NW.ts-Tools

A simple toolkit for running, compiling, patching and packaging NW.js apps.

Usage

# Add NW.ts-Tools as a dependency.
npm i -D nwts-tools

You should also have nw installed as a dependency or devDependency.

patch-codecs

Replaces the FFmpeg library originally included with NW.js. Credits to nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt for the prebuilt binaries. Use this patch only for free and open-source projects. Licensing restrictions apply for closed-source software.

More information: FFmpeg License and Legal Considerations.

# Run from your project's root directory:
npx nwts-patch-codecs

package

This script downloads a fresh copy from nw (the same version as you specified in your package.json minus -sdk) and packages it alongside your already built application.

# Run from your project's root directory:
npx nwts-package

# Or, modified by environment variables:
PACKAGE_TYPE=zip NWJS_FFMPEG=PATCH NWJS_VERSION=0.55.0-sdk npx nwts-package

Environment variables used by these scripts are enumerated inside types/env.d.ts.

compile

This script runs nwjc on every Javascript file inside the directory specified in the BUILD_DIRECTORY variable, creating a .bin file for each one of them and replacing the original script's contents with the corresponding call to nw.Window.get().evalNWBin(). Read more here: Protect JavaScript Source Code.

# Run from your project's root directory:
BUILD_DIRECTORY=build npx nwts-compile

run

Used mainly for builing the application, launching it and attaching the debugger in one step.

npx nwts-run

Typed Node.js built-in modules

In NW.js you can import Node.js built-in modules with the nw.require() function, whose return type is any. Here is provided a collection of typed exports from Node.js builtin modules. Some examples:

import util from "nwts-tools/node/util";
import fs from "nwts-tools/node/fs";
import child_process, { promises } from "nwts-tools/node/child_process";
import http from "nwts-tools/node/http";
import os from "nwts-tools/node/os";
import path from "nwts-tools/node/path";

Dependencies

Windows

• Powershell

MacOS and Linux

• zip, required for nwts-package when PACKAGE_TYPE is set to zip.
• unzip, required for nwts-patch-codecs and for nwts-package when NWJS_FFMPEG is set to PATCH.

Check out these starter templates that take full advantage of NW.ts-Tools features:

NW.ts-Tools Vanilla Starter NW.ts-Tools Solid Starter NW.ts-Tools React Starter NW.ts-Tools Gatsby Starter