How to properly include twitter bootstrap in electron app? - node.js

This is my first electron app, which is based on quick-start app. I want to add twitter bootstrap's css. So I installed it like this:
npm install bootstrap
And included in the index.html like this:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">
When I run: npm start from terminal it works fine. However when I try to build it using electron-packager like this:
npm run build
I get a native mac app "myApp.app", but when I open it, I don't see the styles.
The only files in the application aside from node_modules and package.json are: main.js and index.html and both are in the root dir.
Is there a step here that I am missing?
Edit
I realized that the application is looking for the css file in Resouces/app directory. Is it the responsibility of the build tool to include the css file, or should I include it manually? If I have to take care of this, did I even needed to install bootstrap from npm?

Check your package.json file: is bootstrap listed as a dependency? Probably not since it doesn't look like you are using the --save param:
npm install bootstrap --save
I'm no Electron hero: I happen to be working on a project using fs-jetpack at the moment. I deleted the fs-jetpack entry from from my project.json and did an OSX build using electron-packager. On launch I got a script error about missing "fs-jetpack'. From that I conclude that the packager uses the 'package.json` to know what to include. Maybe I'm wrong? I have "--prune=true" as one of the packager params. Maybe without that it includes everything?
Also, I am surprised that this line works for you:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">
but perhaps you are using a different folder structure where the index.html file is not in the app directory?

Related

How to working with css framework in npm

I tryed to use css frameworks lots of times. But i cant found any guide what to do. Just some post from other developers. Can you help me with the guide, how to import and use css framework in my expressjs project.
For instance, i started new project with express generator:
express --view=pug --css=sass
next, i installed materialize
npm install materialize-css
What i must to do next??? How to connect js and sass files with my project? How to compile all, if i tryed to do just a website? Where i can find good guides about such things, if i will have more questions?? Thanks!
npm was originally to get Node Module, but with the essort of the Javascript language (and the advent of browserify, webpack,etc), it has a bit grown up.
In fact, you can even download Bootstrap on npm, that is not a server side framework. Browserify permits you to use AMD/RequireJS/CommonJS on client side so node modules can be used on client side. Same goes for Webpack module bundler.
If you npm install bootstrap (if you don't use grunt or gulp file to move to a dist folder), your bootstrap will be located in some location like below.
"./node_modules/bootstrap/bootstrap.min.css"
You need to include this in your .html file.
For sass if you use grunt then you will be using this plugin grunt-sass to convert sass to css and add the destination file to the .html file. Similarly goes for gulp.

How to install and use semantic-ui-react

I want to build a web client using react.js and semantic ui. There is a node package to use semantic-ui with react.js; semantic ui react. I have already installed this package on my computer following the instructions on react.semantic-ui.com/usage, but upon testing the with a simple webpage.
I think I have this issue because I failed to use this last instruction:
import '.../semantic/dist/semantic.min.css';. The semantic folder has been generated in my project main folder, but the dist folder and the semantic.min.css have not been generated yet. Where and how should I use this?
NB: I also tried adding this <link rel="stylesheet" href="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/semantic-ui/2.2.2/semantic.min.css"></link> to my index.html page and the page was style as expected. I don't want to use this option as I cannot change the them with it.
First - install css npm install semantic-ui-css --save
Then - import in at the index.js page (the very top level)
import 'semantic-ui-css/semantic.min.css';
First, use one of below package managers to install semantic UI react package.
For npm users:
npm install semantic-ui-react
For yarn users:
yarn add semantic-ui-react
Then add this import line to your index.js
import 'semantic-ui-css/semantic.min.css'
That's all.
For npm user:
npm i semantic-ui-react semantic-ui-css
semantic-ui-css is a package dependency of Semantic-ui-react (SUIR) and is the css only distribution with a unique theme. Semantic-ui is written in Less and provides a larger and finer control (per component) over the production of the final stylesheet (dist/semantic.min.css).
It delivers several themes easy to derive to create your own, and a proper picture about how to keep a big and complex css well organized and not invasive with less.
in node v12, the installation of sui-css may fail,
complaining that ReferenceError: primordials is not defined. See
https://stackoverflow.com/a/58394828/1874016.
You can also
git clone https://github.com/semantic-org/semantic-ui
apply the patch above in here.
and yarn install
Note the default semantic.min.css size is 628Kb and you probably don't need the styling for all the components it has.
npm install sematic-ui-react sematic-ui-css --save
In your root file probably src/index.js add
import 'semantic-ui-css/semantic.min.css';
Some common layouts can be found [here ]:(https://semantic-ui.com/usage/layout.html)

What's the intended way to include npm libraries with the React Starter Kit?

