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Manifest format

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Roger Wang edited this page Jun 17, 2013 · 68 revisions

Every app package should contain a manifest file named package.json, it will tell node-webkit how to open the app and control how the browser behaves.

Quick Start

{
  "main": "index.html",
  "name": "nw-demo",
  "description": "demo app of node-webkit",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "keywords": [ "demo", "node-webkit" ],
  "window": {
    "icon": "link.png",
    "toolbar": true,
    "frame": false,
    "width": 800,
    "height": 500,
    "position": "mouse",
    "min_width": 400,
    "min_height": 200,
    "max_width": 800,
    "max_height": 600
  },
  "webkit": {
    "plugin": true
  }
}

Basic Format

package.json should be written in the format of JSON.

Required Fields

Each package must provide all the following fields in its package descriptor file:

main

(string) which page should be opened when node-webkit starts.

name

(string) the name of the package. This must be a unique, lowercase alpha-numeric name without spaces. It may include "." or "_" or "-" characters. It is otherwise opaque.

name should be globally unique since node-webkit will store app's data under the directory named name.

Features Control Fields

Following fields control which features node-webkit should provide and how node-webkit should open the main window.

nodejs

(boolean) set nodejs to false will disable Node support in WebKit.

node-main

(string) specify the path to a node.js script file, it will be executed on startup in Node context. This script will have same runtime environment with normal node.js binary. The script is ensured to run before the first DOM window load starting from v0.3.3. See here for more information. (available after node-webkit v0.3.1)

single-instance

(boolean) by default node-webkit only allows one instance of your app if your app is a standalone package (packaged with instructions of How to package and distribute your apps), if you want to allow multiple instances of your app running at the same time, specify this to false.

window

(object) controls how the main window looks, see Window Subfields below.

webkit

(object) controls what features of WebKit should be on/off, see WebKit Subfields below.

user-agent

since v0.3.7

(string) Override the User-Agent header in HTTP requests made from the application. The following placeholders are available:

  • %name: replaced by the name field in the manifest.
  • %ver: replaced by the version field in the manifest, if available.
  • %nwver: replaced by the version of node-webkit.
  • %webkit_ver: replaced by the version of WebKit engine.
  • %osinfo: replaced by the OS and CPU information you would see in browser's user agent string.

node-remote

since v0.3.7

(string) Enable calling Node in remote pages. The value controls for which sites this feature should be turned on. The format is the same with the "proxy bypass rules" of the browser:

It's a rule set, which rules are separated by , or ;. Each rule can be any of the following:

  // (1) [ URL_SCHEME "://" ] HOSTNAME_PATTERN [ ":" <port> ]
  //
  //   Match all hostnames that match the pattern HOSTNAME_PATTERN.
  //
  //   Examples:
  //     "foobar.com", "*foobar.com", "*.foobar.com", "*foobar.com:99",
  //     "https://x.*.y.com:99"
  //
  // (2) "." HOSTNAME_SUFFIX_PATTERN [ ":" PORT ]
  //
  //   Match a particular domain suffix.
  //
  //   Examples:
  //     ".google.com", ".com", "http://.google.com"
  //
  // (3) [ SCHEME "://" ] IP_LITERAL [ ":" PORT ]
  //
  //   Match URLs which are IP address literals.
  //
  //   Conceptually this is the similar to (1), but with special cases
  //   to handle IP literal canonicalization. For example matching
  //   on "[0:0:0::1]" would be the same as matching on "[::1]" since
  //   the IPv6 canonicalization is done internally.
  //
  //   Examples:
  //     "127.0.1", "[0:0::1]", "[::1]", "http://[::1]:99"
  //
  // (4)  IP_LITERAL "/" PREFIX_LENGHT_IN_BITS
  //
  //   Match any URL that is to an IP literal that falls between the
  //   given range. IP range is specified using CIDR notation.
  //
  //   Examples:
  //     "192.168.1.1/16", "fefe:13::abc/33".
  //
  // (5)  "<local>"
  //
  //   Match local addresses. The meaning of "<local>" is whether the
  //   host matches one of: "127.0.0.1", "::1", "localhost".

chromium-args

since v0.4.0

(string) Specify chromium (content shell) command line arguments. It will be useful if you want to distribute the app with some custom chromium args. For example, if you want to disable the GPU accelerated video display, just add "chromium-args" : "--disable-accelerated-video". If you want to add multiple arguments, separate each two arguments by space. This field can take a number of flags in one argument as well, via enclosing them in single quotation marks.

