NW.js Essentials

By Alessandro Benoit

About This Book

• Leverage all the power of well-known web technologies such as Node.js/io.js, HTML5, and CSS to develop desktop applications
• Develop and deploy modern desktop applications on Microsoft Windows, Mac Os X, and Linux
• A practical guide that demonstrates how developing applications on NW.js differs from standard server/client programming

Who This Book Is For

If you are an experienced Node.js developer who wants to create amazing desktop applications using NW.js, this is the book for you. Prior knowledge of HTML5, jQuery, and CSS is assumed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: May 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781785287008

Book preview

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

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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

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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.js and the developer of Nuwk!, an open source application that simplifies the building process of NW.js applications on Mac OS X.

Acknowledgments

NW.js Essentials is my first attempt at becoming a technical book writer. Writing it has been fun and exciting but also quite harsh. There were moments between work and personal issues when I thought I couldn't make it. But here we are! What I want to do now is thank all the wonderful people who have accompanied me on this journey.

First of all, I want to thank the whole open source community. These people are the reason I'm in information technology in the first place. I can still remember when I was 14 and some guy on IRC was teaching me about breaking NetBios to gain access to remote hosts of Microsoft Windows (I swear, I've never done any harm); that was the first time I realized how thrilling technology was to me.

I really can't help being grateful to Roger Wang for all the effort he's taken to make NW.js an easy and stable environment to bring web technologies to our desktops.

I want to personally thank Reshma Raman and Gaurav Sharma, my editors at Packt Publishing. I have never met them in person, but still they have been positive and supportive during the whole writing process.

Thanks to Marco Fabbri, Dan Bendell, and Julio Freitas, for the great job they have done in reviewing this book.

I have to thank Abramo Capozzolo, my employer at Comodolab, for being so open to the use of the latest technologies and for putting people and research above revenues. And of course, I would like to thank my colleague and friend, Christian Pucci, for bringing me in, in the first place.

Thanks to my life partner, Elisa Rocchi, for being present and always understanding despite my recent mood swings. And thanks to my best friend, Andrea Valli, for still being my friend after months of absence.

Thanks to my mother, Patrizia Capacci, for loving me unconditionally.

Finally, I want to dedicate the publication of this book to an old friend who unfortunately is no longer here to share this joy. This is also for you, Andrea Benvenuti.

About the Reviewers

Dan Bendell is a budding young developer currently at the University of Plymouth studying computing and game development. He is set to finish his studies in 2016 after completing a year of work in the industry. Upon finishing his academic endeavors, he wishes to pursue his dream of either creating a start-up or working within a game company that will allow him to create games that truly engage his audience and work with a variety of new people on a daily basis.

Marco Fabbri is an experienced software engineer and former professor of distributed systems (middleware for multi-agent systems, ReST architecture, and Node.js) at the University of Bologna, Italy. He's also an active contributor in NW.js codebase.

Julio Freitas completed his graduation in computer science with specialization in information systems and technology. He has been a developer of web applications since the year 2000. He worked as a developer and Unix systems administrator in projects of grid computing with Java and PHP for 5 years at the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies/National Institute for Space Research (CPTEC/INPE), Brazil. He currently resides in England, where he works in a web systems company, and he is now creating his own start-up and acting as a full-stack web developer in projects focused on API development and security and applications for mobile devices using the MEAN stack and Ionic.

Julio has also reviewed JavaScript Regular Expressions, Loiane Groner, Packt Publishing.

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Preface

NW.js is a web app runtime, based on Node.js and the Chromium open source browser project, which enables web developers to build native-like desktop applications for Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, leveraging all the power of well-known web technologies such as Node.js, HTML5, and CSS.

In NW.js Essentials, you'll be guided through the full development process, starting from the theoretical basis behind NW.js technology to the realization of a fully working, multiplatform desktop application.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Meet NW.js, provides a presentation of the NW.js technology followed by a brief digression on how NW.js works under the hood, an analysis of the strengths of the library, and eventually a step-by-step tutorial on building a first, simple Hello World application.

Chapter 2, NW.js Native UI APIs, takes you through a thorough description of Native UI APIs with examples on how to interact with OS windows, work with menus, run shell commands, and much, much more.

Chapter 3, Leveraging the Power of Node.js, gives an introduction of how NW.js development differs from standard server/client programming and a few interesting hints on how to get the maximum out of Node.js within NW.js applications.

Chapter 4, Data Persistence Solutions and Other Browser Web APIs, explains more about data handling and takes advantage of Browser Web APIs to build beautiful, usable, and native-like desktop applications.

Chapter 5, Let's Put It All Together, builds a fully working application based on many of the concepts you've learned in the previous chapters.

Chapter 6, Packaging Your Application for Distribution, gives a step-by-step tutorial on the packaging process of NW.js applications on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Chapter 7, Automated Packaging Tools, takes advantage of third-party tools to simplify the packaging process of NW.js applications.

Chapter 8, Let's Debug Your Application, teaches you different ways to debug your application and a few common issues of NW.js.

Chapter 9, Taking Your Application to the Next Level, involves a collection of ideas and resources to get the best out of what you've learned in this book.

What you need for this book

In order to fully understand the concepts explained in the book, a decent knowledge of the following subjects is mandatory:

Node.js programming and working with Node.js modules

Modern web application languages such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript

Being comfortable with the use of the Unix terminal and the Microsoft Windows command line

It's not mandatory, but it might be helpful to have previous experience in the use of JavaScript task runners such as Gulp and Grunt.

Who this book is for

The book is targeted at experienced Node.js developers with a basic understanding of frontend web development.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user