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contributing.md

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Contributing

Scout-App 2 is written in JavaScript, Sass, and HTML. It is built using the cross-platform runtime environment NW.js and the UGUI framework.

What you can help with

  • Translate the app - Go to the Translate Scout-App section of the website.
  • Report Bugs - Make a GitHub Issue for any bug you find. Include steps to repoduce the issue and a screenshot if possible.
  • Website Improvements - Help with the website (See: Issues)
  • App Features - All Scout-App feature requests are on our Issues board. If your request does not exist, then request it on the issues page so we can discuss it before beginning work on it.
  • Feature Requests - If there is a feature you would like added to Scout-App check the Issues board to see if it is already requested, if so, comment on the existing issue. If your request does not exist, then request it on the issues page so we can discuss it before beginning work on it.
  • Bug fixes - If you find a bug and know how to fix it, or want to fix a reported bug, fork the repo and make a pull request.

Running Scout-App Locally for Development

  1. Clone down this scout-app repo with Git, or download a copy of the source
  2. Install Node.JS if you don't have it
  3. Open a command prompt or terminal in the scout-app folder and run npm install --loglevel=error
    • If you get a message about Skipping failed optional dependency or Not compatible with your operating system or architecture: it is normal and expected. Scout-App is cross-platform, so some dependencies are OS specific. These warnings are just there to say that something relating to a different OS wasn't installed.
  4. Run npm start

Project structure:

The main files for Scout-App 2 are:

  • package.json - The first thing NW.js looks at when you run the app. This gives instructions on how to open and display a window for the user (the size of it, if it has a native UI framed border, etc). This also acts as the standard Node/NPM package file that can be used to define a node project or install dependencies.
  • index.html - This is the main page of the app. It's set up like a standard html file, you'll just need to read through it and look at the comments for anything out of the ordinary. One thing specifically is the body tag has a class of "dev". Changing this to "prod" will remove the Dev Tools link under View in the nav bar and disable F5 refresh and F12 dev tools. Most of this is just markup for bootstrap. Some markup has been commented out, as it is for form elements I didn't see a use for at the time, but are already set up if we end up needing them (such as a drag/drop input box for files, or a range slider).
  • _scripts/ - The logic for Scout-App's UI is modularized into several JS file here, like preferences.js, sidebar.js or project-manager.js.
  • _scripts/ugui.js - This library has a ton of useful tools, view UGUI API for more information.

The Scout "God Object"

In the Developer Tools Console, you can type window.scout (or just scout) to see the main Scout object. It contains the following:

