NW.js Essentials

Alessandro Benoit

• Verlag: Packt Publishing
• Jahr: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781785280863
• Thema: Computer Science
• Thema: Programming in JavaScript

NW.js Essentials

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Table of Contents

NW.js Essentials

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgments

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Meet NW.js

NW.js under the hood

Features and drawbacks of NW.js

NW.js – usage scenarios

Popular NW.js applications

Downloading and installing NW.js

Installing NW.js on Mac OS X

Installing NW.js on Microsoft Windows

Installing NW.js on Linux

Development tools

Writing and running your first "Hello World" app

Running NW.js applications on Sublime Text 2

Running NW.js applications on Microsoft Windows

Running NW.js applications on Mac OS

Running NW.js applications on Linux

Summary

2. NW.js Native UI APIs

The App API – the core of your applications

Opening a file in your application natively

Accessing the application data folder path

Accessing the manifest file data

Best practices for closing applications

Registering system-wide hotkeys

Other app APIs

The Window API – working with windows on NW.js

Instantiating a new window object

Window – setting size and position of windows

Changing the window status

Fullscreen windows and the Kiosk mode

Frameless windows and drag regions

The taskbar icon – get the user's attention!

Closing windows

Other Window APIs

The Screen API – screen geometry functions

The Menu API – handling window and context menus

The contextual menu

The window menu

File dialogs – opening and saving files

Opening multiple files

Filtering by file type

Opening a directory

Saving files

Suggesting a default path

Opening files through file dragging

The Tray API – hide your application in plain sight

The Clipboard API – accessing the system clipboard

The Shell API – platform-dependent desktop functions

Summary

3. Leveraging the Power of Node.js

Routing and templating in NW.js

Node.js global and process objects

The window object

Using NW.js' main module

Handling paths in NW.js

NW.js context issues

Working with Node.js modules

Internal modules

Third-party modules written in JavaScript

Third-party modules with C/C++ add-ons

Summary

4. Data Persistence Solutions and Other Browser Web APIs

Data persistence solutions

Web storage

Web SQL Database

IndexedDB

XMLHttpRequest and BLOBs

Handling media files

Shedding some light on security issues

The Web Notifications API

Summary

5. Let's Put It All Together

Let's get started!

A matter of style

The HTML5 skeleton

Let's dive deep into the application logic

The application layer

Adding a new task

Loading all the tasks

Implementing export and sync features

The NativeUI layer

Implementing the Window menu

Implementing the Context menu

Restoring the window position

Implementing the Options window

Closing the application

Making the application open smoothly

Summary

6. Packaging Your Application for Distribution

The manifest file

The general logic behind the packaging procedure

Packaging NW.js applications for Mac OS X

Associating a file extension with your application

Packaging NW.js applications for Microsoft Windows

Registering a file type association on Microsoft Windows

Packaging NW.js applications for Linux

Adding icon and file type associations on Linux

Securing your source code

About NW.js application licensing

Summary

7. Automated Packaging Tools

Web2Executable

node-webkit-builder and grunt-node-webkit-builder

grunt-node-webkit-builder

generator-node-webkit

Summary

8. Let's Debug Your Application

Remote debugging

The DevTools API

Live reloading NW.js

Troubleshooting common issues

Summary

9. Taking Your Application to the Next Level

NW.js boilerplates

node-webkit-hipster-seed

angular-desktop-app

node-webkit-tomster-seed

node-webkit-boilerplate

nw-boilerplate

Development ideas

Resources and tutorials

Summary

Index

NW.js Essentials

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: May 2015

Production reference: 1190515

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78528-086-3

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Alessandro Benoit

Reviewers

Dan Bendell

Marco Fabbri

Julio Freitas

Commissioning Editor

Amarabha Banerjee

Acquisition Editor

Reshma Raman

Content Development Editor

Gaurav Sharma

Technical Editor

Humera Shaikh

Copy Editor

Sarang Chari

Project Coordinator

Harshal Ved

Proofreaders

Stephen Copestake

Safis Editing

Indexer

Mariammal Chettiyar

Graphics

Disha Haria

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Alwin Roy

Cover Work

Alwin Roy

About the Author

Alessandro Benoit is a 31-year-old web developer from Italy. He currently works both with backend and frontend technologies, ranging from PHP development, mostly on WordPress and Laravel, to web design and building open source jQuery plugins. He's also an early adopter of NW.j...