App Startup

Related documents

• Controller Reference
• View Reference
• Server Reference

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • index.html
• app.js

Introduction

The app file layout in the source is as follows:

• app root/
  • index.html
  • serviceWorker.js
  • manifest.js
  • buildStamp/
    • app.js
    • common/
      • ... MVCS, aero, and lib files
    • .. app-specific files or directories

The build process copies the entire structure to the build area. However, the buildStamp directory is changed to a numeric timestamp of the form 'YYYYMMDDhhmmss'. It also changes any instance of 'buildStamp' in a pathname within index.html to the timestamp. This locks the pathname of all resources to the index.html, preventing any caching between the client and server from providing a stale copy.

index.html

The application starts with the index.html file in the application root. This does the following things:

• Establishes <meta> headers, title, and icon.
• Registers serviceWorker.js.
• loads static scripts and CSS files
• loads app.js.
• Creates a root <div> as the body.

In addition, the index.html contains a list of all the static file resources for the app (a file manifest). The manifest is automatically generated by the build procedure. The service worker uses the manifest to prefetch all app resources and load them in the application cache for offline use. This procedure ensures that the index.html file and the manifest are not out of sync. The file manifest should not be confused with the manifest.js file, which is the PWA manifest.

app.js

The app.js file does the following:

• Imports the app-specific and common files that define the pages that the app uses.
• If the Help page is used, initializes help.toc.
• Calls ctl.onResize() to set up responsive changes to resizing or orientation changes, such as calling view.setSizeClass() or setting the nav_style state variable.
• Sets server.baseUrl if the app is started as a native app (localDevice.isNative is true).
• If the app is an aircraft app, then call acType.init() to provide default aircraft data before the rest of the app starts.
• Calls ctl.startApp() to define the app ID, title, version, and initial view, and initialize the Controller, Model, and View.

The remainder of the app is loaded on demand.