SaltOS 4

Build Enterprise Business Apps Declaratively in YAML/XML

CRM · ERP · Custom Workflows — 10x Faster Than Traditional Frameworks

🚀 Try Demo • 📖 Documentation • 💬 Discussions

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🎯 The Problem

Building custom business applications is expensive and slow:

• Traditional development: 6-12 months for a basic CRM/ERP
• Commercial solutions (Odoo, SAP): €20K-100K/year + vendor lock-in
• Customizing platforms: Expensive and complex
• No-code tools: Limited power for complex business logic

✨ The Solution

Define your business app declaratively in YAML/XML. SaltOS 4 automatically generates:

• ✅ Full REST API with authentication
• ✅ Responsive web UI (desktop + mobile)
• ✅ Complete audit trail with blockchain integrity
• ✅ Multi-language support (EN/ES/CA)
• ✅ Offline-first Progressive Web App
• ✅ PDF generation from templates
• ✅ Full-text search indexing

Example: CRM App Definition

# apps/crm/xml/customers.yaml
app: customers
template: apps/common/xml/default.xml

list:
    - [name, text, Name]
    - [code, text, Tax ID]
    - [city, text, City]
    - [active, boolean, Active]

form:
    - [name, text, Name]
    - [code, text, Tax ID]
    - [email, text, Email]
    - [phone, text, Phone]
    - [notes, textarea, Notes]
    - [type_id, select, Type]

select:
    - [type_id, app_customers_types]

attr:
    name:
        required: true
    notes:
        height: 5em

Plus database schema (dbschema.xml) and app manifest (manifest.xml). 👉 See complete CRM example

You automatically get:

• ✅ Full REST API (GET/POST/PUT/DELETE /api/app/customers)
• ✅ Responsive web UI with search/filter/pagination
• ✅ Create/Edit/Delete forms with validation
• ✅ Blockchain-verified version history
• ✅ File attachments & notes system
• ✅ User/group permission system
• ✅ Full-text search indexing

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📐 How Apps Are Structured

Every SaltOS app is defined by 3 declarative files:

1. UI Definition customers.yaml app: customers list: - [name, text, Name] - [email, text, Email] form: - [name, text, Name] - [email, text, Email] Defines list views, forms, and field types.

2. Database Schema dbschema.xml <table name="app_customers"> <field name="id" type="INTEGER" pkey="true"/> <field name="name" type="VARCHAR(255)"/> <field name="email" type="VARCHAR(255)"/> </table> Defines tables, fields, and relationships.

3. App Manifest manifest.xml <app id="50" code="customers" name="Customers" table="app_customers" has_version="1" has_files="1" has_notes="1"/> Registers the app with metadata and features.

What Gets Auto-Generated

From these definitions, SaltOS automatically creates:

Component	Generated From	Example
REST API	YAML + Schema	GET /api/app/customers/list
Web UI	YAML fields	Responsive list + modal forms
SQL Migrations	Schema changes	ALTER TABLE app_customers ADD COLUMN...
Search Index	Text fields	Full-text search on name, email, notes
Version Tracking	manifest has_version="1"	Blockchain-verified history
File Uploads	manifest has_files="1"	Attachment management
Permissions	manifest perms	User/group access control

📖 Learn more in the Developer Guide

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🔥 Key Features

For Developers

• 🚀 10x Faster Development: Define apps declaratively, not imperatively
• 🏗️ Automatic Schema Migrations: Edit XML → Database updates automatically
• 🔐 Blockchain-Verified Versioning: Every change tracked with cryptographic integrity
• 📱 PWA-Ready: Works offline with service workers
• 🧪 Fully Tested: PHPUnit + Jest with comprehensive coverage
• 🌍 Multi-Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MSSQL

For Businesses

• 💰 Zero Licensing Costs: GPL-3.0 open source
• 🔒 Self-Hosted: Your data stays on your servers
• 📊 Audit Compliance: Every action logged with user/timestamp
• 🌐 Multilingual: Built-in i18n (YAML-based translations)
• 📄 PDF Generation: Custom templates for invoices/reports
• 🔄 Import/Export: CSV, Excel, SQL

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📸 Screenshots

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🚀 Quick Start

Try the Demo (No Installation)

👉 https://demos.saltos.org/

• Username: admin
• Password: admin

Each visitor gets an isolated demo instance (SQLite-based).

Local Installation

# 1. Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/josepsanzcamp/SaltOS4.git
cd SaltOS4

# 2. Create instance (symlinks code/ to instance directory)
mkdir my-instance
cd my-instance
bash ../scripts/make_instance.sh

# 3. Configure database (SQLite or MySQL)
# Edit code/api/data/config.xml

# 4. Run setup (creates tables + sample data)
php api/index.php setup
user=admin php api/index.php setup/certs
user=admin php api/index.php setup/company
user=admin php api/index.php setup/emails
user=admin php api/index.php setup/crm
user=admin php api/index.php setup/hr
user=admin php api/index.php setup/purchases
user=admin php api/index.php setup/sales

# 5. Start web server
cd web
ln -s index.htm index.php
php -S localhost:8000

# 6. Open browser
open http://localhost:8000

Docker Compose coming soon!

