nw-dev

nw-dev

A drop-in library for nw.js development

• Live-reloads upon save

• Reloads when you press F5

• Opens devtools when you press F12

• Opens devtools upon error

• Sets window.CRASHED upon error, so you can stop an animation loop for example (and not flood the console with errors)

• Clears require cache, so reloading works with modules

• When you change package.json, it closes and reopens the window with the new values, so you don't even have to restart to change things like window.frame or window.toolbar

• When loaded in a browser (non-nw.js), it only tries to do error handling

install

npm i nw-dev --save-dev

Put this script before any other scripts (that you're developing, at least):

<script src="node_modules/nw-dev/lib/dev.js"></script>

my window annoyingly asserts focus when reloading

(This can be especially annoying if your editor autosaves!)

You probably have your app set up to show itself once it finishes loading.

That's a good thing, but you're calling win.show(), inadvertently focusing the window.

Do this (with CoffeeScript):

win.show() unless win.shown
win.shown = yes

Or this (with JavaScript):

if(!win.shown){
    win.show();
    win.shown = true;
}

(Now your autosaving workflow is once again beneficial!)

develop nw-dev

• npm i

• npm link

• cd ~/some/other/project

• npm link nw-dev

• cd ../back/to/nw-dev

• npm run prepublish to recompile