I was given the following to consider:
Develop desktop application using Nodeweb kit.
Also develop web application using the same code base.
Applications should look identical.
Both apps must use the same code base. The reason for this is to cut down development expenses.
If it was up to me I would not even consider using node-webkit for desktop. There are far better desktop solutions for Win platforms. For web application using Node is certanly viable.
But people who plan the project somehow think Node is a way to go for both apps.
After lots of thinking, I came to the conclusion that doing what they want will only increase dev and maintenance costs.
I consider using express (maybe even Sails.js) for web application. I made some tests where I used express on node-webkit and it run just fine.
Certanly NW is powerfull platform (popcorn). Just in my case I fail to see how can it cut down the dev expense
Am I right to be against this solution? Is this a plausible decision and I am not seeing another solution?
Any opinion is very welcome
I have actually done exactly this, and it worked very well. The trick was to write some Node Webkit code that will "detect" that it's running as a desktop application, instead of a web app, and thus integrate with desktop notifications etc.
Yes, it was more work than just writing a web app, but it was also less work (and maintenance) than developing separate applications. You get to use a lot of common code, because of the fact that you are running in a browser already, that I feel the project saved a lot of time.
In fact, I am currently working on another application that requires some desktop features (file access, notifications) but the same functionality as the web application, and I'm proposing that the development happens in Node Webkit.
The important criteria here for me is that both applications are 90% the same, the desktop just adds things you don't normally have on the web. So the core of the application is exactly the same AngularJS application, with some JavaScript injected by the Node Webkit startup page to add the required desktop behaviour.
You haven't presented reasons why you think node-webkit is not a suitable option for desktop application.
On the other hand I think client's opinion that development in node and node-webkit will be able to cut down costs is not ungrounded.
nw.js (formerly node-webkit) is basically a Chromium browser with intergrated node.js engine. So if you develop a web-application using node.js (and any of its frameworks) then you will be able to reuse it in nw.js fairly easy.
Related
Hope I'm not being to general but: I have been tasked with the job of "rejuvenating/modernizing" a monolithic Java EE (JSF/CDI/EJB/JPA) app. Since the requirements state that it should support multiple clients, I have split up the code in a server (JAX-RS interfaces) and a client part (not yet done)
The server is pretty straightforward but I'm wondering about the UI part. Nowadays (hope I don't sound too oldskool) various Node JS spin-offs seem to be popular but I'm under the impression that they have the most value to offer in the "scalable server" section. Does the various Angular/React/Node framework have anything to offer for the client if you have something more complex than a single page app?
It appears to be a really hard time to pick a UI technology nowadays. Sure, the server/DB part which contains most of the business logic are pretty future-proof but still, one would like to focus on one UI technology. There are various jQuery-based frameworks like Kendo, Vaadin & co etc. One option would be to stick with JSF + ICEfaces/PrimeFaces and just work with the REST interface. And then there is JavaFX which looks nice but the future looks a bit uncertain.
So. If the backend is not going to be Node JS, does Node JS have anything to offer for the UI part that can't be done more easily with other frameworks and does anyone have other insights on the UI layer in general. Predicting is hard, especially the future ;-)
Node.js is a way to run javascript on the server side, not client side. That said, npm (nodes package manager) or its wrappers (like bower) are quite often used to manage the client side dependencies - which is very useful to have.
Angular and react (among others) are client side javascript ui frameworks to help make writing ui much nicer. Neither depend on the backend being written in node.js and can work with any rest api (or other server side apis) - or no api at all if that backend injects all the data the page needs into the page itself.
Electron, which combines NodeJS and Chromium (render Process).
https://electronjs.org/
Formerly known as atom shell it was created by Github, it is the core of the Atom Editor, VS Code, Slack app, and a ton of “thick client” applications. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_client
There are several implementations which allow you to use Node.JS modules on a client-side (ie. web browser). You can then use html/css and call Node.JS modules directly from your DOM which is used to implement UI.
