nobj-build-nw

A tool to build applications for the NW platform. Features:

• Installable as devDependencies with just one line
• Joins + Obfuscates closures for NodeJS context
• Joins + Obfuscates code, css, assets for Local Webapps
• Compiles 100% of NodeJS context to bytecode using ByteNode (arch dependent)
• Compiles 100% of local webapps to bytecode using NWJC (arch / plaf dependent)
• Builds distribution packages for OSX and Windows

Installing

1 - Install the tool

• Declare the dependency in ```devDependencies````

npm install [email protected] --save-dev

You will get the package inserted into devDependencies

  "devDependencies": {
    "nobj-build-nw": "^53.1.37"
  }

• NW.JS version are the first two numbers: 53.1 means NWJS 0.53.1
• Minor is the tool revision for the NWJS Version
• Your package.json has to match this version number or compiled binaries will not work.

2 - Add scripts to package.json

You can declare the following scripts in the parent project for ease of use:

"scripts": {
    "build": "nobj-nw-build",
    "build:osx-x64": "nobj-nw-build-plaf osx x64",
    "build:win-x64": "nobj-nw-build-plaf win x64",
    "dist:osx-x64": "nobj-nw-dist osx x64",
    "dist:win-x64": "nobj-nw-dist win x64",
    "sign:osx": "nobj-nw-sign-osx dist/$npm_package_name-$npm_package_version-mac-x64/Holopoke.app",
    "proto:osx": "nobj-nw-proto-osx dist/$npm_package_name-$npm_package_version-mac-x64/Holopoke.app"
  }

3 - Setup deployment in package.json

• The tool uses nw-builder-phoenix internally, so check out the documentation to configure the deployment. Use this as an example:

  "build": {
    "appId": "my.cool.application",
    "nwVersion": "0.53.1",
    "nwFlavor": "normal",
    "output": "./dist/",
    "packed": false,
    "targets": [
      "nsis"
    ],
    "files": [
      "bin/**",
      "app/**"
    ],
    "ffmpegIntegration": false,
    "mac": {
      "name": "MyApp",
      "displayName": "MyApp",
      "copyright": "Copyright (C) Disaster Might Happen",
      "icon": "dist.src/osx/icon-1024.icns"
    },
    "win": {
      "productName": "MyApp",
      "companyName": "NDisaster Might Happen",
      "copyright": "Copyright (C) Disaster Might Happen",
      "icon": "dist.src/win/icon.ico"
    },
    "nsis": {
      "icon": "dist.src/win/icon.ico",
      "solid": true
    }
  }

4. Create the manifest

Manifest is in .template file. This file is parsed by nobj-build-tools, that are used internally to buld the different modules.

export TEMPLATE=default

# Closure Compiler Mode
export CCMODE="--language_out=ECMASCRIPT_2018 --language_in=ECMASCRIPT_2018"

# Apple Certificate
export APPLECF_NAME="xxxxxxx"
export APPLECF_ID="xxxxxxxx"

# NW Version
export NW_VERSION=0.53.1

# Local Apps to build
export BUILD_APPS="\
[email protected]:user/repo-app-1 app-1
[email protected]:user/repo-app-2 app-2
[email protected]:user/repo-lib-1 lib-1
.
.
"

• Each entry in BUILD_APPS will download that application, and build it using nobj-build-tools.
• Later steps compile each application into bytecode.

Invoking the scripts

After the .template file is created, you can run the scripts.

npm run build

• Builds the non-arch-dependent part of the applications

npm run build:osx-x64 / npm run build:win-x64

Builds the arch-dependent part of the applications

• Compiles the source code into Bytecode.
• Run after npm run build
• CROSS-COMPILING IS NOT SUPPORTED, due to the fact that NWJC does not support cross-compilation: You can only generate bytecode for the current platform.

npm run dist:osx-x64 / npm run dist:win-x64

• Creates the distribution packages under dist/
• Will also prepare and sign the application

npm run sign:osx

• Signs the OSX application with credentials supplied in .template
• Called automatically by dist

npm run proto:osx

• Adds functionality to the application manifest such as Custom Protocol Mappings
• Called automatically by dist

Dependencies

• To sign OSX applications, you need XCODE pre-installed, as it uses codesign.
• To run under windows, you need CygWin pre-installed. Also suggested is to use a decent terminal other than the one included with Windows.

Work in progress

This is a work in progress and several features still don´t work, but will do soon:

• Code Signing for Windows.
• Code Signing for mac works barebones. Probably there are more files to sign, or refine the codesign parameters.
• Add the Custom Protocol for Windows.
• Windows NSIS target does not boot. Seems a packaging issue as the uncompressed target does work)

Copyright

(C) 2018-2021 Nebular Streams. License: CC 4.0 Attribution Sharealike