Cauldron

An app to read, highlight, and tag PDFs.

Built in electron + react + redux.

Install

This app requires the user to host their own firebase project. Installation involves setting up a firebase project and putting the keys in the correct place.

Install From .dmg

Download the latest .dmg from here. Double click and drag to Applications to install.

Continue to Setting up Firebase.

Build from source

cd cauldron
npm install
npm run release
open dist/Cauldron-vX.X.X.dmg

Continue to Setting up Firebase.

Setting up Firebase

Setup a firebase account and create a new project. https://firebase.google.com/

Create the config directory.

mkdir -p ~/.config/cauldron

From the project dashboard go to Settings (cog button) > Project Settings > General, add a web app. Copy the config values to json into ~/.config/cauldron/config.json into the key firebase.

{
  "firebase": { // config values goes here }
}

Next, from the project dashboard go to Settings (cog button) > Project Settings > Service Accounts > Node.js > Generate a new private key.

Move the key to the config folder.

mv ~/Downloads/XXX.json ~/.config/cauldron

Add a reference to the key in config.json.

{
  "firebase": {
    "serviceAccountPath": "~/.config/cauldron/XXX.json",
    ...
  }
}

From the project dashboard now go to Authentication > Sign-in Method and enable email/password. Now from Authentication > Users, create a user with email/password. Add the email/password to the config.json. The final config.json should look like this:

{
  "firebase": {
    "serviceAccountPath": "~/.config.json/cauldron/XXX.json",
    "apiKey": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
    "authDomain": "<project-id>.firebaseapp.com",
    "databaseURL": "https://<project-id>.firebaseio.com",
    "projectId": "<project-id>",
    "storageBucket": "<project-id>.appspot.com",
    "messagingSenderId": "123456789",
    "appId": "1:123456789:web:123456789"
  },
  "email": "email",
  "password": "password"
}

Finally, from the project dashboard Database > Data, create a collection called pages.