I'm most familiar with NW.js which I've used couple of times. Others would be for example Electron or AppJS
I want to develop Mobile App using Node.js and Html5/Bootstrap as frontend?
I searched the web , but not getting any proper source of look. I am New in Node.js , but i Know HTML5 / Bootstrap.
Can anyone Guide me through to Develop Mobile App using these two?
While this is an opinionated question/answer and shouldn't be on SO, I'll share my experience as I was in the same boat recently:
For the front-end (The app): Look up PhoneGap (Apache Cordova) to get an idea about building cross-platform mobile apps using HTML5/CSS/JS. Keep in mind that you can use a good amount of front-end frameworks to ease your workload (AngularJS, Framework7, jQuery, etc.)
For the back-end (Server): Node.js is a great start, however you'll need to code your backend almost from scratch this way. I suggest looking up "Parse Server" to use it for your backend. It's an open-source solution for mobile apps backends (MBaaS). If you still decide to code your own full backend, then I highly recommend learning MEAN stack (MonogoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, Node.js), it might take you a while, but the portable experience you'll get is huge.
Either way, if you want to make high performing apps, it's always recommended to go native (Android apps using Java and Android Studio, iOS apps using XCode and Swift)
I hope this helps,
Best of luck
I would like to develop an AngularJS app with Breeze. I usually use NodeJS with Express but I hear it wont work with Breeze. All the example on breezejs.com use ASP.Net but i am on a mac and you can't run visual studio... What are my options ?
We are releasing a sample later today (in breeze v1.3.0) that shows Breeze talking to an arbitrary web service that could have been written on any platform using any technology.
Obviously, we need more of these examples and as importantly we need to show server side implementations of how one might write these web servivces to best leverage Breeze. But... this is all definitely on our roadmap, and we are actively looking for partners in this process.
I want to build desktop application that will use node.js and express to "render" the gui in a browser.
Since the client will have access to my application, is there any easy method to embed everything in my exe ?
I don't like the idea of having so many folders in my application folder, this makes it easy for everyone to modify and steal the source code.
The two popular solutions for delivering web-based cross-platform applications are:
NW.js
Electron
I prefer NW.js because it has better backward compatibility, particularly on OS X. They have different feature sets, so you may want to play around with both to see which one meets your needs.
I was thinking recently about changing my main profile as a developer and I want some opinions and insights about this.
I don’t live in Silicon Valley, I’m in an eastern European country where the valley’s buzz arrives about 5 years later, if it does at all. Python, Rails, node.js is not as mainstream or “hip” at all, everything revolves around PHP, Java, .NET.
I’m not saying that we produce crappy code, there are many great developers, I’m just saying that technology-wise, we’re a little behind.
My experience is with C# desktop mainly, but I worked with PHP and Java as well, 2/3 part desktop applications. As of recently, I’m digging deep in JavaScript technologies and Python — and I really like it!
I decided that I want to shift towards web technologies primarily, involving technologies which can be transmitted to desktop area as well.
For example:
Recently I got a project which involved a desktop app. The customer doesn’t really care what technology I use, but I choose C# WinForms as I have most experience from it. However, this could be done easily with anything else and I was thinking that maybe there’s a solution for a JavaScript-based app, or something else, I don’t know.
My question is what languages do you guys suggest which can be applied to both desktop and web.
I was playing around with node.js and Python but not very familiar with the possibilities to be honest. I see the future in cloud applications and mobile development, so my decision is a strategical one.
Please omit the “if you like desktop development, stick with it”, because I like web development as well, I just want to shift to it primarily.
If you are doing app that can be done as web app, but you just want it to sit on user desktop and work without Internet connection, then you should go web development IMHO
The main challenge will be packing web server application in a way that is easy for desktop user.
There are 2 solutions I know:
Package your web application with all dependencies into single Java EE .war file, and put it on desktop with simple Tomcat web server (this can be done with JRuby/warbler).
Alternative could be to create VMware Image with web server (web server will start in server start scripts, so user needs just to start the VMware instance).