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@ -10,145 +10,33 @@ Getting started
2. Clone the repo: `git clone https://github.com/vector-im/vector-web.git` 2. Clone the repo: `git clone https://github.com/vector-im/vector-web.git`
3. Switch to the SDK directory: `cd vector-web` 3. Switch to the SDK directory: `cd vector-web`
4. Install the prerequisites: `npm install` 4. Install the prerequisites: `npm install`
5. Switch to the example directory: `cd examples/vector` 5. Start the development builder and a testing server: `npm start`
6. Install the example app prerequisites: `npm install` 6. Wait a few seconds for the initial build to finish.
7. Build the example and start a server: `npm start` 7. Open http://127.0.0.1:8080/ in your browser to see your newly built Vector.
Now open http://127.0.0.1:8080/ in your browser to see your newly built Wiht `npm start`, Any changes you make to the source files will cause a rebuild so
Vector. your changes will show up when you refresh.
For production use, run `npm run build` to build all the necessary files
into the `vector` directory and run your own server.
Development Development
=========== ===========
You can work on any of the source files within Vector with the setup above,
To work on the CSS and Javascript and have the bundle files update as you and your changes will cause an instant rebuild. If you also need to make
change the source files, you'll need to do two extra things: changes to the react sdk, you can:
1. Link the react sdk package into the example: 1. Link the react sdk package into the example:
`cd vector-web/examples/vector; npm link ../../` `npm link path/to/your/react/sdk`
2. Start a watcher for the CSS files: 2. Start the development rebuilder in your react SDK directory:
`cd vector-web; npm run start:css` `npm start`
Note that you may need to restart the CSS builder if you add a new file. Note If you add or remove any components from the Vector skin, you will need to rebuild
that `npm start` builds debug versions of the javascript and CSS, which are the skin's index by running, `npm run reskindex`.
much larger than the production versions build by the `npm run build` commands.
IMPORTANT: If you customise components in your application (and hence require
react from your app) you must be sure to:
1. Make your app depend on react directly
2. If you `npm link` matrix-react-sdk, manually remove the 'react' directory
from matrix-react-sdk's `node_modules` folder, otherwise browserify will
pull in both copies of react which causes the app to break.
Deployment Deployment
========== ==========
Just run `npm build` in the `examples/vector` directory, and then mount the Just run `npm build` and then mount the `vector` directory on your webserver to
`examples/vector` directory on your webserver to actually serve up the app, actually serve up the app, which is entirely static content.
which is entirely static content.
How to customise the SDK
========================
The matrix-react-sdk provides well-defined reusable UI components which may be
customised/replaced by the developer to build into an app. A set of consistent
UI components (View + CSS classes) is called a 'skin' - currently the SDK
provides a very vanilla whitelabelled 'base skin'. In future the SDK could
provide alternative skins (probably by extending the base skin) that provide more
specific look and feels (e.g. "IRC-style", "Skype-style") etc. However, unlike
Wordpress themes and similar, we don't normally expect app developers to define
reusable skins. Instead you just go and incorporate your view customisations
into your actual app.
The SDK uses the 'atomic' design pattern as seen at http://patternlab.io to
encourage a very modular and reusable architecture, making it easy to
customise and use UI widgets independently of the rest of the SDK and your app.
In practice this means:
* The UI of the app is strictly split up into a hierarchy of components.
* Each component has its own:
* View object defined as a React javascript class containing embedded
HTML expressed in React's JSX notation.
* CSS file, which defines the styling specific to that component.
* Components are loosely grouped into the 5 levels outlined by atomic design:
* atoms: fundamental building blocks (e.g. a timestamp tag)
* molecules: "group of atoms which functions together as a unit"
(e.g. a message in a chat timeline)
* organisms: "groups of molecules (and atoms) which form a distinct section
of a UI" (e.g. a view of a chat room)
* templates: "a reusable configuration of organisms" - used to combine and
style organisms into a well-defined global look and feel
* pages: specific instances of templates.
Good separation between the components is maintained by adopting various best
practices that anyone working with the SDK needs to be be aware of and uphold:
* Views are named with upper camel case (e.g. molecules/MessageTile.js)
* The view's CSS file MUST have the same name (e.g. molecules/MessageTile.css)
* Per-view CSS is optional - it could choose to inherit all its styling from
the context of the rest of the app, although this is unusual for any but
the simplest atoms and molecules.
* The view MUST *only* refer to the CSS rules defined in its own CSS file.
'Stealing' styling information from other components (including parents)
is not cool, as it breaks the independence of the components.
* CSS classes are named with an app-specific namespacing prefix to try to avoid
CSS collisions. The base skin shipped by Matrix.org with the matrix-react-sdk
uses the naming prefix "mx_". A company called Yoyodyne Inc might use a
prefix like "yy_" for its app-specific classes.
* CSS classes use upper camel case when they describe React components - e.g.
.mx_MessageTile is the selector for the CSS applied to a MessageTile view.
* CSS classes for DOM elements within a view which aren't components are named
by appending a lower camel case identifier to the view's class name - e.g.
.mx_MessageTile_randomDiv is how you'd name the class of an arbitrary div
within the MessageTile view.
* We deliberately use vanilla CSS 3.0 to avoid adding any more magic
dependencies into the mix than we already have. App developers are welcome
to use whatever floats their boat however.
* The CSS for a component can however override the rules for child components.
For instance, .mx_RoomList .mx_RoomTile {} would be the selector to override
styles of RoomTiles when viewed in the context of a RoomList view.
Overrides *must* be scoped to the View's CSS class - i.e. don't just define
.mx_RoomTile {} in RoomList.css - only RoomTile.css is allowed to define its
own CSS. Instead, say .mx_RoomList .mx_RoomTile {} to scope the override
only to the context of RoomList views. N.B. overrides should be relatively
rare as in general CSS inheritence should be enough.
* Components should render only within the bounding box of their outermost DOM
element. Page-absolute positioning and negative CSS margins and similar are
generally not cool and stop the component from being reused easily in
different places.
* We don't use the atomify library itself, as React already provides most
of the modularity requirements it brings to the table.
With all this in mind, here's how you go about skinning the react SDK UI
components to embed a Matrix client into your app:
* Create a new NPM project. Be sure to directly depend on react, (otherwise
you can end up with two copies of react).
* Create an index.js file that sets up react. Add require statements for
React, the ComponentBroker and matrix-react-sdk and a call to Render
the root React element as in the examples.
* Create React classes for any custom components you wish to add. These
can be based off the files in `views` in the `matrix-react-sdk` package,
modifying the require() statement appropriately.
You only need to copy files you want to customise.
* Add a ComponentBroker.set() call for each of your custom components. These
must come *before* `require("matrix-react-sdk")`.
* Add a way to build your project: we suggest copying the browserify calls
from the example projects, but you could use grunt or gulp.
* Create an index.html file pulling in your compiled index.js file, the
CSS bundle from matrix-react-sdk.
For more specific detail on any of these steps, look at the `custom` example in
matrix-react-sdk/examples.