2013-09-09 07:35:57 +00:00
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# Quick start
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2013-08-14 22:43:35 +00:00
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## Introduction
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2014-04-30 08:39:49 +00:00
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Generally, atom-shell enables you to create desktop applications with pure
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JavaScript by providing a runtime with rich native APIs, you could see it as
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an variant of node.js runtime that focused on desktop applications instead of
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web server.
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2013-08-14 22:43:35 +00:00
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2014-04-30 08:39:49 +00:00
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But it doesn't mean atom-shell is a JavaScript binding to GUI libraries, instead
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atom-shell uses web pages as GUI, so you could also see it as a minimal Chromium
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browser, controlled by JavaScript.
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2014-04-30 08:39:49 +00:00
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### The browser side
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2014-04-30 08:39:49 +00:00
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If you had experience with node.js web applications, you would notice that there
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are types of JavaScript scripts: the server side scripts and the client side
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scripts. The server side JavaScript, is the scrips that run on the node.js
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runtime, and the client side JavaScript, is the ones that run on user's browser.
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2013-08-14 22:43:35 +00:00
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2014-04-30 08:39:49 +00:00
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In atom-shell we have similar concepts, since atom-shell displays GUI by showing
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web pages, we would have scripts that run in the web page, and also have scripts
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ran by the atom-shell runtime, which created those web pages. Like node.js, we
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2014-05-06 15:55:34 +00:00
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call the former ones client scripts, and the latter ones browser side
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scripts.
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In traditional node.js applications, communication between server side and
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client side are usually done by web sockets. In atom-shell, we have provided
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2014-05-05 06:24:57 +00:00
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the [ipc](../api/ipc-renderer.md) module for browser side to client
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communication, and the [remote](../api/remote.md) module for easy RPC
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support.
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### Web page and node.js
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Normal web pages are designed to not touch outside world, which makes them not
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suitable for interacting with native systems, atom-shell provides node.js APIs
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in web pages so you could access native resources in web pages, just like
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[node-webkit](https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit).
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But unlike node-webkit, you could not do native GUI related operations in web
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pages, instead you need to do them on the browser side by sending messages or
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use the easy [remote](../api/remote.md) module.
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2014-04-30 09:28:36 +00:00
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## Write your first atom-shell app
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2014-04-30 09:28:36 +00:00
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Generally, an atom-shell app would be like this:
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```text
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app/
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├── package.json
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├── main.js
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└── index.html
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```
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2013-08-29 14:37:51 +00:00
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The format of `package.json` is exactly the same with node's modules, and the
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script specified by the `main` field is the startup script of your app, which
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will run under the browser side. An example of your `package.json` is like
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this:
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```json
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{
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"name" : "your-app",
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"version" : "0.1.0",
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"main" : "main.js"
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}
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```
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The `main.js` should create windows and handle system events, and an typical
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example is:
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```javascript
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var app = require('app'); // Module to control application life.
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var BrowserWindow = require('browser-window'); // Module to create native browser window.
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// Report crashes to our server.
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require('crash-reporter').start();
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// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
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// be closed automatically when the javascript object is GCed.
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var mainWindow = null;
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// Quit when all windows are closed.
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app.on('window-all-closed', function() {
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if (process.platform != 'darwin')
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app.quit();
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});
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// This method will be called when atom-shell has done everything
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// initialization and ready for creating browser windows.
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app.on('ready', function() {
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// Create the browser window.
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mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({width: 800, height: 600});
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// and load the index.html of the app.
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mainWindow.loadUrl('file://' + __dirname + '/index.html');
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// Emitted when the window is closed.
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mainWindow.on('closed', function() {
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// Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
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// in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
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// when you should delete the corresponding element.
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mainWindow = null;
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});
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2013-12-17 14:08:45 +00:00
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});
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2013-08-14 22:43:35 +00:00
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```
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2014-04-30 09:28:36 +00:00
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Finally the `index.html` is the web page you want to show:
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```html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Hello World!</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Hello World!</h1>
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We are using node.js <script>document.write(process.version)</script>
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and atom-shell <script>document.write(process.versions['atom-shell'])</script>.
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</body>
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</html>
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```
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## Run your app
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After done writing your app, you could create a distribution of your app by
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2014-05-04 10:32:12 +00:00
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following the [Application distribution](./application-distribution.md) guide
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and then execute the packaged app, or you can just use the downloaded atom-shell
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binary to execute your app directly.
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On Window:
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```cmd
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$ .\atom-shell\atom.exe path-to-app\
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```
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On Linux:
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```bash
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$ ./atom-shell/atom path-to-app/
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```
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On Mac OS X:
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```bash
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$ ./Atom.app/Contents/MacOS/Atom path-to-app/
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```
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