I'm using the React Starter Kit and want to use an npm module for my css and javascript (namely bootstrap).
How do I integrate it properly? Simply installing it doesn't make it available on the server.
To install bootstrap you actually need the npm package called react-bootstrap. So first run
npm install --save react-bootstrap
and then import the components in your app. To have the bootstrap's css and default theme, just include the cdn css files right into your main index.html file as
<link rel="stylesheet" href="//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/latest/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/latest/css/bootstrap-theme.min.css">
If you want a starter kit that has all the needed packages in order to build rich real-world apps, but with minimal configuration, you can try http://redux-minimal.js.org/
By default redux-minimal comes with bootstrap, sass and a demo app to show you how code looks like. Alternatively you could just check the github code and borrow code that way and stick to your existing starter kit.

Use npm package on client side

is there a way I can use an npm package on the client side? For example, I want to use the dateformat(https://www.npmjs.com/package/dateformat) package in my client side javascript file
If you want to use npm on the client you may consider using browserify which is designed for that purpose. The node module system is not compatible with browsers so browserify transpiles the javascript into something that will work. Hence the name : browserify.
I found it wasn't enough to use Browserify. There were still issues with the client-side not finding the variables/functions from the library.
Here are the steps that worked for me:
Install Browserify:
npm install -g browserify
Install a library from npm (I'll use leader-line as an example):
npm i leader-line
You will now have all the npm files needed inside the node_modules directory:
Now we can run the usual Browserify command to bundle the JS file from the npm package:
browserify node_modules/leader-line/leader-line.min.js -o bundle.js
This will produce a bundle.js file outside of node_modules:
This is the file we can bring into the front-end, as we would with a usual JS library.
So, assuming I added my bundle.js file to a libs folder, and renamed bundle.js to leaderline.js, I can simply add the usual line in the header of my index.html file:
<script src="libs/leaderline.js" type="module"></script>
Notice the addition of type="module" to the script tag.
However, this is STILL not enough. The final step is to open the JS file for the library (in my case leaderline.js) and find the main function that needs to be exported (usually somewhere near the top):
var LeaderLine=function(){"use strict";var te,g,y,S,_,o,t,h,f,p,a,i,l,v="leader-line"
I need LeaderLine to be available inside my scripts. To make this possible, we simply remove var and add window. in front of the function name, like this:
window.LeaderLine=function(){"use strict";var te,g,y,S,_,o,t,h,f,p,a,i,l,v="leader-line"
Now I can use the library client-side without any problems:
HTML:
<div id="start">start</div>
<div id="end">end</div>
JS
new LeaderLine(
document.getElementById('start'),
document.getElementById('end')
);
Some will argue that exposing the function to the window is too "global" for best practices. But the other option is to use module bundlers, which handle the exposing of packages, and this is overkill for many applications, especially if you're trying to whip together a quick front-end to try something out.
I find it odd that so many now publish packages in npm, that are obviously intended for the front-end (e.g. obviously nobody would use leaderline.js in back-end node, yet this is where the package was published, with no available CDN).
Given how tortuous it is to expose front-end functionality from an npm package, one can argue that today's JS ecosystem is a mess.
Most of the packages on NPM are designed for server side and won't work on the client side because of security reasons. You could use NW.js, but the user would have to install your software on there computer.
"NW.js (previously known as node-webkit) lets you call all Node.js modules directly from DOM and enables a new way of writing applications with all Web technologies."
http://nwjs.io/

Purpose of installing Twitter Bootstrap through npm?

