Recently I’ve been extending my “classic” JavaScript knowledge by learning NodeJS. I’m sad to say that writing cross-platform, Desktop-class applications in Perl is just way too much hassle. However, having also discovered node-webkit I’ve been able to accelerate my desktop application development using classic HTML & CSS knowledge and improving my JavaScript techniques, mostly trying to better understand fully asynchronous, non-blocking programming. Apart from some initial mind-bending scoping experiences which maybe I’ll come back to another day, it’s generally been a breeze.<\/p>\n
One of the useful things I’ve been able to do is to automate cross-platform application builds for Windows and Mac (Linux to come, not a priority right now but should be easy – feel free to comment). It’s not compilation, but more like application packaging.<\/p>\n
My project has the node-webkit distributable zips in “src\/”. The target folder is “dist\/” and I’m also using a few DOS tools (zip.exe & unzip.exe and the commandline Anolis Resource editor) which live in dist\/tools. The targets are built with timestamped filenames, a .exe in “dist\/win\/” for Windows and a .dmg in “dist\/mac\/” for OSX. I don’t do anything clever with Info.plist on Mac though I know I should, but the icons are set on both platforms, assuming they’ve been pre-generated and saved in the right places (resources\/).<\/p>\n
On OSX I’m using system make<\/em> which presumably came with XCode. On Windows I’m using gmake<\/em> which on my system came with a previous installation of Strawberry Perl but is also available in a Windows binary\/installer.<\/p>\n My Makefile looks something like below (“make” not being one of my strongest skills – apologies for the ugly stuff). It might not be 100% complete as it’s been excised out of the original, much more complicated Makefile, so use with caution. If anyone has any tips on stuffing it all into NSIS automatically as well, please comment.<\/p>\n Recently I’ve been extending my “classic” JavaScript knowledge by learning NodeJS. I’m sad to say that writing cross-platform, Desktop-class applications in Perl is just way too much hassle. However, having also discovered node-webkit I’ve been able to accelerate my desktop application development using classic HTML & CSS knowledge and improving my JavaScript techniques, mostly trying … Continue reading “Cross-platform automated builds for node-webkit applications”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[983,307,984,744,292,532,980,982,981,985],"class_list":["post-785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming","tag-chrome","tag-css","tag-desktop-applications","tag-html","tag-javascript","tag-make","tag-node","tag-node-webkit","tag-nodejs","tag-software-packaging"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tNW := node-webkit-v0.7.3\r\nNWWIN := $(NW)-win-ia32\r\nNWMAC := $(NW)-osx-ia32\r\nNWLIN := $(NW)-linux-x64\r\n\r\ndeps:\r\n\trm -rf node_modules\r\n\tnpm install\r\n\r\nwindeps:\r\n\tif exist node_modules rmdir node_modules \/s \/q\r\n\tnpm install\r\n\r\n# zip.exe & unzip.exe from http:\/\/stahlworks.com\/dev\/?tool=zipunzip\r\n# Resourcer.exe from http:\/\/anolis.codeplex.com\/\r\nwin: windeps\r\n\tif exist mdc.nw del mdc.nw \/q\r\n\tif exist dist\\win rmdir dist\\win \/s \/q\r\n\tif exist tmp rmdir tmp \/s \/q\r\n\tdist\\tools\\zip -r mdc.nw mdc package.json node_modules\r\n\tmkdir dist\\win tmp\r\n\tdist\\tools\\unzip -d tmp -o src\\$(NWWIN).zip\r\n\tdist\\tools\\Resourcer -op:del -src:tmp\\nw.exe -type:14 -name:IDR_MAINFRAME\r\n\tdist\\tools\\Resourcer -op:add -src:tmp\\nw.exe -type:14 -name:IDR_MAINFRAME -file:resources\\mdc72x72.ico -lang:1033\r\n\tcopy \/b tmp\\nw.exe+mdc.nw dist\\win\\mdc.exe\r\n\tcopy tmp\\icudt.dll dist\\win\r\n\tcopy tmp\\nw.pak dist\\win\r\n\tif exist mdc.nw del mdc.nw \/q\r\n\tif exist tmp rmdir tmp \/q \/s\r\n\tdist\\tools\\zip -r dist\\win\\mdc-$(shell echo %date:~-4,4%%date:~3,2%%date:~0,2%-%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%).zip dist\\win\r\n\r\nmac: deps\r\n\t[ ! -f mdc.nw ] || rm mdc.nw\r\n\tzip -r mdc.nw mdc package.json resources\/mdc72x72.png node_modules\r\n\ttouch node-webkit.app\r\n\trm -rf node-webkit.app dist\/mdc.app dist\/mac\r\n\tmkdir dist\/mac\r\n\tunzip -o src\/$(NWMAC).zip\r\n\tmv node-webkit.app dist\/mac\/mdc.app\r\n\tmv mdc.nw dist\/mac\/mdc.app\/Contents\/Resources\/app.nw\r\n\trm dist\/mac\/mdc.app\/Contents\/Resources\/nw.icns\r\n\tsips -s format icns resources\/mdc512x512.png --out dist\/mac\/mdc.app\/Contents\/Resources\/mdc.icns\r\n\tperl -i -pe 's{nw[.]icns}{mdc.icns}smxg' dist\/mac\/mdc.app\/Contents\/Info.plist\r\n\tperl -i -pe 's{node[-]webkit[ ]App}{MDC}smxg' dist\/mac\/mdc.app\/Contents\/Info.plist\r\n\thdiutil create dist\/mac\/mdc-$(shell date +'%Y%m%d-%H%M').dmg -ov -volname \"MDC\" -fs HFS+ -srcfolder dist\/mac\/mdc.app\r\n\trm -rf dist\/mac\/mdc.app\r\n\r\ntest:\r\n\t@.\/node_modules\/.bin\/mocha\r\n\r\n.PHONY: test<\/code><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"