espruino-web-ide

Espruino Web IDE

A VT100 Serial Terminal as a Chrome Web App (with both syntax highlighted and graphical editors) - designed for writing code on microcontrollers that use the Espruino JavaScript interpreter. It can also run natively via Node.js and Electron, or a version with limited IO can be used as a website.

This is a Chrome Web App (mainly) that uses chome.serial to access your PC's serial port. You can download it from the Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/espruino-serial-terminal/bleoifhkdalbjfbobjackfdifdneehpo

It implements basic VT100 terminal features (up/down/left/right/etc) - enough for you to write code using the Espruino. You can also use the right-hand pane to write JavaScript code on the PC, and can then click the 'transfer' icon to send that code directly down the Serial Port.

Version	Communications	Benefits
Chrome Web App	USB, Serial, Audio, TCP/IP	Easy to install from Chrome Web Store
Node.js App / NW.js app	USB, Serial, Bluetooth Low Energy	Can be run of systems without Chrome web browser
Web Version	Audio, Bluetooth Low Energy (via Web Bluetooth)	Just go to a URL

The development of this app is supported by purchases of official Espruino boards as well as the generous donations of my supporters on Patreon

Installing From Chrome Web Store

• Install the Chrome Web Browser
• Go Here to find the app in the Chrome Web Store
• Click 'Install'
• Click 'Launch App'

Installing from NPM

If you have an up to date version of Node.js and NPM, you can execute the commands:

• On Linux, sudo apt-get install build-essential libudev-dev
• sudo npm install nw -g
• sudo npm install espruino-web-ide -g
• To enable BLE support: sudo setcap cap_net_raw+eip $(eval readlink -f $(which node))
• espruino-web-ide

Note: For command-line access you might also want to take a look at EspruinoTools

Note 2: If you're not seeing any options for devices to connect to, it might be because your nw.js and node versions don't match. If that's the case you need to manually rebuild all the 'native' modules.

npm install -g nw-gyp
# Now, for directory in node_modules with a binding.gyp file...
# target should match the nw.js version in node_modules/nw/package.json
nw-gyp rebuild --target=0.18.6 --arch=x64

Installing from GitHub (Latest Version)

You need to obtain both the EspruinoWebIDE repository and the EspruinoTools repository, a submodule used in the Web IDE. A simple way to obtain both repositories is via the git command:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/espruino/EspruinoWebIDE.git

This will clone both the EspruinoWebIDE repository and the submodule dependencies. Alternatively, you can download or clone both repositories individually following the steps below:

• Download the files in EspruinoWebIDE to an EspruinoWebIDE directory on your PC (either as a ZIP File, or using git)
• Download the files in EspruinoTools into the EspruinoWebIDE/EspruinoTools on your PC (either as a ZIP File, or using git)

Running in Chrome

• Install and run the Chrome Web Browser
• Click the menu icon in the top right
• Click 'Settings'
• Click 'Extensions' on the left
• Click 'Load Unpackaged Extension'
• Navigate to the EspruinoWebIDE Directory and click Ok
• Job Done. It'll now appear as an app with the 'Unpacked' banner so you can tell it apart from the normal Web IDE. You can start it easily by clicking the 'Launch' link on the extensions page, or whenever you open a new tab.

Running in Node.js

• Go to the EspruinoWebIDE directory
• Run sudo npm install nw -g
• Run npm install
• Run npm start

Chrome Permissions

This web app requires the following permissions:

• Serial port access : So that it can access the Espruino board via USB/Serial
• Webcam access : So that when you click the little person icon in the top-right of the terminal window, you can overlay the terminal on a live video feed
• Audio access: if you want to communicate with Espruino using your headphone jack
• Filesystem/storage access : For loading/saving your JavaScript files to your local disk

Using

• Run the Web app
• Click the Help (?) icon, then the Tour button to get a guided tour.

Running with Node.js/Electron and don't see any ports when you try and connect? You're probably using a version of Node.js that doesn't match Electron. This causes NPM to load binary modules (for serialport and bleat) that are for the old version of Node and that won't work in Electron. To fix it, update Node.js, delete node_modules and run npm install again.

Debugging with NW In order to debug the WebIDE using DevTools you need to install the SDK flavor of nw. This can be done with npm install -g nw --nwjs_build_type=sdk instead of just npm install -g nw. Once the SDK flavor is installed you can specify a remote-debug port like this nw --remote-debugging-port=9222 .

Full Web Version

The Web IDE is hosted on the Espruino Website and can use Web Bluetooth to communicate with Puck.js devices. There is also a version served straight from GitHub.

Web browser permissions stop this accessing the Serial port, but it can:

• Use Web Bluetooth API on compatible devices like the BBC micro:bit to communicate with Espruino via devices that implement a Nordic BLE UART
• Use the Web Audio API to fake a serial port over your headphone jack - this must be turned on using the Web IDE's settings icon first
• Forward the connection through a device that does have Web Bluetooth

Potentially it could also communicate directly with Espruino boards via WebSockets or even AJAX, but this isn't implemented yet.

Note: Sadly Apple have chosen not to implement getUserMedia on their iOS devices at the moment, so Serial over Audio won't work on iPhone/iPad/etc. (The menu item won't appear in the settings page)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome - especially if they make the Web IDE easier to use for newcomers!

Getting Started

Espruino Web IDE expects the EspruinoTools repository to be in EspruinoWebIDE/EspruinoTools. If you're using Git, make sure you add it using the command:

git submodule add [e-mail]:espruino/EspruinoTools.git

Code Style

• Please stick to a K&R style with no tabs and 2 spaces per indent
• Filenames should start with a lowerCase letter, and different words should be capitalised, not split with underscores

Code Outline

• Core functionality goes in js/core, Plugins go in js/plugins. See plugins/_examplePlugin.js for an example layout
• Plugins/core need to implement in init function, which is called when the document (and settings) have loaded.
• Plugins can respond to specific events using Espruino.addProcessor. For instance you can use Espruino.addProcessor("transformForEspruino", function (data,callback) { .. }) and can modify code before it is sent to Espruino.
• Icons are added using Espruino.Core.App.addIcon and are generally added from JsvaScript file that performs the operation
• Config is stored in Espruino.Config.FOO and is changed with Espruino.Config.set("FOO", value). Espruino.Core.Config.add can be used to add an option to the Settings menu.
• Annoyingly, right now plugins still have to be loaded via a <script> tag in main.html