Standalone app doesn't work

[shaman-apprentice]

Bug

Expected Behavior

Given a new version is released
When downloading the assets
Then we get executable for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Actual Behavior

See ci output of job "Build visualization" and available assets of release 1.96.0:

• Windows version is not build due to missing wine in build image
• Mac x64 is not build due to a bug in nwjs-builder-phoenix; maybe related to this bug and this bug
• When I download Linux x64 version and want to run it in my Ubuntu 20.04 WSL I get the following error: (codecharta-visualization:293): Pango-ERROR **: 17:54:03.066: Harfbuzz version too old (1.2.1)

Open questions

• Do we need any standalone version and if so do we need Windows, Mac and Linux? -> erstmal ja
• For Linux: Is it the user responsibility to have the right version of Harfbuzz or out responsibility to use a not outdated version?
• nwjs-builder-phoenix isn't maintained anymore. Do we want to migrate away from it?

Specifications

• is released in online-demo: yes
• CodeCharta Version: 1.96.0
• OS: Windows, Mac, Linux

[IhsenBouallegue]

If I understood correctly, we need to fix the standalone builds.
But in this issue it was mentioned that we need to remove them and keep the web version (which works on all platforms) #2573.
I don't see a lot of benefit from the windows linux and mac versions. It's a lot more maintainability for little benefit.

[BridgeAR]

We might have different understandings when it comes to this: #2573 was about simplifying the build process for the standalone version. We used to have two types of builds: one for the web that caused different javascript code to be executed than in the standalone version. Now both builds are identical but we still have to be able to execute the standalone version properly.

So if I understood this issue correct it's only about not being able to properly start the standalone version at the moment and that should definitely be the case.

[IhsenBouallegue]

So if I understood this issue correct it's only about not being able to properly start the standalone version at the moment and that should definitely be the case.

I see. Thanks for the clarification @BridgeAR.
And why do we have other standalone versions than web in the first place? (Mac, Windows, Linux…) are they still relevant? Shouldn't be web enough for all platforms?

[BridgeAR]

We require a desktop application that runs on any OS. The reason is mainly that Internet is not always available.

[IhsenBouallegue]

But the web build doesn't require internet. And it works on all operating systems without any additional dependencies. Doesn't that already meet the requirements? Plus it's already available for every version we release link

[shaman-apprentice]

That's new to me, that the browser loads and executes JavaScript from file system, when opened from file system. It also works on my machine.

I am not sure, if every request to the internet is enforced to be blocked. Is this relevant for a user, that he is 100% that no request is sent? On the other side a standalone app could also sent requests, couldn't it?

If this approach is fine, it would save same maintenance for sure :)

[BridgeAR]

It is correct, that it works by loading the main file in a browser. Some computers that CC should run upon might not have a browser though. We just have to make sure we need nothing on a computer than CC to be run properly. What tool is used for it does not matter. Let's please look into what has broken in nw.js soon. It could be a breaking change in a recent version (that's what I would verify first).

[luelista]

Okay, the fix for macOS worked, for Windows it still got problems. The packaging step reports this error:

Error: rcedit.exe failed with exit code 123
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/***/***/visualization/node_modules/rcedit/lib/rcedit.js:60:16)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:527:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1092:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:302:5)

(https://github.com/MaibornWolff/codecharta/runs/7002261326?check_suite_focus=true)

[luelista]

Ich habe den nwjs Build unter Windows untersucht mit folgendem Ergebnis: Es läuft aktuell nicht, da der nwjs-builder-phoenix das Modul node-rcedit in einer sehr alten Version referenziert, die nur die 32-bit Version der "rcedit.exe" mitbringt. Daher läuft es in unserer 64-bit Buildpipeline nicht. Ein 32-bit kompatibles Wine dort zu installieren ist nicht trivial. Sinnvoller wäre es, die neuere node-rcedit zu nutzen, die unter 64-bit läuft. Mit folgendem snippet in der package.json kann ich zwar eine neuere node-rcedit erzwingen, allerdings läuft dann der builder nicht mehr durch, da sich das API von node-rcedit geändert hat:

"overrides": {
  "nwjs-builder-phoenix": {
    "rcedit": "^3.0.1"
  }
}

Wir müssten also unsere eigene, angepasste Version von nwjs-builder-phoenix pflegen.

Stattdessen würde ich empfehlen, erstmal das alternative Build-Tool nw-builder (https://github.com/nwutils/nw-builder) zu testen. Das ist zwar nur die zweite Wahl laut Doku (https://docs.nwjs.io/en/latest/For%20Users/Package%20and%20Distribute/), aber dafür deutlich aktueller (letztes Update 2022 statt 2018) - vielleicht ist die Doku veraltet. Es scheint auch ein sehr ähnliches Featureset zu haben.

[BridgeAR]

+1 on switching to nw-builder.

[phanlezz]

Fixed by #2881

[phanlezz]

Currently the web package and the global npm install don't work of the visualization part.

[ce-bo]

Would you please provide some More error details?

[phanlezz]

Would you please provide some More error details?

After installing via npm i -g codecharta-virtualization and running it codecharta-virtualization under mac, only the command nw . pops up in the command line and process is finished. Nothing else happens.

The zip file of the -web version can't be extracted, because it is corrupted. Im already working on this second problem.

[phanlezz]

Closed via #2934, standalone applications should work now. There is still an issue with the MacOS npm-install version: #2967