Apleno Designer
Welcome to the documentation for the Apleno Designer VSCode Extension, a development environment for building full-featured interactive applications using R and/or Python.
What is Apleno Designer
Apleno Designer is a framework that lets R and Python developers create polished, interactive desktop-like applications, complete with graphical interfaces, structured workflows, and rich scripting; without needing deep web or UI development knowledge.
With the Apleno Designer VSCode extension, you author your application entirely inside Visual Studio Code using three purpose-built editors:
| Editor | File type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Project Editor | .ppro |
App metadata, settings, changelog, styling |
| Workflow Editor | .pseq |
Visual node-based execution flow |
| Interface Editor | .pgui |
WYSIWYG drag-and-drop GUI builder |
Your R/Python scripts integrate with the GUI and workflow through a custom API, letting you read and write widget values, navigate the workflow, trigger redraws, and more. All from familiar R or Python code.
Key Features
- Visual workflow design: Build your app's execution sequence as a flowchart: run scripts, show interfaces, branch on conditions, call sub-sequences, and reach an end.
- WYSIWYG GUI builder: Drag and drop 15+ widget types (inputs, tables, graphs, progress bars, layouts…) onto a live preview canvas, and set every property visually.
- R and Python support: Mix R and Python freely; each script step or widget event independently chooses its language.
- Live preview: Run your app from VSCode with a single command and see it in your browser instantly.
- Export to
.pgm: Package your entire project into a single distributable archive. - Full undo/redo: Every editor supports undo and redo.
Documentation Sections
- Getting Started: Install the extension, create your first project, and run it.
- Project Editor: Configure your app's metadata, output, and visual style.
- Workflow Editor: Design execution sequences with the visual canvas editor.
- Interface Editor: Build GUIs by placing and configuring widgets.
- Commands Reference: All palette commands and keyboard shortcuts.
- Running & Previewing: How to run your app and configure the runtime.
- Exporting Your App: Package your project for distribution.