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NW.js Essentials

NW.js Essentials

By : Benoit
4.8 (5)
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NW.js Essentials

NW.js Essentials

4.8 (5)
By: Benoit

Overview of this book

If you are an experienced Node.js developer who wants to create amazing desktop applications using NW.js, this is the book for you. Prior knowledge of HTML5, jQuery, and CSS is assumed.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)
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Preface
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
1. Meet NW.js
1. Meet NW.js
NW.js under the hood
Features and drawbacks of NW.js
Downloading and installing NW.js
Development tools
Writing and running your first "Hello World" app
Summary
2
2. NW.js Native UI APIs
2. NW.js Native UI APIs
The App API – the core of your applications
The Window API – working with windows on NW.js
The Screen API – screen geometry functions
The Menu API – handling window and context menus
File dialogs – opening and saving files
Opening files through file dragging
The Tray API – hide your application in plain sight
The Clipboard API – accessing the system clipboard
The Shell API – platform-dependent desktop functions
Summary
3
3. Leveraging the Power of Node.js
3. Leveraging the Power of Node.js
Routing and templating in NW.js
Node.js global and process objects
The window object
Using NW.js' main module
Handling paths in NW.js
NW.js context issues
Working with Node.js modules
Summary
4
4. Data Persistence Solutions and Other Browser Web APIs
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4. Data Persistence Solutions and Other Browser Web APIs
Data persistence solutions
XMLHttpRequest and BLOBs
Handling media files
Shedding some light on security issues
The Web Notifications API
Summary
5
5. Let's Put It All Together
5. Let's Put It All Together
Let's get started!
A matter of style
The HTML5 skeleton
Let's dive deep into the application logic
The application layer
The NativeUI layer
Summary
6
6. Packaging Your Application for Distribution
6. Packaging Your Application for Distribution
The manifest file
The general logic behind the packaging procedure
Packaging NW.js applications for Mac OS X
Packaging NW.js applications for Microsoft Windows
Packaging NW.js applications for Linux
Securing your source code
About NW.js application licensing
Summary
7
7. Automated Packaging Tools
7. Automated Packaging Tools
Web2Executable
node-webkit-builder and grunt-node-webkit-builder
generator-node-webkit
Summary
8
8. Let's Debug Your Application
8. Let's Debug Your Application
Remote debugging
The DevTools API
Live reloading NW.js
Troubleshooting common issues
Summary
9
9. Taking Your Application to the Next Level
9. Taking Your Application to the Next Level
NW.js boilerplates
Development ideas
Resources and tutorials
Summary
10
Index
Index

Data persistence solutions

NW.js provides many ways to handle data persistence. You can obviously rely on a Node.js persistent database, such as EJDB, locallyDB, NeDB, or LowDB, but in this chapter, we're going to see how we can save and access persistent data by leveraging some of the latest browser storage technologies.

Note

I will not dwell on HTML5 Application Cache as I find its use to be pointless in a NW.js application; however, if you need to implement offline navigation, you know you can rely on it as well.

Web storage

Web storage is a browser technology, which was once part of the HTML5 specification but lately split into its own specification, used to store temporary or permanent key-value data on the client side. It's by far the easiest way to achieve data persistence in the browser but also one of the weakest. Let's see some disadvantages of web storage:

  • Maximum 5 MB storage limit

  • Web storage calls are synchronous and can block the main document from rendering

  • As web storage writes...

End of Section 5
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