Minimalist tool for perfectionist screenwriters

Purpose

I like writing and creating stories in my spare time. For the last few years I have been using plenty of online screenplay editors such as Celtx, WriterDuet or KitScenarist, each of these being more or less enjoyable. However, none of them met my criteria. I wanted a free, dead simple, but pretty screenplay editor.

My biggest inspiration is by far Amazon Story Writer, a very handy writing tool released by Amazon in 2015, which has unfortunately been shut down on June 30, 2019.

Features

• Online and offline mode (yet to come)
• Export to PDF or .fountain format (more to come)
• Dark theme
• Screenplay statistics
• Scene navigation
• Character management

Launch

Production

The workflow for deployment is entirely automated once a feature reaches the release branch. The DATABASE_URL environment variable is automatically built depending on .env database variables.

1. Trigger .github\workflows\deploy.yml
   • docker compose build app
     • Installing dependencies npm install
     • Generating Prisma files npx prisma generate
     • Building app npm run build
   • Image is pushed to registry docker push ghcr.io/lycoon/scriptio-app:latest
2. Copy docker-compose.yml to the server
3. Go in app path on the server
   • Pull latest app image docker compose pull app
   • Run the image docker compose --profile prod up -d
     • Run launch.sh script
     • Deploy up-to-date database migrations npx prisma migrate deploy
     • Launch the app npm start

Test

1. npm install
2. npm run dev
3. http://localhost:3000

Dependencies

Editor

The choice of following dependencies were the result of a long research and software design process as I wanted to use the best tools available for each task. I knew changing one of them afterwards would be a pain, so I had to be sure of the intended usage. I'm always open for better alternatives if you have any, feel free to open an issue in that case so we can discuss about it.

Name	Usage	Package
tiptap	Text editor framework, used here for screenwriting
prisma	Database ORM
chart.js	Displaying charts for statistics
iron-session	Signed and encrypted cookies for authentication
tauri	Allow converting frontend app to desktop

File export

I spent quite some time figuring out the best library to generate PDF files that are not just huge rendered pictures. It was an absolutely necessary feature for me for the text to be selectable, as with any other text document. I finally found pdfmake, which allows to custom the document quite well but still needs some tricks to add text background color (as with scene headings).

Name	Usage	Package
file-saver	Creating files when exporting non-PDF screenplays
pdfmake	Generating PDF files when exporting screenplays

Email

Sending emails programmatically is a pain. I had to use a lot of different tools to get the job done. I chose AWS (SES) "Simple Email Service" as third-party service to send account validation and password recovery emails.

Name	Usage	Package
hogan.js	Templating language for email generation
inline-css	Used along with hogan.js for inlining CSS in email
nodemailer	Sending emails from NodeJS