Garden

Mission: Create a Node app with an Electron interface that acts as a central hub and UI for quickly built external mini apps

DevelopmentJavaScriptElectron

The idea for Garden came about while I was going through a time where I was making a lot of small Node-based applets and scripts, some of which used Electron. I decided instead of rewriting basic functions over and over, and in an attempt to make all these bits of code more accessible, I would build a "Garden" in which they could all live.

I developed one single Electron application that allowed for small modules to be dropped into a directory with a JSON file full with settings and be run. This allowed me to quickly write JavaScript apps or small scripts and run them in a single place with a user interface already constructed.

An application window open on a macOS computer. Background of the app window says, "Welcome to SCN Now. You look great today." There is a menu pulled down with different modules listed alongside an accompanying icon
An application window open on a macOS computer. Displays a module running with the title "Leo" and three text input boxes. The module is a diary entry application.

Try Garden

Grab the repo over on GitHub

  • cd into the repo directory
  • Install Node modules with npm i
  • Start 'er up with npm start

Notes

Please note Garden is in development and has only been tested on macOS

You might need to install Electron globally with npm i -g electron

What was used

  • Electron
  • Node.js
  • jQuery
  • Moment.js
  • jsonfile [npm]
  • Bootstrap 3