The repository contains several packages and apps:
nativescript-core
- The core NativeScript TypeScript modules used to develop NativeScript apps. Produces@nativescript/core
npm packagetns-core-modules-package
- Base for generating thetns-core-modules
package (compatibility package for projects that still import code fromtns-core-modules
).tns-core-modules-widgets
- The native widgets (Java and Objective-C) used by the core NativeScript modules. Producestns-core-modules-widgets
npm packagetns-platform-declarations
- TypeScript definitions for Android and iOS native APIs. Producestns-platform-declarations
npm packagetests
- Unit tests app for the@nativescript/core
package. These test are executed as nativescript application on mobile device or emulator.unit-test
- Node unit tests. These test validate parts of the framework that do not require the nativescript runtime and so can be executed in node environmente2e
- applications and e2e testse2e/ui-tests-app
- UI app used for manual testing and automationapps
- legacy apps for testingbuild
- scripts used for building and infrastructuredist
- construction site for packing npm modules
Working with the repo is organized with npm scripts,
go and read through the scripts
section in the package.json.
Managing dependencies:
tns-core-modules-widgets
depends on:- no deps
@nativescript/core
depends on:tns-core-modules-widgets
- (devDep)
tns-platform-declarations
tns-core-modules
depends on:@nativescript/core
- (devDep)
tns-platform-declarations
Clone (or fork/clone) the repo and run setup script:
git clone https://github.com/NativeScript/NativeScript.git
cd NativeScript
npm run setup
After the initial setup you can run the tests with:
cd tests
tns run android | ios
You can do changes in the test app and nativescript-core
and rely on HMR to re-run tests.
There are couple of application used for development and testing.
The ui-test-app
is the more frequently used for development and validation. It is an ordinary NativeScript app that logs the test results on the go.
After the initial setup run the e2e apps with:
cd e2e/<app-name>
# Run the Android app
tns platform add android@next
tns run android
# Run the iOS app
tns platform add ios@next
tns run ios
Note: NOTE: do not commit changes in the runtime versions to
e2e/<app-name>/package.json
Link both the nativescript-core
folders and the generated compatibility package (dist\tns-core-modules
):
npm i <path-to-nativescript-repo>/nativescript-core --save
npm i <path-to-nativescript-repo>/dist/tns-core-modules --save
You can do changes in the app code and nativescript-core
and rely on HMR to refresh the app.
Use the same steps as with TS application. However, the configuration of JS application does not include loading and transpiling TS code. You need to transpile the TS code in nativescript-core
yourself. The following npm script will run tsc in watch mode in nativescript-core
(run it in a separate terminal so that you can do tns run
in parallel):
npm run tsc-core-watch
Linking tns-core-modules
and @nativescript/core
in Angular applications does not work at the moment. Check #7905 for more details on the issue.
You can the following npm script to build and link the tns-core-modules-widgets
package.
npm run setup-widgets
This script will build the tns-core-modules-widgets
package and link it inside the nativescript-core
so it will be used for running the tests and e2e apps.
Note: NOTE: do not commit changes in the
tns-core-modules-widgets
dependency in thenativescript-core/package.json
Run node unit tests with:
npm run unit-test
or run tests in watch mode:
npm run unit-test-watch
To update the platform declarations (the ios.d.ts-es) you can run:
npm install
npm run dev-declarations
This script will update the iOS declarations. Android tools are not integrated yet. The declarations are generated from the test app and will include the native code from tns-core-modules-widgets.
The following will build the API reference pages in bin/dist/apiref
:
npm run typedoc
If you want to improve on the documentation you can also build and start up dev web server:
npm run dev-typedoc
The terminal will point the address you can open in your web browser.