Skip to main content

Set up to develop with Here™ Core

Before you can get up and running to configure Here™ Core UI Components or build something from scratch using Here™ Core Container, you need to set up your development environment.

While Here Core supports many ways to integrate and connect with applications that are native and non-web, the primary developer experience focuses on connecting modern web applications together in a secure way.

Prerequisites​

The following set of prerequisite software is needed to effectively develop for the Here Core environment:

  • One of the following supported operating systems:

    • Windows 10 or Windows 111

    • macOS 13 (Ventura)2

  • NodeJS 16+

  • NPM 8+ (included with NodeJS) or Yarn

The minimum RAM required for developing or running an application in the Here Core environment depends greatly on the needs of the application. If you need help assessing your application's RAM needs, contact support@here.io.

In addition to the tools above, many examples demonstrating functionality in Here Core contain links to repositories on GitHub and assume git is available to use in the development environment.

With the above tools configured, you are able to run any example code shared in these docs, explore configuring Here Core UI COmponents, or get started building your new app from scratch using Here Core Container.

Configure an installer program for a Here Core UI platform​

Follow these steps to create and run an installer for a sample Here Core UI platform.

  1. Ensure that you have installed the prerequisite software.

  2. Visit the OpenFin installer generator page.

  3. Under Operating System, select the choice for the OS on your development system, either Windows or Mac OS. If you select Mac OS, this takes you to the OpenFin installer generator for Mac page, which has somewhat different options than the Windows page.

Windows installer options​

  • 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 a Here Core UI platform. You can use a URL for the manifest of any Here Core app or platform that you prefer.

  • File Name: The name for the generated installer file.

  • Support Email: An email address to display in the installer dialog box, for the user to contact if an error occurs.

  • Toggles

    • Do Not Launch: Whether the installer launches the application after installing it.

    • Unzipped: Whether the installer is created as a zip file or an executable.

    • Only Self Install: Whether the installer installs the application, or only the RVM.

    • No Extension: Whether the generated installer filename has a file extension.

    • No UI: Whether the installer displays a user interface while installing.

MacOS installer options​

  • 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 a Here Core UI platform. You can use a URL for the manifest of any Here Core app or platform that you prefer.

  • File Name: The name for the generated installer file.

  • Icon File: URL of an icon file for the Here Core UI platform. By default, an OpenFin logo is used.

  • Application Name: The name by which the installed application will be known to MacOS. For example, Here Core UI 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.

Generate and run the installer program​

  1. Click Generate. An installer file is created and downloaded. The default file extension is .zip on Windows and .pkg on macOS.

  2. If needed on Windows, double-click the downloaded file to unzip the zip file.

  3. Double-click the installer file to run the installer.

  4. Find the application that was created by the installer. For example, look for an item that uses the icon and application name you specified in the installer generator.

  5. Double-click the application to launch it. The files for Here Core and the sample application are placed in ~/Applications.

Run the sample Here Core UI platform locally​

In the preceding section, you installed a Here Core UI 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 Here Core UI Components 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

Helpful tools​

Footnotes​

  1. Windows 7 and 8/8.1 are supported for Here Runtime version 29 or earlier. Refer to Here™ and Chromium ending support for Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 for details. ↩

  2. The macOS implementation is available for development and experimentation purposes only. If your organization is interested in deploying Here Core on macOS in a production enterprise environment, please contact Here™ to discuss your needs. ↩

Table of Contents