Note that all the applications share the same library, which, for historical reasons, is in `ReactNativeClient/lib`. This library is copied to the relevant directories when building each app.
You can also run it under WSL 2. To do so, [follow these instructions](https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/blog/building-electron-windows-ubuntu-wsl2) to setup your environment.
First you need to setup React Native to build projects with native code. For this, follow the instructions on the [Get Started](https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html) tutorial, in the "React Native CLI Quickstart" tab.
To test the extension please refer to the relevant pages for each browser: [Firefox](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Your_first_WebExtension#Trying_it_out) / [Chrome](https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/faq#faq-dev-01). Please note that the extension in dev mode will only connect to a dev instance of the desktop app (and vice-versa).
To make changes to the application, you'll need to rebuild any TypeScript file you've changed, and rebuild the lib. The simplest way to do all this is to watch for changes from the root of the project. Simply run this command, and it should take care of the rest:
You can specify additional parameters when running the desktop or CLI application. To do so, add `--` to the `npm start` command, followed by your flags. For example:
Most of the application is written in JavaScript, however new classes and files should generally be written in [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/). All TypeScript files are generated next to the .ts or .tsx file. So for example, if there's a file "lib/MyClass.ts", there will be a generated "lib/MyClass.js" next to it. It is implemented that way as it requires minimal changes to integrate TypeScript in the existing JavaScript code base.
In the current setup, `tsc` is executed from the root of the project, and will compile everything in CliClient, ElectronClient, etc. This is more convenient to have just one place to compile everything, and it also means there's only one watch command to run. However, one drawback is that TypeScript doesn't find types defined in node_modules folders in sub-directories. For example, if you install `immer` in ElectronClient, then try to use the package, TypeScript will report that it cannot find this module. In theory using `typeRoots`, it should be possible to make it find the right modules but it doesn't seem to work in this case. Currently the workaround is to install any such package at the root of the project. By doing so, TypeScript will find the type definitions and compilation will work. It's not ideal since the module is installed at the root even though it's not used, but for now that will work.
If you'd like to auto-reload the desktop app on changes rather than having to quit and restart it manually each time, you can use [watchman-make](https://facebook.github.io/watchman/docs/watchman-make.html):
It still requires you to quit the application each time you want it to rebuild, but at least you don't have to re-run `"npm start"` each time. Here's what the workflow loop looks like in practice:
The Markdown renderer is located under ReactNativeClient/lib/joplin-renderer. Whenever updating one of its dependencies, such as Mermaid or Katex, please run `npm run buildAssets` to make sure all assets such as fonts or CSS files are deployed correctly.
Please read for the [Build Troubleshooting Document](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/master/readme/build_troubleshooting.md) for various tips on how to get the build working.
