Introduction
The open platform is a system to generate the UI of an app directly from a configuration file in JSON format. The UI can also be hydrated with data from an external API or You.com's search services.
The config file has 2 jobs:
- Define the layout and order of the components
- Specify the location of the components with respect to the data
Then the template language compiler reads the config file, and renders the components while injecting data where necessary. For example, the following config will display a list of all the pokemon with buttons to view them on the official website.
These configuration files are used to power numerous apps on You.com. Here's a quick list of examples if you need some inspiration: