podjs

pod.js

A polyPod implementation that runs in a regular web browser.

Reasoning

The polyPod uses a lot of web technologies under the hood, and modern browsers ship with very powerful development tools, which makes web browsers the ideal environment for developing polyPod Features.

As for production use: A lot of Features don't make sense in isolation, yet those that do can be easily deployed on a HTTP server by using pod.js.

Limitations

Currently, any Feature including pod.js will become a fully functional polyPod, except for one thing: It only runs a single Feature. While we could support the creation of a container and a mechanism for loading Features in pod.js without too much trouble, it is currently not implemented.

Building

Simply run ./build.js in the repository root.

How to set up a Feature to build with podjs

Follow these instructions to do so:

1. You need to point to podjs from the polypoly-eu repository and add it as a "development dependency" on your project by running:

   $npm i <path-that-points-to-podjs> -D
   

   So, you end up having on your package.json the following:

      "devDependencies": {
         "@polypoly-eu/podjs": "file:/path-that-points-to-podjs/",
         ...
      },
   

2. The main step is to copy pod.js in your project. For this, please, check the example Feature as guideline. You should be able to do it with rollup tooling (same way as in example) or any other script mechanism you desire.

3. Make sure your manifest.json is exposed as window.manifestData. We provide a genPodjs script that you could use for your convenience, you just need to use it on your rollup.config.js, like :

   import genPodjs from "@polypoly-eu/podjs/rollup-plugin-gen-podjs/genPodjs.js";
   
   ...plugins: [
       ...,
       genPodjs({
           build_dir: "./dist",
           manifestPath: "./src/static/manifest.json",
       }),
       ...
   ]

   As build_dir you set the path to the directory where the generated build lies and as manifestPath the path to your manifest.json file.

4. To verify that everything is in place, you can confirm it with the following steps:

   • Open your Feature's HTML file in your browser, URLs of your local file should be supported without the need to run an HTTP server.
   • If you have set up 'step 3' correctly, you should have the correct navigation bar color and the (localized) Feature name you have set.
   • You can navigate backwards within the Feature via the native back button functionality of the browser.

5. If everything works, you are ready to start enjoying your new polyPod Feature! :)

   Congrats!

   Remember that while other Features ship with a pod.js file, the polyPod simply ignores any local pod.js file and delivers their own version of it instead. Therefore, you can leave the pod.js file in the Feature distribution without any implication.