App Spin-up

How to fork and configure a Desktop App repo built on Pankosmia

Table of Contents

Fork desktop-app-template

Desktop-app-template is a repo designed to be forked to spin up and maintain new Desktop App repos built on Pankosmia.

  1. Start at https://github.com/pankosmia/desktop-app-template/fork

  2. Choose a repository name of 30 characters or less if you want to keep Windows developers from needing to clone to a shorter local repo name. The windows cargo build c compiler requires repos names of 30 characters or less.

  3. Create Fork

Setup 

    |-- repos
    |-- pankosmia
        |-- [your-desktop-app-repo-name] (30 characters or less on windows!)

package.json

Replace all instances of “desktop-app-template” in package.json with “[your-desktop-app-repo-name]”

At the root of your clone of this repo, run: 

    npm ci

Edit app_config.env

Entering the App Name, version number, Apps Short Name for working directory, assets, and clients.

Required Assets:

  • ASSET1=resource-core
  • ASSET1_PATH=/runtime_resources
  • ASSET1_NAME=app_resources
  • ASSET2=resource-core
  • ASSET2_PATH=/templates
  • ASSET2_NAME=templates
  • ASSET3=webfonts-core
  • ASSET3_PATH=/
  • ASSET3_NAME=webfonts

Required Clients:

  • CLIENT1=core-client-dashboard
  • CLIENT2=core-client-content
  • CLIENT[any number]=core-client-settings

Branding

Change /globalBuildResources/theme.json directly to customize your app. For helful tips, see the Theme section of UX/UI guidelines.

For implementing your logo, see the Branding README for scripts to customize /globalBuildResources/.ico, /globalBuildResources/.png, and /globalBuildResources/icon.icns, along with info on how each is used.

Setup Scripts

cd [os]/scripts

Run[1] the clone script to clone all repos listed in app_config.env (assets and clients)

Run[1] the app_setup script to generate the config files to match app_config.env. Re-run[1] the app_setup script anytime app_config.env is modified.

Run[1] the build_clients script to build all clients. Be patient. This will take a while.

  • This script is intended for setting all clients up for first use, or for rebuilding all clients to their latest main branch. It changes to the main branch, pulls the latest, and builds (or rebuilds) every client every time it is run.
  • Build client manually when you want to use a branch or when you only need to rebuild one client or when you do not want all clients built from their latest main branch!

Run[1] the build_server script to build the Pankosmia server and assemble the build environment. (be patient. This will also take a while.)

(Optional) Run[1] the build_viewer script to create an Electronite viewer for use with the local dev build environment.

Running your Setup

Run[1] the run script to start the server without a browser launch.

  • Only one instance of the same server can be running at a time.

Run the viewer script to use the Electronite viewer with the local dev build environment, or launch a browser at the location indicated.

Footnotes

[1] … Windows developers, run .bat scripts from a Powershell or Command terminal:
             …repos\pankosmia[your-desktop-app-repo-name]\windows\scripts> .\[scriptname].bat
             The .\ is optional from a command prompt.
             Use a powershell terminal for the .ps1 build scripts.
MacOS developers, run .bsh scripts from a MacOS terminal:
             …repos/pankosmia/[your-desktop-app-repo-name]/macos/scripts> ./[scriptname].bsh
Linux developers, run .zsh scripts from a linux terminal:
             …repos/pankosmia/[your-desktop-app-repo-name]/linux/scripts> ./[scriptname].zsh