noble.js with Visual Studio 2017 and Win7

This page is about how to get noble.js up and running with the following setup:

Setup

• Windows 7 x64
• Node.js 6.10.3 x86!
• Python 2.7.13 (both x86 and x64)
• Visual Studio 2017
  • Make sure you install the following "Workloads":
  • "Node.js development"
  • "Python development"

Now, before we do anything else: I could not get the native components to work properly with the compiler that comes with VS2017. I could not figure out what the problem was, but it turned out that there is a better way:

Install the compiler

For compiling the native parts we will have to do this once: npm install -g windows-build-tools That's it.

Creating project

• Open VS2017
• Create a new project from template

It should look something like this:

Let's start from scratch and create a "Blank node.js Console Application" and run the app (a classic "Hello World" example) in order to see that everything works fine.

Now we can use the built-in npm gui called "Install New npm Packages":

• In the search field type "noble"
• select noble 1.8.1
• install package

The crucial moment

Now npm will start doing it's magic which includes compiling native code from a generated vsproject.

I has to compile these two modules

• bluetooth-hci-socket
• usb

IF everything went fine, it should look like this:

	Registry url: https://registry.npmjs.org/
	Current Time: 18.06.2017 17:27:32
	Last Refreshed: 03.06.2017 10:43:49
	Number of Results: 503067
	====Executing command 'npm install noble --save '====

	> usb@1.2.0 install C:\dev\NodejsConsoleApp1\NodejsConsoleApp1\node_modules\usb
	> node-pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build
	[usb] Success: "C:\dev\NodejsConsoleApp1\NodejsConsoleApp1\node_modules\usb\src\binding\usb_bindings.node" is installed via remote
	> bluetooth-hci-socket@0.5.1 install C:\dev\NodejsConsoleApp1\NodejsConsoleApp1\node_modules\bluetooth-hci-socket
	> node-gyp rebuild
	C:\dev\NodejsConsoleApp1\NodejsConsoleApp1\node_modules\bluetooth-hci-socket>if not defined npm_config_node_gyp (node "C:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node-gyp-bin\\..\..\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" rebuild )  else (node "" rebuild ) 
	Building the projects in this solution one at a time. To enable parallel build, please add the "/m" switch.
	  win_delay_load_hook.cc
	  Generating code
	  Finished generating code
	  binding.vcxproj -> C:\dev\NodejsConsoleApp1\NodejsConsoleApp1\node_modules\bluetooth-hci-socket\build\Release\\binding.node
	  binding.vcxproj -> C:\dev\NodejsConsoleApp1\NodejsConsoleApp1\node_modules\bluetooth-hci-socket\build\Release\binding.pdb (Full PDB)
	nodejs-console-app1@0.0.0 C:\dev\NodejsConsoleApp1\NodejsConsoleApp1
	`-- noble@1.8.1 
	  +-- bluetooth-hci-socket@0.5.1 
	  | +-- nan@2.6.2 
	  | `-- usb@1.2.0 
	  |   `-- node-pre-gyp@0.6.30 
	[*snip*]
	  |       | +-- process-nextick-args@1.0.7 
	  |       | +-- string_decoder@0.10.31 
	  |       | `-- util-deprecate@1.0.2 
	  |       `-- uid-number@0.0.6 
	  +-- bplist-parser@0.0.6 
	  `-- debug@2.2.0 
		`-- ms@0.7.1 

	====npm command completed with exit code 0====

And you will have some warnings mixed in:

npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: xpc-connection@~0.1.4 (node_modules\noble\node_modules\xpc-connection):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for xpc-connection@0.1.4: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"win32","arch":"ia32"})
npm WARN nodejs-console-app1@0.0.0 No repository field.
npm WARN nodejs-console-app1@0.0.0 No license field.

That's fine.

If there is a problem, it will most likely be the compiler and gyp will complain, that it couldn't find a VSBuild.exe to do it's job.

Getting Window 7 to support Bluetooth LE

paste code into app.js

const noble = require('noble');

noble.on('stateChange',
    function (state) {
        if (state === 'poweredOn') {
            console.log('startScanning')
            noble.startScanning();
        } else {
            console.log('stopScanning')
            noble.stopScanning();
        }
    });

noble.on('discover',
    function (peripheral) {
        peripheral.on('disconnect', function () {
            console.log('disonnected from peripheral: ' + peripheral.uuid)
        });
        peripheral.connect(function (error) {
            console.log('connected to peripheral: ' + peripheral.uuid);
        });
    });

Click Start.