NativeScript / NativeScript/nativescript-cli
Allow building a Custom Preview App and using it with `tns preview`
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- Dominant language
- JavaScript
- Stars
- 1.1k
- Forks
- 204
- Avg merge
- 1d 9h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 8
Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
NativeScript Playground is an amazing developer experience for some really quick tests. Sometimes I test something in the Playgrounds just because it's a great, fast and reliable sandbox. There's not always the intention to share the Playground.
From time to time I want to try something in a Playground that is not possible. That's usually because some native library is missing. I understand the reason for that. Anyways this feature request is all about a solution to this problem. A solution that allows fast, reliable testing over the air. No cables required. A solution however that is not as easy to share.
See: https://www.nativescript.org/blog/join-the-nativescript-5.0-launch-webinar#comment-4151225217
Describe the solution you'd like
Please consider adding a --custom-preview CLI param so we can:
- Add native libraries to our own custom preview app
- Run
tns preview --hmr --custom-preview - Scan the QR code with a Phone and run the app
This would give us a very fast, flexible dev experience. No cables needed.
Maybe something like tns deploy ios --custom-preview could build and deploy a custom preview app with the dependencies of our package.json file.
One thing that is really important to consider when reviewing this request:
A user would be able to build one custom preview app with a whole lot of plugins and reuse that for many different codebases to quickly fiddle around. The idea is not to run tns deploy ios --custom-preview on a daily basis. This is for situations where you might want to fiddle around with a NativeScript next version or something along those lines.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the tns preview --hmr flow and compare it with tns deploy ios, focusing on how package.json dependencies, custom native libraries, QR-code delivery, and preview-app reuse would fit together. Done means users can build a custom preview app with their native dependencies, reuse it across projects, and launch it over the air without cables.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript
- Domain
- cli, mobile
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100