How-toCoreMake the app production-ready.

Prepare for release

Goal

You want your app ready for the public, with a proper title, an about page, no debug panel, and the full width of the screen.

Before you start

Your app works locally. All of the changes on this page are a handful of configuration lines. Put them after your imports and before your routes, and test locally before publishing.

The release block

Four calls turn a practice app into a releasable one:

set_website_title("Corgi Cafe")
set_site_information(
    author="Your Name",
    description="Order snacks for very good dogs.",
    sources="Thanks to the Drafter docs and my study group.",
    planning="plan.pdf",
    links=["https://github.com/your-username/your-repository"]
)
hide_debug_information()
set_website_framed(False)

What each line does:

• set_website_title(...) sets the title shown in the browser tab.
• set_site_information(...) fills your site's about page: who made it, what it does, what sources helped, any planning document you bundled, and related links. All five fields are required; use an empty string (or empty list for links) for any that do not apply. Visitors reach the page at your site's address plus --about. The values can be strings, lists of strings, or components like Link.
• hide_debug_information() removes the debug panel, so visitors see only the app itself.
• set_website_framed(False) lets the app fill the whole browser window instead of the small development frame.

See it running

Here is a small finished app with its release block. Notice that the debug panel no longer appears below the page.

from drafter import *
from dataclasses import dataclass

set_website_title("Corgi Cafe")
set_site_information(
    author="A. Student",
    description="Order snacks for very good dogs.",
    sources="",
    planning="",
    links=[]
)
hide_debug_information()


@dataclass
class State:
    snacks_served: int


@route
def index(state: State) -> Page:
    return Page(state, [
        Header("Corgi Cafe"),
        "Snacks served to Ada so far: " + str(state.snacks_served) + "\n",
        Button("Serve a snack", "serve")
    ])


@route
def serve(state: State) -> Page:
    state.snacks_served = state.snacks_served + 1
    return index(state)


assert_state(serve(State(0)), State(1))

start_server(State(0))

While you are still working

Comment out the hide_debug_information() line until you are actually done, so that you keep the debugger while you are still debugging:

# hide_debug_information()

Uncomment it as the last edit before publishing.

A quick pre-flight check

Run the app locally one more time and confirm:

• The tab shows your title.
• The debug panel is gone.
• Your tests still print SUCCESS in the console.
• Every image or data file your app opens sits next to your program file, because it must be uploaded along with it (missing files 404 after deploy).

Common problems

• The debug panel is still there: hide_debug_information() must run before start_server(...), and must not be commented out.
• The about page is empty: set_site_information(...) was not called, or runs after start_server(...). Configuration goes near the top of the file.
• The app is still in a small box: add set_website_framed(False).
• You cannot debug anymore: that is the expected effect of hiding the debug information. Comment the line out while you are still developing.

Understand it

Configuration calls change how the site presents itself, never what it does. How Drafter works explains why.

See another example

Finish and test an app walks this same preparation on a guided project.

Look it up

Site configuration lists every set_ and add_ function, including favicons and custom error pages.

Fix a problem

Fix a failed deployment if problems appear after publishing.

Next steps

Your app is ready, but you are not done yet: right now it is only ready on your own computer. Publishing is next.

• Step 2 of 3: Publish on GitHub Pages

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  Upload your code, flip one setting, run the workflow, and get your URL.

  Publish on GitHub Pages