Question 1:
What exactly is the purpose of installing Twitter Bootstrap through npm? I thought npm was meant for server side modules. Is it faster to serve the bootstrap files yourself than using a CDN?
Question 2:
If I were to npm install Bootstrap, how would I point to the bootstrap.js and bootstrap.css files?
If you NPM those modules you can serve them using static redirect.
First install the packages:
npm install jquery
npm install bootstrap
Then on the server.js:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
// prepare server
app.use('/api', api); // redirect API calls
app.use('/', express.static(__dirname + '/www')); // redirect root
app.use('/js', express.static(__dirname + '/node_modules/bootstrap/dist/js')); // redirect bootstrap JS
app.use('/js', express.static(__dirname + '/node_modules/jquery/dist')); // redirect JS jQuery
app.use('/css', express.static(__dirname + '/node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css')); // redirect CSS bootstrap
Then, finally, at the .html:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<script src="/js/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
I would not serve pages directly from the folder where your server.js file is (which is usually the same as node_modules) as proposed by timetowonder, that way people can access your server.js file.
Of course you can simply download and copy & paste on your folder, but with NPM you can simply update when needed... easier, I think.
The point of using CDN is that it is faster, first of all, because it is a distributed network, but secondly, because the static files are being cached by the browsers and chances are high that, for example, the CDN's jquery library that your site uses had already been downloaded by the user's browser, and therefore the file had been cached, and therefore no unnecessary download is taking place. That being said, it is still a good idea to provide a fallback.
Now, the point of bootstrap's npm package
is that it provides bootstrap's javascript file as a module. As has been mentioned above, this makes it possible to require it using browserify, which is the most likely use case and, as I understand it, the main reason for bootstrap being published on npm.
How to use it
Imagine the following project structure:
project
|-- node_modules
|-- public
| |-- css
| |-- img
| |-- js
| |-- index.html
|-- package.json
In your index.html you can reference both css and js files like this:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<script src="../node_modules/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
Which is the simplest way, and correct for the .css files. But it is much better to include the bootstrap.js file like this somewhere in your public/js/*.js files:
var bootstrap = require('bootstrap');
And you include this code only in those javascript files where you actually need bootstrap.js. Browserify takes care of including this file for you.
Now, the drawback is that you now have your front-end files as node_modules dependencies, and the node_modules folder is usually not checked in with git. I think this is the most controversial part, with many opinions and solutions.
UPDATE March 2017
Almost two years have passed since I wrote this answer and an update is in place.
Now the generally accepted way is to use a bundler like webpack (or another bundler of choice) to bundle all your assets in a build step.
Firstly, it allows you to use commonjs syntax just like browserify, so to include bootstrap js code in your project you do the same:
const bootstrap = require('bootstrap');
As for the css files, webpack has so called "loaders". They allow you write this in your js code:
require('bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css');
and the css files will be "magically" included in your build.
They will be dynamically added as <style /> tags when your app runs, but you can configure webpack to export them as a separate css file. You can read more about that in webpack's documentation.
In conclusion.
You should "bundle" your app code with a bundler
You shouldn't commit neither node_modules nor the dynamically built files to git. You can add a build script to npm which should be used to deploy files on server. Anyway, this can be done in different ways depending on your preferred build process.
Answer 1:
Downloading bootstrap through npm (or bower) permits you to gain some latency time. Instead of getting a remote resource, you get a local one, it's quicker, except if you use a cdn (check below answer)
"npm" was originally to get Node Module, but with the essort of the Javascript language (and the advent of browserify), it has a bit grown up. In fact, you can even download AngularJS on npm, that is not a server side framework. Browserify permits you to use AMD/RequireJS/CommonJS on client side so node modules can be used on client side.
Answer 2:
If you npm install bootstrap (if you dont use a particular grunt or gulp file to move to a dist folder), your bootstrap will be located in "./node_modules/bootstrap/bootstrap.min.css" if I m not wrong.
Use npm/bower to install bootstrap if you want to recompile it/change less files/test. With grunt it would be easier to do this, as shown on http://getbootstrap.com/getting-started/#grunt.
If you only want to add precompiled libraries feel free to manually include files to project.
No, you have to do this by yourself or use separate grunt tool. For example 'grunt-contrib-concat' How to concatenate and minify multiple CSS and JavaScript files with Grunt.js (0.3.x)

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