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🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Web Browser (PWA)                  │
│  TypeScript · Bootstrap 5 · Service Worker          │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
                  │ REST/JSON
┌─────────────────▼───────────────────────────────────┐
│                   PHP API Layer                     │
│  Router · Auth · Permissions · Versioning           │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
                  │
┌─────────────────▼───────────────────────────────────┐
│            YAML/XML App Definitions                 │
│  Declarative schemas → Auto-generated CRUD          │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
                  │
┌─────────────────▼───────────────────────────────────┐
│     MySQL · PostgreSQL · SQLite · MSSQL             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Core Technologies

• Backend: PHP 7.0-8.3 (strict types, tested)
• Frontend: TypeScript, Bootstrap 5, TomSelect, CKEditor, Chart.js
• Storage: Multi-database abstraction layer (PDO)
• Testing: PHPUnit (backend) + Jest (frontend)
• i18n: YAML-based translations
• PDFs: TCPDF with XML templates
• Excel: PHPSpreadsheet (import/export)

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📚 Built-In Apps

SaltOS 4 ships with production-ready apps:

App	Description
CRM	Customers, Leads, Quotes, Meetings
Sales	Products, Invoices, Orders, Taxes
Purchases	Suppliers, Purchase Orders
HR	Employees, Departments
Emails	POP3/SMTP integration, inbox management
Company	Company profile, settings
Users	User & group management, permissions

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🔐 Blockchain-Verified Versioning

Every change is stored with cryptographic chain-of-custody:

// Version 1 (created)
{
  "ver_id": 1,
  "user_id": 1,
  "datetime": "2025-01-01 10:00:00",
  "data": {"app_customers": {"123": {"name": "Acme Corp", ...}}},
  "hash": ""  // First version
}

// Version 2 (updated - only deltas)
{
  "ver_id": 2,
  "user_id": 2,
  "datetime": "2025-01-05 14:30:00",
  "data": {"app_customers": {"123": {"email": "new@acme.com"}}},
  "hash": "abc123..."  // Hash of version 1
}

Tamper-proof: Any modification to historical data breaks the chain.

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📖 Documentation

Comprehensive docs in 3 languages (English, Spanish, Catalan):

• 📘 User Manual — End-user guide English Spanish Catalan
• 🔧 Developer Guide — Architecture & customization
• 🌐 API Reference — REST endpoints
• 💻 Web Client — Frontend architecture
• 📦 Apps Guide — Building custom apps
• 🧪 Testing — PHPUnit & Jest guides

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🆚 Comparison

Feature	SaltOS 4	Odoo	ERPNext	Bubble.io
Open Source	✅ GPL-3.0	✅ LGPL (CE) / Proprietary (EE)	✅ GPL-3.0	❌ Proprietary
Self-Hosted	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ Cloud-only
No Vendor Lock-in	✅ Yes	⚠️ Complex	✅ Yes	❌ No
Declarative Apps (YAML)	✅ Yes	❌ Python/XML	❌ Python	✅ Visual
Blockchain Versioning	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
PWA Offline Support	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ No	❌ No
Learning Curve	🟢 Low	🔴 High	🟡 Medium	🟢 Low
Customization	🟢 Easy	🟡 Complex	🟡 Medium	🔴 Limited
Cost (self-hosted)	€0	€0 (CE) / €€€ (EE)	€0	N/A

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Development Setup

# Run code quality and tests
make test        # Linting (phpcs + phpstan + jscs)
make utest       # PHPUnit (backend tests)
make ujest       # Jest (frontend tests)

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📄 License

GPL-3.0 — Free as in freedom.

SaltOS: Framework to develop Rich Internet Applications
Copyright (C) 2007-2025 by Josep Sanz Campderrós

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

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💬 Community & Support

• 🌐 Website: saltos.org
• 💬 Discussions: GitHub Discussions
• 🐛 Issues: GitHub Issues
• 📧 Email: info@saltos.org

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🙏 Acknowledgments

SaltOS 4 is built on top of excellent open source projects:

Backend:

• TCPDF — PDF generation
• PHPSpreadsheet — Excel import/export
• PHP EDIFACT — EDI message parsing
• PHPMailer — Email sending
• Symfony YAML — YAML parser
• FPDI — PDF manipulation

Frontend:

• Bootstrap — UI framework
• CKEditor — Rich text editor
• Chart.js — Data visualization
• PDF.js — PDF viewer (Mozilla)
• CodeMirror — Code editor
• TomSelect — Enhanced select boxes
• Interact.js — Drag and drop

Testing:

• PHPUnit — PHP testing framework
• Jest — JavaScript testing

Full list: View all 30+ dependencies in checklibs.txt

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Built with ❤️ by Josep Sanz Campderrós

⭐ Star this repo if you find it useful!