the OpenRegister app, then reload OpenBuild.
Virtual apps list is emptyThe repair step did not run — an admin re-enables OpenBuild, or runs php occ openbuild:repair on the host.
OpenBuild is missing from the app menuThe app is not enabled for your account — ask an administrator to enable it (and check it is not restricted to a group you are not in).

Reference​