Installing

itch is built in HTML/SCSS/TypeScript and runs inside of Electron. Install the following to get started with development:

• Install node.js (any version >5.1.x should work)
• Install electron:

$ npm install -g electron@latest

• Check out this repository

• Install the javascript dependencies by running this command from within the itch directory you've just cloned:

$ npm install

(For native modules, you'll need a compiler toolchain: Visual Studio 2015 on Windows, gcc/clang on Linux/macOS)

• Install grunt's CLI if you don't have it already:

$ npm install -g grunt-cli

• You can now run the app:

$ npm start

This command first compiles newer files from typescript to ES6 understood by both Node.js & Chromium.

We use grunt for building and packaging, see our CI job definitions.

Running tests

Run:

$ npm test

To run all tests. You can run a single test with:

$ grunt && node app/tests/runner.js app/tests/localizer-spec.js | tap-spec

Or run all the tests in a directory with:

$ grunt && node app/tests/runner.js app/tests/util | tap-spec

Debug facilities

:memo: When running from msys, export OS=cygwin to see log output

These keys do things:

• Shift-F5 — reload the UI. Since the state is stored outside of the browser, this shouldn't corrupt
• Shift-F12 — open Chromium developer tools, to inspect the DOM, run arbitrary javascript code, etc.

Some environment variables change the behavior of the application, there's a list in environment-variables.md