JSNote - CLI version

JSNote is a simple JavaScript code editor with Markdown note functionality.

• Author: Seokhyun Wie (Brandon)
• Email: [email protected]
• Source: Udemy

JSNote is managed by Lerna

How to install

$ npm install jsnote-bw

How to run

$ npx jsnote-bw serve

Navigate to http://localhost:4005 to start. Your codes will be saved in notebook.js file. The file is in the folder where you execute the command.

Support Redux DevTool (Chrome Extension)

Development Notes

What am I building?

A CLI to launch an interactive development environment for writing and documenting code. Support JS, and MarkDown

Challenges

1. Code will be provided to Preview as a string. We have to execute it safely How to solve?
2. This code might have advanced JS syntax in it (like JSX) that your browser can't execute How to solve?
3. The code might have import statements for other JS files or CSS. We have to deal with those import statements before executing the code How to Solve?

Babel - Transpiler

• Problem #2 would be solved if we could get Babel working in our React app
• Take a look at existing apps online and see how they use babel:
  • codepen.io: Backend API Server
  • babeljs.io: In-Browser Transpiler

JavaScript Modules

// message.js
export default 'Hello there!';

// index.js
import message from './message';
console.log(message);

• AMD: define(['dep'], (dep) => {});
• common js: require(), module.exports
• ES Modules: import a from 'a', export default 123;

Transpile Example with Babel

import React from 'react';

=> Transpiled by Babel

const React = require('react');
module.exports = App;

Webpack - Bundler

Single file containing both modules linked together in some way

it can deal with both common js and ES Modules

How to find all the modules the user has imported from NPM?

1. Webpack throws an error if the modules is not installed locally (in case using Backend API) => NpmInstallWebpackPlugin (NPM Registry) : npm install automatically

2. Make manual request: doesn't install React as an entire dependency

3. Same as #2, but don't use API (No Backend)

Remote? Local?

• Remote: cache NPM modules to bundle faster / better for users with slow device or limited connection
• Local: fast execution / no need for API server / less complexity

Webpack doesn't work in the browser

esbuild-wasm NPM module

• ESBuild can transpile + bundle code all in the browser. Small amount of JS(user input) => WASM (Go Lang bundler compiled to work in the browser)
• It is primarily intended to only be used in the browser. (documentation)

ESBuild Bundling Process

1. Find where the index.js is stored (onResolve)
2. Attemp to load up the index.js file (onLoad)
3. Parse the index.js file, find any import/require/exports
4. If there's any import/require/exports, figure out where the requested file is (onResolve) => UNPKG
5. Attemp to load up the file

Used localforage (indexedDB) to cache

UNPKG

unpkg.com/packageName

• Get around with CORS when installing NPM packages
• Automatically find latest version

Execution

Consideration Around Code Execution

• User-provided code might throw errors and cause our program to crash
• User-provided code might mutate the DOM, causing our program to crash
• A use might accidentally run code provided by another malicious user

iframe as solution

• iframe allow communication between the parent and the child

parent.a; // from child html
document.querySelector('iframe').contentWindow; // from parent to child

• Direct access between frames is allowed when the iframe element does not have a 'sandbox' property, or has a 'sandbox="allow-same-origin"' property

• Domain, Port, and Protocol (http vs https) have to be the exact same

• We don't use additional server to prevent direct access (as codepen.io), but we use sandbox='' to isolate the iframe

SrcDocs

• An attribute of iframe
• troubleshooting: nested script tags cause an error
  • use window.postMessage()

Downside of using single port for all

• Cannot use a couple of features as localStorage
• However, it's ignored for the sake of performance and convenience

Open-source Browser-based Editors

1. CodeMirror: easy, doesn't have out-of-the-box features
2. Ace Editor: moderately easy, widely used
3. Monaco Editor: hardest to setup, gives almost-perfect editing experience

Monaco Editor

• @monaco-editor/react: main editor
• monaco-editor: Typescript types
• prettier: integration for formatting
• bulmaswatch: CDN CSS Library

JSX Syntax Highlighting

• monaco-jsx-highlighter

Resize Panes

• react-resizable

Markdown Editor

• @uiw-react-md-editor v2.1.1

• Resizer is included

• Will have a conflict with bulmacss .title class: check out ./src/scss/components/_TextEditor.scss

Redux

Structure

Immer

• cleaner code for reducer
• No need to pass initialState inside reducer, but pass it as second argument in produce() function (to resolve unexpected undefined type error on states)

Font Awesome

• css of icons

useMemo

• to assist bindActionCreators from being executed infinitely (src/hooks/use-actions.ts)

Cumulative Code Execution

connect two or more different cells so the later cell can use variables in the previous cell

Local Node API

separate NPM packages

• CLI: jbook
• Local Express API: @jbook/local-api
• Public Express API: @jbook/public-api
• React App: @jbook/local-client

Lerna CLI

Tool for managing a multi-package project

• Lerna | Yarn Workspaces | NPM Workspaces | Bolt | Luigi
• Lerna - v3.22.1 is used
• bootstrap mapping

Add TypeScript support

• In /packages folder, go to every sub packages' folder and run npx typescript --init and lerna add typescript --dev --scope=packageNames
• open tsconfig.json set outDir to ./dist
• In /local-api package, inside tsconfig.json you need to set declaration to true
• In the root directory, go to package.json and add script "start": "lerna run start --parallel", it will run all packages concurrently

Connect packages

• the application is in /packages/local-client

• /packages/cli: has local-api as a dependency

• /packages/local-api: has local-client as a dependency

• /packages/local-client: has the application