@signalk/app-dock

A macOS-style app dock for switching between Signal K webapps on touch screens.

Features

• macOS dock magnification -- icons scale up with parabolic falloff as your finger moves along the dock
• Frosted glass pill with spring bounce animation, positioned on any screen edge
• Lazy loading -- apps load only when first tapped (important for Raspberry Pi and low-power devices)
• Double-tap corner to reveal the dock -- works on touch and mouse, no conflict with OS gestures or browser fullscreen
• Mouse edge hover to reveal on desktop
• Autostart -- optionally load a default app immediately on open
• keep-alive or destroy iframe lifecycle
• Active dot indicator, label tooltip, haptic feedback
• Embedded config panel in the admin UI with webapp discovery, drag-to-reorder, and live preview

Installation

cd ~/.signalk
npm install @signalk/app-dock

Restart Signal K, enable in Plugin Config > App Dock, click Discover Installed Webapps.

Open: http://your-sk-server:3000/@signalk/app-dock/

Usage

Double-tap the configured screen corner (default: bottom-right) to open the dock. Tap an app icon to switch. The dock auto-dismisses after selection, or tap the backdrop to close it.

On desktop, move the mouse to the screen edge corresponding to the dock position.

Configuration

Open Plugin Config > App Dock in the admin UI. The embedded configurator provides:

• Discover button to find all installed webapps (including Admin UI with a Settings gear icon)
• Drag-to-reorder the app list
• Enable/disable individual apps
• Autostart flag (play button) -- set one app to load automatically on open
• Live dock preview

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
position	bottom	Dock edge: bottom, top, left, right
triggerCorner	bottom-right	Which corner activates double-tap
iframeMode	keep-alive	keep-alive or destroy
iconSize	56	Base icon size in px
magnification	true	Enable macOS-style magnification effect
magnificationScale	1.7	Max icon scale (1.0-2.5)

Development

cd ~/.signalk
npm link /path/to/app-dock

Edit files in public/, reload the browser. No build step needed for the dock itself.

To rebuild the config panel (after changing src/configpanel/):

npm run build:config

Scripts

Command	Description
npm test	Run tests
npm run format	Prettier + ESLint fix
npm run lint	ESLint check
npm run build:config	Rebuild the admin UI config panel

License

Apache-2.0