What is it?

This is a simple Briefcasts server for your Briefs.

Rob Rhyne developed Briefs, an iPhone application for creating wireframes for Cocoa touch applications.

This is an insanely cool app, and much props go to Digital Arch. Check it out first, http://giveabrief.com.

Briefcasts and briefs-caster

Within Briefs, you can add a URL that points to a list of briefs. In the app, it’s called My Briefcasts.

briefs-caster converts any .bs files into .brieflist files using the utilities provided by the Briefs starter kit and serves them up on http://0.0.0.0:5000 as a Briefcast.

Installation

Requires Mac OS X

briefs-caster uses Python. To install it open a terminal and type the following

easy_install briefs-caster

If you use Pip (recommended), alternatively run this

pip install briefs-caster

Note you may need to sudo these commands on your system.

Usage

We’re going to assume that you’ve installed Briefs and have started using it. You should be to the point that you have a .bs file that you’ve created.

Let’s pretend it’s in a directory called ~/my_briefs.

Run the briefs-caster from the directory

cd ~/my_briefs
briefs-caster

Alternatively you can tell briefs-caster where to serve from

briefs-caster ~/my_briefs

You should see the following output

briefs-caster - Serving up some fine briefs for you

Open http://<IP_ADDRESS>:5000 from the Briefs app

CTRL-C to exit the server
* Running on http://0.0.0.0:5000/

Errors

Check the terminal for any errors that the Briefs script utililty produces. If you mis-type something, forget a required attribute or something like that it will show up in the output.

Add to Briefs

In the Briefs app do the following:

1. Touch My Briefcasts

2. Touch Edit in the top right

3. Touch +

4. Enter Name Briefs-caster example

5. Enter URL http://127.0.0.1:5000 or if you are not using the same computer this IP may be different (we run the iPhone Simulator with Briefs inside it)

6. Touch Save

7. Touch Done

Now you are ready to try it out:

1. Touch Briefs-caster example

If everything went as expected, you should see your list of Briefs.

0.1.1

Release date: 28-Sep-2010

• Added the ability for briefs-caster to automatically convert your .bs files for you you no longer need to generate the .brieflist files manually

0.1

Release date: 23-Sep-2010

• Initial release