An installer for nw.js


Keywords
nw, nw.js, nwjs, chromium, io.js, node-webkit, webkit, installer, desktop, application
License
MIT
Install
npm install nw@0.45.6-sdk

Documentation

nw

An npm installer for NW.js.

npm

Install

Latest version globally

npm install -g nw

You might run into issues installing globally. Learn how to fix this

Latest version of normal build flavor:

npm install --save-dev nw

Specific version with changes to installer:

npm install --save-dev nw@0.85.0-1

You may use npm view nw versions to view the list of available versions.

Specify build flavor:

npm install --save-dev nw@sdk

Optionally set nwjs_build_type=sdk in .npmrc or NWJS_BUILD_TYPE=sdk environment variable.

Specify platform:

Set nwjs_platform in .npmrc or NWJS_PLATFORM environment variable. Defaults to process.platform.

Specify architecture:

Set nwjs_arch in .npmrc or NWJS_ARCH environment variable. Defaults to process.arch.

Specify cache directory:

Set nwjs_cache_dir in .npmrc or NWJS_ARCH environment variable. Defaults to ./node_modules/nw.

Specify cache flag:

Set nwjs_cache in .npmrc or NWJS_ARCH environment variable to keep or delete cached binaries. Defaults to true.

Specify ffmpeg flag:

Set nwjs_ffmpeg in .npmrc or NWJS_ARCH environment variable to toggle downloading community FFmpeg binaries. Defaults to false.

Specify Native Addon flag:

Set nwjs_native_addon in .npmrc or NWJS_NATIVE_ADDON environment variable to toggle downloading NW.js Node headers. Defaults to false.

Specify download URL:

Set nwjs_urlbase in .npmrcor NWJS_URLBASE environment variable. Defaults to https://dl.nwjs.io. The file system (file://) is also supported (for example, file:///home/localghost/local_mirror).

Usage

Add a script in your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "nw /path/to/app"
  }
}

Executing npm start runs the NW.js app. Omitting the file path makes NW.js check for valid project in current working directory. You can also call nw directly from node_modules/.bin/nw.

Command Line Options

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.

APIs

Find path to the NW.js binary:

import { findpath } from 'nw';
var path = findpath();

Find the path to the chromedriver binary

import { findpath } from 'nw';
var path = findpath('chromedriver');

Download specific versions independant of installer version

import { get } from 'nw';

await get({
  // options
});

Options:

Name Type Default Description
version string | "latest" | "stable" "latest" Runtime version
flavor "normal" | "sdk" "normal" Runtime flavor
platform "linux" | "osx" | "win" Host platform
arch "ia32" | "x64" | "arm64" Host architecture
downloadUrl "https://dl.nwjs.io" | "https://npm.taobao.org/mirrors/nwjs" | https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/nwjs | "https://github.com/corwin-of-amber/nw.js/releases/" "https://dl.nwjs.io" Download server
cacheDir string "./cache" Directory to cache NW binaries
cache boolean true If true the existing cache is used. Otherwise it removes and redownloads it.
ffmpeg boolean false If true the chromium ffmpeg is replaced by community version with proprietary codecs.
nodeAddon false | "gyp" false Download Node headers

License

NW.js's code and this installer use the MIT license.