I'd like to start developing Google Chrome extension using node.js (since I've already written a "text-to-song" script in node.js, and I'd like to turn it into a Chrome extension.) What would be the most straightforward way of approaching this problem?
Actually it is. Look at this Developers Live-cast. This is something I've been looking for as well, and this would help you.
This brings your node applications bundled to your browser.
Here is the repo!
EDIT:
I've noticed that this old answer of mine keeps getting upvotes now and then (thank you all).
But nowadays I'm more an advocate of using web apps instead of bundling your application into many platforms like the chrome store or whatever.
You can check the google's post here and here indicating some directions.
In practice I advise for you to start building a progressive web app (PWA) with offline capabilities using service worker and progressive stuff.
There are plenty of resources around the web nowadays and you can offer a much richer application that may achieve a much broader audience if you do it the right way.
Thanks again, and good coding.
Simple answer is NO, unless you can find a way to install node.js with an extension using NPAPI.
Nodejs and a Google Chrome Extension do have a couple things in common i.e they both understand javascript and they both use the v8 javascript engine.
Google Chrome Extension
"Google Chrome Extensions are small software programs that can modify and enhance the functionality of the Chrome browser".
To develop a Google Chrome Extension you should write some javascript and or html/css.
Then you can run the extension in your browser.
If you wish for others to download your extension you will have to provide config.json file that describes you extension sets permissions etc.
Nodejs
"Node.js is a platform built on Google Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications".
To develop applications in nodejs you write some javascript and or html/css for web applications.
If wish for others to use you application you start you nodejs server and listen for incoming requests.
Summary
Despite some of the similarities a Google Chrome Extension and Nodejs have nothing to with each other. You cannot use them together in some special way outside of the normal client/server communication.
You can use a WebPack (GitHub) or Browserify (see handbook) to build web-browser extension based on the node.js code.
With Browserify, to convert your code, you can simply run:
browserify node-code.js -o node-code-out.js
Read more:
Browserify vs Webpack.
Build a Chrome Extension with Preact and Webpack (see: Preact Chrome Extension Starter).
Related
Is there a good and reliable library or method, or whatever, that can detect if the request is coming from a mobile environment?
I found a few packages, but non seems to work properly. I am looking for a basic/simple one that is able to detect just this: isMobile; isDesktop. Needs to be reliable, up to date and working.
If there is none free, even payed solutions would be acceptable. I am not looking for 100% detection, but I expect that top most popular devices to be detected without problem.
I am looking for a nodejs (express) solution, and/or a PHP one.
For PHP you can use Mobile-detect. According to its official description in Github, Mobile_Detect is a lightweight PHP class for detecting mobile devices.
For node.js you can use mobile-detect.js. It's a port of Mobile-detect to javascript.
DeviceAtlas has a good article:
How to detect a mobile browser by Pawel Piejko.
They have examples with PHP, Java and Python and they have API to use. It is a a paid service but with free trial.
Mobile detection is a complicated problem. Of course it's easy to detect an iPhone with some client-side JavaScript, but mobile devices are not only iPhones or Android phones. And if you want to detect it before running client-side JavaScript like you need here then you cannot rely only on client-side JavaScript.
More options
General options:
WURFL, 51Degrees, OpenDDR, MobileESP, ua-parser, Detect Mobile Browsers.
Node modules:
mobile-detect,
device-detect,
detect-mobile-browser,
sniffr,
dagent,
device-detective,
ismobilejs.
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.
Is there anyway to use PNaCl or just Google Native Client with node.js?
The V8 JavaScript engine can be configured to target NaCl and PNaCl (which node.js uses).
If you're trying to sandbox node.js outside of the browser then you may want to check out the Codius paper.
If you want to use node.js inside a PNaCl/NaCl process inside Chrome then you may want to look at other naclports and nacl_io: in general PNaCl/NaCl support POSIX interfaces but they have to conform to the Web model, for example you need to mount the html5 filesystem before being able to do the usual read/write calls. This should work for a regular web page (using PNaCl) or for a Chrome app or extension.
I recently wrote a few more details pertaining to porting PHP which may be helpful. If you do get it working, please let the naclports folks know, and if something breaks do let them know too!
I'm planning to build a hybrid mobile app,
I have already progressed pretty well with the server-side using Express 3, and PAssport for authentication.
Now I need to make a decision on what framework or library to use for the clinet-side.
I was wondering if I could get some recommendations and perhaps pros and cons of going with frameworks like
Sencha Touch, JQuery Mobile, Phonegap....
and if there is anyother ones that you think it's worth considering please mention them here,
Thanks for any pointers or advice
JQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch are JavaScript libraries that will let you create an HTML5 application that looks like a native application. Cordova/Phonegap lets you wrap your HTML5 app in native code and provides a common JavaScript API that gives you access to native functionality, like taking a picture with the camera or getting the users Contacts. Another benefit of using Cordova is that it creates native applications for you using the same HTML5 app, so you can publish these files to App stores and increase your distribution. With a JQuery/Sencha Touch only app, you can't distribute on app stores because your hybrid app is simply a website (so, I guess it'd only be a mobile app.)
There are hundreds of blog posts comparing different JavaScript frameworks like Sencha vs jQuery vs Dojo, so you should just go off and do some of that reading. Personally I would suggest Dojo as I think it is the most powerful and enterprise ready framework, but it can have a steep learning curve. One thing I like about Dojo though is the build system, you can pick and choose the modules you want so that you don't have to end up including an enormous .js file like JQuery. I have no idea if jQuery can do this, but a lot of user apps I have seen that use Cordova and JQuery end up including all of jQuery and then jQuery mobile.
If you want to access native device features and/or package the web app as a native app and distribute it on the stores, you should use one of those JavaScript frameworks in combinations with Cordova. (Cordova is the new name for PhoneGap.) Phonegap/Cordova is not really used to build mobile web apps, it's used to extend the capabilities of mobile web apps and allow them to access native device functionality in a completely cross platform way.
Ionic is a new framework available for making hybrid apps that I am liking a lot so far. The framework is built with Sass and AngularJS on top of PhoneGap. Ionic just handles the front end so you still build your app with PhoneGap. I found that since it uses AngularJS your javascript code ends up being a lot cleaner and you will save development time making your app slick compared to what you would have to write with jQuery. It also has some beautiful UI elements. The ionic team has done a lot of speed optimizations with the framework so your app will feel more native than your typical hybrid app built purely with PhoneGap. The framework is still in alpha but I have been impressed with it.
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.