  • dictionary: Contains the same contents as the JSON files in the cultures folder. Used while switching languages in the UI.
  • ftux: "First Time User Experience". This is used as temporary storage for information generated on the FTUX screen. FTUX is shown whenever the user has 0 projects added to Scout-App.
  • globalSettings: This is where we store app-wide settings, rather than project specific settings.
    • cultureCode: This will be set to en by default but can be changed by the user in the UI under File > Preferences.
    • alertDesktop: This will be set to true by default, but can be changed by the user in the UI under File > Preferences.
    • alertInApp: This will be set to true by default, but can be changed by the user in the UI under File > Preferences.
    • alertSound: This will be set to true by default, but can be changed by the user in the UI under File > Preferences.
    • messageDesktop: This will be set to false by default, but can be changed by the user in the UI under File > Preferences.
    • messageInApp: This will be set to true by default, but can be changed by the user in the UI under File > Preferences.
    • messageSound: This will be set to true by default, but can be changed by the user in the UI under File > Preferences.
  • helpers: These are helper functions that can be called at any time from any file. Here is more information about specific helper functions:
    • addProject: Accepts a "project object" argument that contains an ID, Name, and local Directory. It adds it to the scout.projects list, updates the sidebar, and then saves settings.
    • alert: Accepts an error and project ID. Displays an error message in the UI and in the console.
    • autoGenerateProject: This accepts a project folder as an argument and then uses it to auto guess the settings for the project, adds it to the scout.projects list, and updates the sidebar and project view.
    • deleteLocalSettingsFile: This is currently not triggered by anything in the UI and can only be ran manually in the developer tools. It deletes the Scout-App user settings file for the currently logged in user. Good for testing when you have 5000 projects and need to get back down to 0.
    • ftux: This will show or hide the FTUX view based on if you have any projects. If you have no projects, it will scan common locations on your computer looking for a projects folder, then populate the UI if it finds one.
    • killAllWatchers: Forces all projects to stop watching for changes in the input folders of any project. Then updates the sidebar.
    • localize: When dynamically switching languages we use this function to localize the culture key into the correct translation.
    • message: Displays positive messages, like when a .sass file is successfully processed to .css without any errors.
    • processInputFolder: Recursively processes all .sass and .scss files in the project's input folder, skipping any that begin with an _ (underscore).
    • projectRenameHeight: Detects the correct height to set the confirm/cancel icons when editing a project name. These need to be vertically re-centered every time the app loads, or a new theme is picked.
    • removeProject: Accepts a project ID as an argument. Removes that project from the scout.projects list, updates the sidebar, and saves the settings. Then updates the project settings to show the first project in the sidebar.
    • resetProjectUI: This will reset the values in the right-side Project Panel, clearing out all values to prepare for showing a new project.
    • saveCurrentProject: This is ran when modifying the settings of a specific project. It updates the scout.projects object and saves settings to disk.
    • saveSettings: Saves portions of the scout object to the hard drive to be auto loaded when Scout-App is launched. Specifically it saves scout.projects, scout.versions, scout.cultureCode to the following location:
      • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%/scout-app/scout-settings.json
      • Linux: ~/.config/scout-app/scout-settings.json
      • OSX: ~/Library/Application Support/scout-app/scout-settings.json
    • setLanguage: Accepts an optional language code (en, ru, fr, etc). Defaults to en. Updates the scout.cultureCode, changes what image is shown in the preferences, saves the settings, and updates the UI to be displayed in the correct language.
    • startWatching: Accepts a project ID, adds a chokidar watcher function to that project's object and starts watching that project's input folder. Updates the project status indicator icon in the sidebar.
    • stopWatching: Accepts a project ID, kills the chokidar watcher function on that project, stopping it from watching that project's input folder any longer. Updates the project status indicator icon in the sidebar.
    • unlockSubmit: Accepts a project ID as an argument. Checks to see if all required fields in a project are filled in then updates the status icon to allow or prevent users from running the project.
    • updateDataLangs: Checks the DOM for elements with specific attributes like data-lang or data-langalt, then grabs their culture key, translates it and updates the DOM with the new translation.
    • updateProjectSettingsView: Updates all the values in the right-side Projects Panel to reflect the settings of the project object that was passed in. If no object is passed in, it defaults to scout.newProject.
    • updateSidebar: Clears out the sidebar and regenerates it based on the scout.projects list.
  • newProject: The is temporary storage used for building a project object before it is passed into the addProject helper function.
  • projects: A listing of all the projects added to Scout-App and their settings. The details of a project are below:
    • sourceMaps: Can be true or false, set in the UI.
    • imageFolder: Can be set by the auto guesser code, by the user in the UI. Default is empty string.
    • indicator: Controls what icon is shown in the sidebar. play, gray-play, and stop. These also affects whether you can run or stop a project.
    • inputFolder: The input Sass folder. Can be set by the auto guesser code or by the user. Default is empty string.
    • outputFolder: The output CSS folder for processed Sass. Can be set by the auto guesser code or by the user. Default is empty string.
    • outputStyle: Set by the user in the UI, can be nested, expanded, compact, or compressed. Defaults to compressed.
    • projectFolder: The folder for the project, used to create it's projectName and as the location to base all auto guessing. Chosen by the user.
    • projectID: This is a unique ID that would look something like: sa1470092339976. It allows the user to use the same name or projectFolder for multiple projects without the UI being buggy.
    • projectIcon: Can be auto guessed, set by the user in the UI, or left as the default _img/logo_128.png, which is Scout-App's own icon of Scout the Puppy.
    • projectName: The title of the project, by default it is based off of the last folder in projectFolder
    • watcher: This is the watcher function/object for this project. It informs Scout-App that chokidar is watching the inputFolder of this project for changes.
  • sort: This is temporary storage for when we drag a project in the sidebar to reorder them. It stores the starting and ending positions.
  • versions: The version numbers for Scout-App and it's dependencies.
    • chokidar: Allows for watching for file changes.
    • libSass: The library version of SassC, used at the core of Scout-App to process .sass and .scss files into CSS.
    • nodeSass: The Node module that allows Scout-App to interface with libSass.
    • scout: Scout-Apps own version.

Updating Translations/Cultures

  1. npm install
  2. npm run cultures This downloads the latest translations and puts them in /scout-files/cultures/dictionary.json
  3. npm start Runs the app, so you can make sure the translation worked
  4. Only languages with a JPG image in the /scout-files/cultures folder that matches their culture code (en.jpg) will be displayed in the UI.

If there are languages you don't want in your local dictionary, then you can add them to the languagesToSkip array in /cultures.js. Or if your language is missing from /scout-files/cultures/dictionary.json then it may be in that array.