It is great that you have decided to check Golem Portal while it is still in the alpha stage. If you have suggestions, please share those on the Golem Network Discord server.
Golem Portal is being created as a storefront for the marketplace, which Golem Network is. It is created to make it easier to deploy dApps on Golem without needing advanced knowledge, ideally via a wizard or using your custom descriptor (golem-compose).
Moreover, we envision Golem Portal as a place where you can test, publish or even sell your applications. We will have an authentication and authorization mechanism that will enable community rating & reviews for Applications.
Once authenticated on Golem Portal, i.e., via Discord, you will have your own self-sovereign profile, where you will be able to share your Discord badges, Golem Minted NFTs, and other certificates/achievements related to Golem or web3.
We plan to grow an additional level of Services on Golem Portal, such as GPU rental or, more specific, i.e., Stable Diffusion. On top of that, we have some ideas for initiatives such as the Central Reputation Score or Golem Academy. Please stay tuned on our Discord server for more details!
Golem Portal is not a replacement for the Discord server but rather an aid. Golem Portal is yet to be a place to run production applications. It is still in the alpha stage.
Golem Portal’s goal is not to take on Facebook or other social media platforms.
What are dApps, and how do those differ from web applications?
As an end-user, one might not differentiate between an app and dApp. dApps can look and feel like regular web applications, but the main difference is how the backend operates. In regular web applications, there is usually a centralized server (or microservices). In the case of dApps, those services are distributed across a blockchain network, in the case of Golem Portal - on the Golem Network.
What is golem-compose (Descriptor)?
In Golem, the descriptor (called golem-compose) is a file, similar to docker-compose or helm chart, instructing which containers should be started, the order of those, and containing any other related information such as manifest (network certificate). You can find a sample descriptor file on our docs. Once you start an application using Golem Portal, you can find the golem-compose in the Descriptor tab.
Can I upload my own golem-compose?
We plan to allow testing and publishing your own golem-compose in the following more significant release. However, before that, you can still run your own golem-compose using dapp-runner.
How to interpret Logs of applications on the Golem Portal?
While deploying dApps using Golem Portal, you will see a Golem Logs tab. The tabs list all the log entries returned by dapp-manager/dapp-runner, which ultimately use yapapi to implement interactions with the yagna daemon. The log level is controlled by the Golem Portal and set to INFO by default. If you need a different logging level, please reach out in our Discord server.
Can I run Golem Portal on my computer?
Golem Portal is going to be open source in the next release. We will provide an instruction on how to start it using your own requestor.