NativeScript/DevelopmentWorkflow.md

Development Workflow

The repository contains several packages and apps:

• tns-platform-declarations - Android and iOS native APIs supported in JavaScript
• tns-core-modules - Core ui, io and sensor modules
• apps - UI app used for manual testing and automation
• tests - Unit tests for the tns-core-modules

Working with the repo is organized with npm scripts, go and read through the scripts section in the package.json.

Managing dependencies:

• tns-core-modules depends on:
  • tns-platform-declarations
• apps depends on:
  • tns-platform-declarations
  • tns-core-modules
• tests depends on:
  • tns-platform-declarations
  • tns-core-modules

NOTE: tns-core-modules depends on tns-core-modules-widgets, this dependency contains native code and is rarely modified so for now it remains outside this repo.

Manage Dependencies

Get devDependencies by:

npm install

Setting up the environment for work we use npm link. The dependencies in the repo are npm link-ed (~synlinked) using the following script:

npm run setup

TypeScript

The following commands are commonly used to compile the tns-core-modules:

# Full tsc with type checking ~22.2s.
tsc -p tns-core-modules

# Fast tsc ~11.2s.
tsc -p tns-core-modules --skipLibCheck

# Fast watcher, ~4s. on save
tsc -p tns-core-modules --skipLibCheck -w

Compiling the modules, tests and apps has also npm scripts:

npm run dev-tsc-tns-core-modules
npm run dev-tsc-tests
npm run dev-tsc-apps

The modules have typescript as devDependency so you should also be able to use locally installed TypeScript compiler from node_modules:

./node_modules/.bin/tsc -p tns-core-modules

You can compile the typescript files in the tns-core-modules, tns-platform-declarations, apps and tests at once at the root of the repo:

npm run tsc

Tests

The test app is an ordinary NativeScript app that logs the test results as it go. To run the test app:

# Once after npm install
npm run setup

# After changes in the modules
tsc -p tns-core-modules
# After changes in the tests
tsc -p tests

tns run ios --path tests
tns run android --path tests

Platform declarations

To update the platform declarations (the ios.d.ts-es) you can run:

npm install
npm run dev-declarations

This script will update the iOS declarations. Android tools are not integrated yet. The declarations are generated from the test app and will include the native code from tns-core-modules-widgets.