A list of Chromium's command line arguments is available at http://src.chromium.org/svn/trunk/src/content/public/common/content_switches.cc

js-flags

since v0.4.1

(string) Specify the flags passed to JS engine(v8). e.g. turn on Harmony Proxies and Collections feature:

{
  "name": "nw-demo",
  "main": "index.html",
  "js-flags": "--harmony_proxies --harmony_collections"
}

snapshot

since v0.4.2

(string) Specify the path to the snapshot file to be loaded with the application. The snapshot file contains compiled code of your application. See Protect JavaScript source code with v8 snapshot.

Window Subfields

title

(string) the default title of window created by node-webkit, it's very useful if you want to show your own title when the app is starting.

width/height

(int) the initial width/height of the main window.

toolbar

(boolean) should the navigation toolbar be showed.

icon

(string) path to window's icon

position

(string) be null or center or mouse, controls where window will be put

min_width/min_height

(int) minimum width/height of window

max_width/max_height

(int) maximum width/height of window

as_desktop

(boolean) show as desktop background window under X11 environment

resizable

(boolean) whether window is resizable (available after node-webkit v0.3.0)

always-on-top

(boolean) whether the window should always stay on top of other windows (available after node-webkit v0.3.4)

fullscreen

(boolean) whether window is fullscreen (available after node-webkit v0.3.0)

frame

(boolean) specify it to false to make the window frameless (available after node-webkit v0.3.0)

show

(boolean) specify it to false if you want your app to be hidden on startup (available after node-webkit v0.3.0)

kiosk

(boolean) whether to use Kiosk mode. In Kiosk mode, the app will be fullscreen and try to prevent users from leaving the app, so you should remember to provide a way in app to leave Kiosk mode. This mode is mainly used for presentation on public displays (available after node-webkit v0.3.1)

WebKit Subfields

Following fields requires node-webkit >= v0.3.0.

plugin

(boolean) whether to load external browser plugins like Flash, default to false.

java

(boolean) whether to load Java applets, default to false.

page-cache

(boolean) whether to enable page cache, default to false.

dom_storage_quota

since v0.6.0

(int) Number of mega bytes for the quota of the DOM storage.

Other Fields

The Packages/1.0 standard specifies many other fields package.json should provide. currently we don't make use of them, but you provide them still.

description

a brief description of the package. By convention, the first sentence (up to the first ". ") should be usable as a package title in listings.

version

a version string conforming to the Semantic Versioning requirements.

keywords

an Array of string keywords to assist users searching for the package in catalogs.

maintainers

Array of maintainers of the package. Each maintainer is a hash which must have a "name" property and may optionally provide "email" and "web" properties. For example:

"maintainers":[ {
   "name": "Bill Bloggs",
   "email": "billblogs@bblogmedia.com",
  " web": "http://www.bblogmedia.com",
}]

contributors

an Array of hashes each containing the details of a contributor. Format is the same as for author. By convention, the first contributor is the original author of the package.

bugs

URL for submitting bugs. Can be mailto or http.

licenses

array of licenses under which the package is provided. Each license is a hash with a "type" property specifying the type of license and a url property linking to the actual text. If the license is one of the official open source licenses the official license name or its abbreviation may be explicated with the "type" property. If an abbreviation is provided (in parentheses), the abbreviation must be used.

"licenses": [
   {
       "type": "GPLv2",
       "url": "http://www.example.com/licenses/gpl.html",
   }
]

repositories

Array of repositories where the package can be located. Each repository is a hash with properties for the "type" and "url" location of the repository to clone/checkout the package. A "path" property may also be specified to locate the package in the repository if it does not reside at the root. For example:

"repositories": [
       {
            "type": "git", 
            "url": "http://github.com/example.git",
            "path": "packages/mypackage"
       }
]

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