pre-enhanced app distributions

[dragonwocky]

this has been created as a sister-issue to vtenfys/notion-linux#18 so it won't be forgotten.

after the module rework in v0.11.0 is done, it would be possible to create and distribute pre-enhanced installers for notion. this could definitely be done with the deb builder, but i'm not sure yet if could be done for macOS/windows (or if it needs to be done?).

in theory it would just need: copying the app folder to make an app.bak, appending a single require() statement to every js file in the app folder, and adding in an enhancer folder at the same level as the app folder.

[dragonwocky]

@davidbailey00 i'm not super familiar with the build process: would it be possible to also do this for macOS/windows versions of notion?

[vtenfys]

I haven't tried it yet but I believe it would be possible yes! Since macOS apps are essentially just folders with a .app extension, those should be relatively easy; for Windows it would involve some sort of repackaging which I'm not so sure about

[vtenfys]

appending a single require() statement to every js file in the app folder, and adding in an enhancer folder at the same level as the app folder.

it may be easier to put the enhancer folder inside app/node_modules, that way it can be imported using just require('notion-enhancer/pkg/loader.js)` without the need to specify a relative path.

also, is there a reason the loader needs to be included with every js file inside app and it can't be included in just one of them, or a select few?

[dragonwocky]

@davidbailey00 yes - by including it in every js file, module.export functions can be overridden (for things like e.g. creating system menus or windows), and things can be run in/at different processes/times/places (e.g. main and renderer, in the host window or the notion webview).

node_modules is a good thought.

[dragonwocky]

a couple relevant updates:

i have added a --path=</path/to/notion/resources/> option, but the default is still the normal automatic platform detection.

so that modules can be updated/installed without having to update the whole enhancer, they'll be loaded from github and cached rather than distributed with the npm package (managed from the enhancer's menu).

i had originally planned for that cache to be in ~/.notion-enhancer, but i did some testing to see if it would work to just add an option to install in "portable" mode and stick the cache somewhere in the notion source, and it wouldn't really. that would mean that if notion ever updates it would be deleted and users would not only have to reinstall the enhancer but also redownload and reconfigure all their modules.

it's not a massive issue, i can stick with the ~/.notion-enhancer plan and just not use that cache during notion-enhancer apply, but it does mean that installations and pre-enhanced distributions can't come with any non-core mods pre-downloaded.

[dragonwocky]

https://github.com/notion-enhancer/notion-repackaged