Packaging node-webkit App

2
votes

https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit/wiki/How-to-package-and-distribute-your-apps

While packaging my node-webkit app for windows using the steps given in the above link I could not find how to avoid readability of the resulting executable from the merge by archiving software, such as WinZip. EXCERPT(from link above): "The resulting executable from the merge will still be readable by archiving software, such as WinZip."

Is it possible to avoid readability by the archiving apps?

Any help is appreciated!

2
javascriptnode.jspackagingnode-webkit

2 Answers

3
votes

Fundamentally, running node-webkit is similar to running in a browser, so just as you can't hide your webpage source, you can't truly hide your HTML and CSS in such a way that it can't be read, because it needs to be read by node-webkit at runtime.

The situation is almost the same for Javascript code, with one exception. V8 (the javascript engine in Chrome) provides a "snapshot" capability, which sort of compiles your Javascript into a sort of bytecode that V8 understands. Nwsnapshot is available for node-webkit, which will allow you to avoid shipping your JS code (or at least some of it). However, this option is still experimental, and in fact there is a problem in version 0.8.* of node-webkit (referred to as v8 in the wiki, but not to be confused with the V8 js engine), though it should be working again now in v9. Details can be found here if you're interested:

https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit/wiki/Protect-JavaScript-source-code-with-v8-snapshot

Also be aware that it can have performance impacts, if that matters for your application.

0
votes

You could also make an exe file.

See "Step 2b: Alternative way - Making an executable file out of a .nw file" from the link you provided.