An installer for NW.js.
NW.js is a runtime-environment based on Chromium and Node.js. It is used to build desktop applications that run on Windows, OSX, and Linux.
Install locally to your project with: npm install nw
and then in your package.json
add a script:
{
"scripts": {
"start": "nw"
}
}
Now it will run your local project when you type npm start
.
If your project is in another folder, add the path to the project "start": "nw path/to/app"
.
You could also call nw
directly from node_modules/.bin/nw
instead of adding to your package.json
.
You can also install globally with npm install nw -g
and then in any project type nw
to run the project. Installing locally is recommended though as each project can have its own dependent version of nw.js.
If you want a really quick example try this:
git clone https://github.com/zcbenz/nw-sample-apps && cd nw-sample-apps
npm init
npm install nw
"node_modules/.bin/nw" file-explorer
and now you should see a file explorer demo app.
There are a few (platform-specific) arguments you can pass to the nw
executable to
customize your nw.js application:
-
--mac_plist <path-to-plist-file>
: (OS X only) Copies the given file to Info.plist in the app bundle. This lets you do things like change your app's name and point to a different icon. -
--mac_icon <path-to-icns-file>
: (OS X only) Copies the given .icns file to the Resources/ dir in the app bundle. You will need to point to the file with a custom plist file as well (see--mac_list
)
NOTE: These options will keep the copied files in the app bundle for as long as the bundle is
on the filesystem (they're not deleted between app invocations). As a result, they're not
recommended if you installed nw globally using -g
. Also note that
OS X caches these files,
so you may need to manually clear these cached files during development.
To install a specific version of nw.js use npm with the specific version: npm install [email protected]
Please note: This npm package version tracks the version of nw.js that will be installed, with an additional build number that is used for revisions to the installer. As such
0.12.0-1
and0.12.0-2
will both install[email protected]
but the latter has newer changes to the installer.
You may use npm view nw versions
to view the list of available versions.
nw.js has three build types: normal
, sdk
and nacl
. To install a specific build type you may set npm config property nwjs_build_type
, environment variable NWJS_BUILD_TYPE
or pass command line option --nwjs_build_type
:
npm install nw --nwjs_build_type=sdk
Setting option in .npmrc
file (https://www.npmjs.org/doc/files/npmrc.html):
nwjs_build_type=sdk
Setting environment variable NWJS_BUILD_TYPE
:
export NWJS_BUILD_TYPE=sdk
You can alternatively install sdk
build by specifying -sdk
suffix in version:
npm install [email protected]
You can also run npm install nw@sdk
to get the latest of published SDK versions. (Note: that may be a beta version.)
You may use the environment variable npm_config_nwjs_process_arch
to override the default architecture (process.arch
) and to download NW.js built for some other architecture.
If you would like to programmatically retrieve the path to the nw.js binary use:
var findpath = require('nw').findpath;
var nwpath = findpath();
// nwpath will equal the path to the binary depending on your environment
Then you can use that path to run NW.js programmatically. For example, to run in the current script's directory:
require('child_process').spawn(
require('nw').findpath(),
['.'].concat( process.argv.slice(2) ),
{
cwd: __dirname,
detached: true,
stdio: 'ignore'
}
).unref();
The installer attempts to download binaries from the default location of https://dl.nwjs.io/v
. You can override this by setting the npm config property nwjs_urlbase
on the command line by passing the --nwjs_urlbase
option:
npm install nw --nwjs_urlbase=http://my.own.location/somewhere
or adding it to your .npmrc
file (https://www.npmjs.org/doc/files/npmrc.html):
nwjs_urlbase=http://my.own.location/somewhere
You can alternatively set an environment variable NWJS_URLBASE
:
export NWJS_URLBASE=http://my.own.location/somewhere
The installer supports file://
URLs to retrieve files from the local filesystem:
export NWJS_URLBASE=file:///home/bilbo/my/own/mirror
If you are behind a proxy server you have to set an environment variable http_proxy
with proxy servers url:
export http_proxy="http://username:[email protected]:8080"
or
export http_proxy="http://myproxy.com:8080"
(However, if the environment variable https_proxy
is set, then it will be preferred, as programmed in the get-proxy
package.)
nw.js's code and this installer use the MIT license.