Previews
A preview runs the real app on Neotexa, so you and your team can try it before it ships. It uses no credits: Maria isn't involved.
Start a preview
From the Studio on, a project that runs somewhere (web, desktop or mobile) has a preview. On its action bar, press 🧪 Start preview: the app is started with Docker, with stand-ins for outside services, so every feature works without your keys. Then 🔎 Open preview, and ⏹ Stop preview when you're done.
- Emails go to a test inbox, payments to a labelled test checkout, and social sign-in becomes an email-and-password login with a demo account.
- The real services switch on once their keys are set on the project's Secrets tab; a running preview restarts with them.
- A project that's just code (no platform) has nothing to open, so it has no preview.
Its own address, for your workspace only
Each running preview has an address of its own, like https://shop-acme.preview.neotexa.io (the project, then the workspace). Only the workspace's members can open it: 🔎 Open preview checks you're one and signs you in to the preview's address for 12 hours. Someone removed from the workspace is locked out of its previews at once.
The Preview tab
The project's Preview tab shows the running app inside Neotexa, with a switch for each platform it has:
| Platform | What you see |
|---|---|
| 🖥️ Web | The app in a browser frame. |
| 📱 Mobile | The app in a phone frame, and On your phone: a QR code (and its link) that opens the real app in Expo Go. Scan it with the camera (iPhone) or in Expo Go (Android). |
| 💻 Desktop | The interface in a desktop window, and On your computer: the installers for Windows, macOS and Linux from the repository's latest desktop release. |
The Expo Go link works while the preview runs, and anyone who has it can open the app: share it with care.