Updating kbase-ui
Before updating kbase-ui, you should have a grasp on the basic architectural concepts.
To briefly summarize:
- kbase-ui is a web app composed of a few html pages, several css files, a configuration file, and many javascript files.
- the primary entry point is
index.html, which is responsible for:- default error handling
- browser compatibility checking
- loading base stylesheets
- loading the AMD manager requirejs
- loading the initial entrypoint Javascript file
- code is organized with AMD, and loaded with requirejs
- code is ES6 compliant
- kbase-ui is run behind an nginx server
- development of kbase-ui is conducted behind an nginx proxy
- ui services provide runtime capabilities
- plugins provide most of the user facing functionality
With that out of the way, let us proceed!
Overview
The basic workflow for kbase-ui development is the venerable iterative cycle:
- edit code
- reload browser
- if done, exit
- goto 1
Since kbase-ui is based on directly loading JS modules as Asynchronous Module Definition (AMD) compatible files, there is no compilation cycle (for development – there is for prod.)
We don’t have any fancy auto-reload code loaded during development, so it it is simply modifying code, and then reloading.
Build kbase-ui once
Before starting a kbase-ui editing session, you need to conduct an initial kbase-ui build.
If you have followed the quick start you should be good to go.
It is advisable to use a local cert, as mentioned in that document.
It would be pertinent to note here that this is a “development build” of kbase-ui. The development build uses plain, unminified javascript files. This allows for a direct 1-1 relationship between files loaded in the browser and files you are editing.
The production build both minifies files, and assemble them into a custom type of bundle. This reduces the overall load size, increases responsiveness the first time a view is loaded (because the files are resident already), and increases reliability (since each module is not network-loaded).
Run kbase-ui with live directories
If kbase-ui is currently running, exit it (from the terminal, or with docker.)
We will now start it up again, but this time overlaying the