Set up to develop with OpenFin on macOS

Install prerequisites

To prepare your Mac system for developing with OpenFin, refer to the following articles to install prerequisite software:

• Set up your dev environment (ignore the Windows requirement)

• OpenFin CLI tool, which lets you run OpenFin applications from a command line; it also can auto-generate an application manifest as a starting point for you.

• OpenFin process manager, which helps you understand the OpenFin processes running on a system, including all the applications, windows, and views.

Install and run a sample Workspace Platform on your Mac

Follow these steps to create and run an installer for a sample Workspace Platform.

1. Ensure that you have installed the prerequisite software.

2. Visit the OpenFin installer generator page and, under Operating System, click Mac OS. This take you to the OpenFin installer generator for Mac page.

3. Make the following entries:

   • App Config: Copy and paste the following URL: https://built-on-openfin.github.io/workspace-starter/main/workspace-platform-starter-basic/manifest.fin.json
     This is the application manifest for a basic example of an OpenFin Workspace Platform.
   • File Name: The name for the generated installer package file.
   • Icon File: URL of an icon file for the Workspace Platform.
     By default, an OpenFin logo is used.
   • Application Name: The name by which the installed application will be known to MacOS.
     For example, OpenFin Workspace Basic Starter.
   • Notarized by Apple: Set the toggle to the on position.
     This option sends the installer file to Apple for a brief verification check, which can take a few minutes.
     Note: If you leave this toggle set to off, you save a little time in generating the installer, but MacOS then considers the installer program to be unidentified, and presents a warning dialog when you try to run it.
     You can follow instructions from Apple to run it anyway.

4. Click Generate.
   An installer .pkg file is created and downloaded.

5. Double-click the downloaded file to run the installer.

6. Find the application that was created by the installer.
   For example, run Launchpad, and look for an item that uses the icon and application name you specified in the installer generator.
   Click that icon to launch the application.

   The files for OpenFin and the sample application are placed in ~/Applications.

Run the sample Workspace Platform locally

In the preceding section, you installed an OpenFin Workspace Platform that runs from https://built-on-openfin.github.io.
Now that you have successfully run it, you might want to run it locally so that you can look at and tweak the code and observe the effects of your changes.

There are a number of Workspace examples available in the built-on-openfin/workspace-starter repository on GitHub.

1. Clone or download this repo so that you have the example source files on your local filesystem.
   The example that corresponds to the one you created an installer for is located in the how-to/workspace-platform-starter-basic folder of the repository.

2. Follow the instructions in the readme file for the basic example "Getting Started" section; in the folder for the basic example:

   a. Build the example locally: npm run setup

   b. Start a local test server: npm run start

   c. Run the examples application: npm run client

3. If you make changes to the application source files, rebuild the application: npm run build