# Glossary (/apps/glossary)

## Apps [#apps]

| Term                          | Meaning                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **App**                       | Software from a developer that a merchant installs into their store. It has a permanent **handle** and an app id, a UUID.                                                                  |
| **Manifest**                  | `poltura.app.json`: what the app is, what it asks for and what it draws. `poltura app build` turns it into the **release manifest**, `dist/manifest.json`. See [Manifest](/apps/manifest). |
| **Release**                   | One published version of an app, with its own id: its release manifest, workers and stylesheets. Each release is reviewed on its own.                                                      |
| **Channel**                   | `production` releases can be installed once approved; `development` releases are reviewed but never installed.                                                                             |
| **Review**                    | The check a Poltura reviewer, outside your organization, makes of every release before merchants can install it.                                                                           |
| **Merchant**                  | The owner or staff of a store, working in the Poltura admin.                                                                                                                               |
| **Shopper**                   | A visitor of the merchant's storefront.                                                                                                                                                    |
| **Installation**              | One app in one store, with its own id, created when the merchant approves the app. Tokens, storage and webhooks belong to an installation.                                                 |
| **Generation**                | A number on the installation that goes up when the merchant approves an update. Tokens from an earlier generation stop working.                                                            |
| **Permission**                | Permission to read or change one kind of store data through the App API, such as `products.read`. The merchant approves each one. See [Permissions and topics](/apps/permissions).         |
| **Installation access token** | The short-lived token your server sends to the App API. It comes from the merchant's grant and never leaves your server.                                                                   |
| **Refresh token**             | The token your server exchanges for a new access token. It works once.                                                                                                                     |
| **Worker**                    | A piece of native UI: React with Poltura's components, bundled by the CLI and run in a separate, secure environment. It renders into one **target**, such as `admin.order` or `storefront.product`.   |
| **Block** (app)               | A storefront worker merchants place in the Customizer, described by a `defineBlock` definition.                                                                                            |
| **Action**                    | A call from a worker to your server. Poltura signs it and sends it to `backendOrigin`; your server answers.                                                                                |
| **Hosted page**               | A page you serve from your own server, shown in an iframe in the admin (`adminFrame`).                                                                                                     |
| **Session token**             | A 60-second statement from Poltura, requested by a hosted page, that tells your server which merchant and installation it is talking to. Not an API token.                                 |
| **Webhook**                   | A signed POST from Poltura to your server when something happens in a store, such as `order.created`.                                                                                      |
| **App API**                   | The HTTP API your server calls with an installation access token, at `/apps-api/v1`. See [App API](/api/app).                                                                              |

## Themes [#themes]

| Term              | Meaning                                                                                          |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Theme**         | The code and layout that draw a storefront. A store has one published theme and can have drafts. |
| **Draft**         | The version of a theme you edit. Saving a draft never changes the live store.                    |
| **Publish**       | Making a draft the live theme. Its code and layout go live together.                             |
| **Section**       | A top-level part of a page, such as a hero or a product grid, defined with `defineSection`.      |
| **Block** (theme) | A part inside a section, such as one quote in a quote wall, defined with `defineBlock`.          |
| **Setting**       | A field the merchant edits for a section or block in the Customizer, defined with `field.*`.     |
| **Customizer**    | The merchant's visual editor for the storefront.                                                 |
| **Code editor**   | The editor for a theme's code, in the browser.                                                   |