Download - Javascript Apps at Build Artifacts
CLAY SMITH
Javascript apps as a build artifact
@smithclay
May 6, 2014 at EmpireJS
This is my brain on Javascript.
From the “Javascript Development Workflow” talk
Understanding it all (from @paulirish)
Easy answer: We’re using Javascript written for the web more and in different places.
Why does it matter?
From 4/13 to 4/14, httparchive.org
Now for a 5-minute Overview of the Raging Javascript Battles of Today
Javascript Battlefield #1 (2010-present)“My framework is better than yours.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_JavaScript_frameworks
from https://gist.github.com/callumacrae/9231589
JakeBrunchsmooshanvil.jsGruntGear.js
buildrmimosamodjsautomatonjames.jsBudGulpsimplebuildBrocolliFez
Javascript Battlefield #2 (2011-present)“My build tool is better than yours.”
“I prefer to write in _____(A)______, it makes creating _____(B)______ easier.”
(*)script Battlefield #3 (2010-present)
CoffeescriptClojureScriptDartTypeScriptasm.jsGWTdogescript
A Bweb appsmobile appsframeworksnodebotsarduinosmuch wow
Javascript Battlefield #4 (2012-present)“My dependency management tool is better than yours.”
bower
component.js
favorite package: https://www.npmjs.org/package/debowerify
The easiest way to have a 30-minute conversation at a Javascript conference.
We’ve all chosen sides.
• Many Javascript libraries for a web app.• Many dependency managers for libraries.• Build tools that use dependency managers
(written in JS or another language).• Many dependencies of the build tools (that might
use another dependency manager)• Many source languages.• Many different types of target platforms.
“Just the essential libraries”
A single-page Javascript application c. 2014
PagerDuty Mobile, https://m.pagerduty.com
Here’s the ones PagerDuty uses with gulp.
Plugin-ify your JS build tools (2012-present)
When you realize you need to make it work in mobile web views.
A JavaScript apps running in mobile web browsers or embedded in native apps.
The mobile (web) frontier (2007-present)
Put all the things in git (or any VCS)
Attempt #1
• well understood workflow (just commit!)• “easy” mobile builds - git clone to see JS source
• git submodule purgatory (whoops, I forgot!)• merge conflict hell (Pull Requests broken)• compiled, concatenated, transformed code in VCS
(not good)
Good:
Bad:
Some cool kids are doing it.
This is a popular approach for many JS libraries
Well… how about using ?
Attempt #2
• well-understood workflow (npm install FTW)• represents an ideal of JS dependency
management• gives us a way to avoid git submodules and
get *.min.js files out of source control
kudos: npm mentions it in the docs
“The advantage of doing [compilation, transformation, etc] at prepublish time instead of preinstall or install time is that they can be done once, in a single place, and thus greatly reduce complexity and variability. Additionally, this means that:
You can depend on coffee-script as a devDependency, and thus your users don't need to have it installed.”https://www.npmjs.org/doc/misc/npm-scripts.html
Warning! May not do what you expect! https://github.com/npm/npm/search?q=prepublish&ref=cmdform&type=Issues
(Since we were working with private code)
npm module from private github repo
(we cheated and tried to use git)
^ package.json in our XCode project that pulls our JS app code
npm that pulls a package from git didn’t get us all the way there
Sadly…
• we need to check in the transformed JS code
(and css, and HTML)
• we introduce lots of complexity into (native)
builds processes. XCode suddenly needs to
know how to gulp (or grunt).
If we want simple native application build….
If we don’t want to check in transformed code…
Overly simplified misleading diagram.
Is there another way?
build artifact (n) - one of many kinds of tangible by-products produced during the development of software.
Our production JavaScript app looks like a build artifact
Build artifacts are happiest in build artifact repository managers.
The app needs a home
Github Release API as a pseudo-artifact repository
Attempt #3 - success!
• A “release” in GitHub is just a tag and an
collection of binary blobs stored on S3.• API Access Only (need to generate a token).• simplifies native mobile builds (only curl and
unzip required).
Uploading a ZIP archive with a single index.html to GitHub’s Release API
No (gulp||grunt) plugin? Stream-ify it.The node.js streaming API is incredible.
Then, add a build step in XCode/Android Studio that fetches build artifacts
^ Thanks to @alperkokmen
Is there (or should there be) a better tool out there?
It’s a decent option for hybrid apps
* Sonatype Nexus -> NPM bridgehttps://issues.sonatype.org/browse/NEXUS-5852
* Private NPM/“CommonJS Repositories” that are optimized for build artifacts?
* [insert your solution here]
https://pagerduty.com
Thank you.
Clay [email protected]
@smithclay
Don’t check-in *.min.js files please.
http://blog.pagerduty.com/2014/05/reliable-mobile-build/