Advanced Techniques for Building Ext JS Apps with Electron

Transcript

1. Advanced Techniques For Building Ext JS Apps With Electron Marc Gusmano Senior Sales Engineer marc.gusmano@sencha.com
2. Build ‘native’ desktop applications with Web technology What is Electron?
3. Sencha Uses Electron Architect Themer Inspector Test Studio
4. Who uses Electron?
5. What is Electron? Chrome NodeJS
6. Control the runtime Why Electron?
7. Desktop integration Why Electron?
8. Local access to NodeJSfor realwork Why Electron?
9. Electron Supported Platforms • Applications can run on - Windows (32 or 64) - Mac OS X - Linux (x86, x86_64, and armv7l) • Applications can be built on: - Windows (32 or 64) - Mac OS X - Linux (x86 or x86_64) Don’t forget to sign your binaries!
10. Demo
11. Electron Build Process • Builds use the electron-packager Node.js package. • Uses npm scripts instead of gulp or grunt. - Simplicity is good… can always switch over if needs require. • The electron-packager wraps the compiled Ext JS application as produced by Sencha Cmd. • Application code will be stored in an “asar” file. - See http://electron.atom.io/docs/tutorial/application-packaging/ - Just for convenience, not as a secure storage mechanism.
12. Render Electron Processes Main ./main.js ./app.js new BrowserWindow() process.type: 'browser' 'render' System UI Heavy Lifting Presentation (DOM)
13. Electron Organization • Render process is almost a normal web app - Entry point is “app.js” in root folder - Other code is in “./app” folder • Main process logic is just Node.js code - Entry point is “main.js” in root folder - Other code is in “./main” folder
14. Inter-process Communication (IPC)
15. var remote = require('electron').remote; var service = remote.require('./main/service'); var v = service.heavyWork(42, result => { console.log(`Work is done: ${result}`); }); console.log(`Initial work value: ${v}`); // log: // > Initial work value: 21 // > Work is done: 427 Use remote To Off-load Work • Push heavy workloads to the main process. • Initial result is synchronously returned! • Callbacks can be used to return data asynchronously as well. • Very convenient compared to raw IPC methods. module.exports = { heavyWork (value, done) { setTimeout(() => { done(value * 10 + 7); }, 2500); return v / 2; } }; ./main/service.js ./app/...
16. Native GUI Integration
17. Native GUI Integration Electron provides access to many native elements such as: • File Pickers • Folder Pickers • Tray Icons • Notifications / “Balloons”
18. tbar: [{ xtype: 'electronfilefield', options: { filters: [{ name: 'Images', extensions: ['jpg', 'png', 'gif'] },{ name: 'All Files', extensions: ['*'] }] }, bind: '{filename}', listeners: { change: 'onFileChange' } }] electronfilefield • Replacement for filefield • Uses Electron’s dialog module • Supports data-binding
19. Native Menus
20. Native Menus Electron provides native menu access, but… • Menu creation is easiest with a template • Templates have no conditional pieces • API’s to maintain menu state (checked, visible, enabled) are rather new • Editing menus after creation is difficult
21. mixins: [ 'Ext.electron.menu.Manager' ], nativeMenus: { app: [{ label: 'File', submenu: [{ label: 'Reopen', submenu: 'getReopenMenu' }, { label: 'Exit', accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+Q', click: 'onExit' }] }, ... Ext.electron.menu.Manager • Declarative, dynamic menus • Menu and menu item properties can be specified via: - Value - Inline function - Named controller method • Click handlers can be: - Inline function - Named controller method
22. getReopenMenu () { var vm = this.getViewModel(); return this.recentFiles.map(file => { return { label: file, click () { vm.set('filename', file); } }; }); } ./app/…/MainController.js Ext.electron.menu.Manager • Submenus can be built in code nativeMenus: { app: [{ label: 'File', submenu: [{ label: 'Reopen', submenu: 'getReopenMenu' }, { ...
23. onFileChange (picker, path) { var recentFiles = this.recentFiles; let i = recentFiles.indexOf(path); if (i > -1) { recentFiles.splice(i, 1); } recentFiles.push(path); if (recentFiles.length > 3) { recentFiles.shift(); } this.getView().reloadNativeMenu('app'); } Ext.electron.menu.Manager • Call reload method when state changes to update the menu:
24. Fit and Finish
25. const Path = require('path'); const COMPANY = 'Acme'; const COMPANY_LOWER = COMPANY.toLowerCase(); const profileDir = (function () { var ret = os.homedir(); switch (os.platform()) { case 'win32': return Path.join(process.env.APPDATA, `${COMPANY}`); case 'darwin': return Path.join(ret, `Library/Application Support/${COMPANY}`); case 'linux': return Path.join(ret, `.local/share/data/${COMPANY_LOWER}`); } return Path.join(ret, `.${COMPANY_LOWER}`); })(); Respecting Native Conventions • User file locations vary by platform: - Windows • C:\Users\Jason\AppData\Roaming\Acme\ - Mac OS X • /Users/Jason/Library/Application Support/Acme/ - Linux (may vary by distro) • /home/jason/.local/share/data/acme/ - When in doubt: • /home/jason/.acme/
26. win = new BrowserWindow({ width: initData.width || 1200, height: initData.height || 900, x: initData.x, y: initData.y, maximized: initData.maximized }); win.on('move', trackWindow); win.on('resize', trackWindow); function trackWindow () { if (win.isMaximized()) { ... } else { windowBox = win.getBounds(); } if (!syncTimer) { syncTimer = setTimeout(saveWindowState, 500); } } Tracking The BrowserWindow • Create the BrowserWindow using saved size information (no flicker) • Track move and resize events at the level of the BrowserWindow. • Buffer changes (they fire quickly)
27. Downside?
28. Enterprise Distribution Challenges
29. Code Signing Challenges
30. Create an Installer Challenges
31. How to Update? Challenges
32. User Adoption Challenges
33. Code Security Challenges
34. Build ‘native’ desktop applications with Web technology Summary
35. Questions?
36. github.com/sencha/electron-demo