Getting Started

Prerequisites

Proper version of NodeJS

Install exactly nodejs version 7.x from this link. Do not install a newer or older version.

Build tools

npm Libraries with native files such as sqlite, runas, etc need to be rebuilt for the right version of electron and target platform. This is done by node-gyp and electron-rebuild and they depend on other tools such as python, xcode/msvisual-studio etc native libraries. On windows, do the following. For building on other os see this

# must run as *** admin *** otherwise will see un
npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

After installing build tools dependancies, python needs to be available in your path so that node-gyp can find it. In a bash shell on windows try which python to see if the binary is found after you add it to your path and relaunch the shell. In windows the path might be

C:\Users\Administrator\.windows-build-tools\python27

Install App Dependancies

to install all the dependancies you should run clean install which will flush npm & yarn caches and remove temp folders such as release. Then the modules un

clean-install.sh

Run

To run the app in dev mode where it is completely ran on the render thread so that the browser can be used as the debugger, run the following

npm run dev

To run in production mode

nm start

To run the installed app, use the desktop shortcut. On windows 7, the path to the exe is: C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Programs\spade

Tests

to run the tests you can run the following which will currently output to the browser console. Note that before running tests that use node modules with native dependancies (such as the sqlite tests), you have to run rebuild-native-root-modules.sh which are normally not built at the root level and under app instead. Before running test-mssql you want to run export MSSQL_TEST_DB=<url>

npm run test-core
npm run test-mssql
npm run test-sqlite

Adding dependancies

Note that ALL packages that have native code need to be installed in the app folder not the root folder. This project has two package.json files and you need to know which to use. All dependencies under the root package json will be webpacked (condensed into one js file) but that cannot occur for modules that have native dependancies. the items under the app folder are skipped by the build process. when you run clean-install.sh all temp files are rem

spade-service

You can only run the commands in the app/service folder from the installed version of the app, not the repo since the start command relies on the installed version of Spade not you local build of the exe. Note that start will fail to actually start the process even though other parts of each command will work.

Windows Installer

Run the following to make sure the existing release package is first deleted and that your build is based on your latest local package.json with reproducible minor versions. The resulting installer will be in the release folder. Note that clean-package.sh calls clean-install.sh first.

clean-package.sh

Development Environment

You should read the entire readme of this boilerplate at (1 commit after) the v0.12.0 tag. install the Atom packages form their readme. Additional recommendation:

• enable autosave in Atom settings which will save the files as soon as the pane loses focus.

Paths

Note that the path to a file is different when in the dev (npm run dev) and production (npm start) builds which are also different that the installed copy of the application (desktop shortcut). Indev mode, the js files will be in temp dll folder in the repo. The production mode runs it out of ./app folder. As a result, the __dirname can resolve to different folders.

Windows Shell

When developing windows, do not use the cmd shell. Use a bash shell (for example the shell that comes with git) so that a new shell is not launched to run the .sh files and then immediately closed. If you are not in a bash shell, and there is an error, you wont see it.

Troubleshooting

• When in production or installed mode, setting DEBUG_PROD env var to 'true' (in quotes) and restarting the bash shell you have open. You can search for 'env' on the start menu to open the appropriate window to set the variable.
• If clicking Spade does not do anything:
  • click the quit option on any Spade tray icon's context/right-click menu
  • make sure in task manage you do not have any Spade process running
  • make sure in task manager you do not see any node.exe running
  • try re-launching from shortcut
• When you close the Spade main window, it is still running. If you try to launch the app again, it will just show the main window of the running app. You have to use the Quit option from the tray icon to exit.
• Virus scanner might consider the spade-service.exe as malicious. Its existence or execution is not a concern unless it has been infected while on your network and the virus scanner has specifically found it to contain a particular virus.