Developing on Skynet
Skynet offers several advantages to developers:
Developers don't have to manage or pay for any infrastructure
Once deployed, applications are independent and need no further caretaking by the developer
Application data is user-controlled and available across applications, so your application can utilize pre-existing user information instead of starting from scratch.
You'll be able to monetize your application without the use of advertising
Please see our new Skynet Developer Guide linked at the top of this page and available at https://docs.siasky.net/. If you haven't already, read through the Getting Started section to better understand how Skynet works.
To get started, create a folder with an index.html file in it and all css and javascript linked with relative paths. Visit http://siasky.net/, select "Do you want to upload an entire directory?" then upload the directory.
This works for static sites, along with client-side rendered Single Page Applications. Check out our Skynet Workshop for a more in-depth walkthrough.
Using create-react-app? Add "homepage": "." to your package.json before you build, then just upload your build folder!
If your website is structured to be client-side, then hosting it on Skynet is straightforward. If not, it is likely your website will need to reconsider some parts of its architecture to be fully-functional on Skynet.
So, if you use Create React App or Gatsby, deploying to Skynet is as easy as uploading the folder of your production build. If you use a server-side backend like ExpressJS or a CMS like Django or Wordpress, these parts of your website cannot be run on Skynet. You can, however, host your html, css and javascript code on Skynet with your server API elsewhere, but that's not really a decentralized app and isn't what we'd call a skapp.
If you're considering developing on Skynet, take a look at the Getting Started section to learn some basics or reach out on our Discord server in the #skynet or #app-dev channels.
