

Deploy mobile apps from Dropbox - ujeezy
http://harp.io/

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smarx
This looks very similar to my startup's product, Site44: www.site44.com.

I'm not sure I follow the connection to "mobile," though. Some of the examples
(like a static blog or landing page) don't sound at all specific to mobile.
Can someone explain? Is this general-purpose static hosting, like Site44, or
is it something different?

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spindritf
> This looks very similar to [...] www.site44.com.

That was my first thought (site44 is pretty awesome btw). Will Harp do
anything more than serve content from a Dropbox folder?

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sintaxi
I got an email asking the same question. Without going into specifics here is
what I can say at this time.

I have not used site44 so I cant speak in depth about the differences.

I can say Harp will be focused on solving domain specific problems, rather
than focusing on the technical solution. This means that we look at the
problems developers are having and adapt the Platform to address those needs.
I believe strongly that people really just want pain removed from their
development process. You can expect Harp to have things like rollbacks, diffs,
preview urls, staging and production releases etc. Harp does not just turn a
Dropbox directory into a website. We see Dropbox as a great way to get files
into the cloud in a way that offers a low barrier of entry for beginners.
Dropbox is not tied in any way to our architecture and Harp may support other
competing services (or even git) if that appears to be the desire of our
users.

Hope this answers your question.

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smarx
This certainly helps my understanding; thanks for responding.

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D9u
A mobile accessible interface is a big deal for many. A simple SSH / SFTP /
etc connection for file management will suffice, rather than having some
proprietary client model restricted to a couple of operating systems.

Just my $0.02

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sintaxi
Hey everyone, I'm one of the creators of the Harp Platform. If you have any
questions, I'd be happy to address them.

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mvanveen
The site is sort of sparse on details. Just gave you my email addr. Can I link
this up with my own DNS?

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sintaxi
yep. we have CNAME support.

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charliesome
I was about to have a conniption, but then I saw this:

> _Learn to Program_

> _We created the absolute best Platform for learning web development. Harp
> removes all the complexity, and gives you the environment you are already
> comfortable with._

This is a really awesome idea for getting beginners into mobile app
development. PHP did a lot to reduce the barrier to entry for traditional web
application development and I think this could have the potential to do the
same for mobile.

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

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BillSaysThis
Just to be clear, this only supports HTML, CSS and Javascript? So learning to
program web applications doesn't include anything with a database or that
requires secure access (i.e., authentication/authorization) unless (possibly)
something like Parse is used as a backend and no Ruby, Python, PHP or other
server-side languages.

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mvanveen
I've wanted to tackle this idea forever, it's always seemed like low-hanging
fruit. I'm super excited to see someone take it on full-time. Best of luck!

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sintaxi
Thanks! Agreed. Dropbox is a significant step forward when it comes to getting
assets into the cloud. I think it will make life much easier to be able to
iterate on sites within a directory on your file system with no extra bagage.

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federicoweber
This is an interesting concept. I'm developing a blogging platform leveraging
dropbox—that it's actually powering my website—but I've taken i different
approach and I'm parsing on the server the markdown files. I haven't actually
thought about using it with static html files, this approach have the benefit
of greater flexibility in the type of content you can provide.

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twog
This looks awesome. Any way I can get early access? Im working on a project I
would love to try this on

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sintaxi
Rather than doing a long term private beta. We are gearing up to go directly
to a public beta very soon. Those that sign up on the list will be first to be
notified when we go public.

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jeffehobbs
The Public folder in my Dropbox is already my Poor Man's CVS, this is a great
idea. Best of luck!

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j95tin
This looks like an interesting project ;) I'll definitely check it out.

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D9u
The site crashes Dolphin on Android 2.2.x

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bytefactory
Awesome, can't wait to try this out!

