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196 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
196 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
matrix-react-sdk
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================
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This is a react-based SDK for inserting a Matrix chat/voip client into a web page.
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This package provides the React components needed to build a Matrix web client
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using React. It is not useable in isolation, and instead must must be used from
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a 'skin'. A skin provides:
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* Customised implementations of presentation components.
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* Custom CSS
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* The containing application
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* Zero or more 'modules' containing non-UI functionality
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**WARNING: As of July 2016, the skinning abstraction is broken due to rapid
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development of `matrix-react-sdk` to meet the needs of Riot (codenamed Vector), the first app
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to be built on top of the SDK** (https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web).
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Right now `matrix-react-sdk` depends on some functionality from `riot-web`
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(e.g. CSS), and `matrix-react-sdk` contains some Riot specific behaviour
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(grep for 'vector'). This layering will be fixed asap once Riot development
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has stabilised, but for now we do not advise trying to create new skins for
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matrix-react-sdk until the layers are clearly separated again.
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In the interim, `vector-im/riot-web` and `matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk` should
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be considered as a single project (for instance, matrix-react-sdk bugs
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are currently filed against vector-im/riot-web rather than this project).
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Translation Status
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==================
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[](https://translate.riot.im/engage/riot-web/?utm_source=widget)
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Developer Guide
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===============
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Platform Targets:
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* Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
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* Edge should also work, but we're not testing it proactively.
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* WebRTC features (VoIP and Video calling) are only available in Chrome & Firefox.
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* Mobile Web is not currently a target platform - instead please use the native
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iOS (https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-kit) and Android
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(https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-android-sdk) SDKs.
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All code lands on the `develop` branch - `master` is only used for stable releases.
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**Please file PRs against `develop`!!**
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Please follow the standard Matrix contributor's guide:
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https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/tree/master/CONTRIBUTING.rst
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Please follow the Matrix JS/React code style as per:
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https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk/blob/master/code_style.md
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Whilst the layering separation between matrix-react-sdk and Riot is broken
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(as of July 2016), code should be committed as follows:
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* All new components: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk/tree/master/src/components
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* Riot-specific components: https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/tree/master/src/components
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* In practice, `matrix-react-sdk` is still evolving so fast that the maintenance
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burden of customising and overriding these components for Riot can seriously
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impede development. So right now, there should be very few (if any) customisations for Riot.
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* CSS for Matrix SDK components: https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/tree/master/src/skins/vector/css/matrix-react-sdk
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* CSS for Riot-specific overrides and components: https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/tree/master/src/skins/vector/css/riot-web
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React components in matrix-react-sdk are come in two different flavours:
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'structures' and 'views'. Structures are stateful components which handle the
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more complicated business logic of the app, delegating their actual presentation
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rendering to stateless 'view' components. For instance, the RoomView component
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that orchestrates the act of visualising the contents of a given Matrix chat room
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tracks lots of state for its child components which it passes into them for visual
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rendering via props.
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Good separation between the components is maintained by adopting various best
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practices that anyone working with the SDK needs to be be aware of and uphold:
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* Components are named with upper camel case (e.g. views/rooms/EventTile.js)
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* They are organised in a typically two-level hierarchy - first whether the
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component is a view or a structure, and then a broad functional grouping
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(e.g. 'rooms' here)
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* After creating a new component you must run `npm run reskindex` to regenerate
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the `component-index.js` for the SDK (used in future for skinning)
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* The view's CSS file MUST have the same name (e.g. view/rooms/MessageTile.css).
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CSS for matrix-react-sdk currently resides in
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https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/tree/master/src/skins/vector/css/matrix-react-sdk.
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* Per-view CSS is optional - it could choose to inherit all its styling from
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the context of the rest of the app, although this is unusual for any but
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structural components (lacking presentation logic) and the simplest view
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components.
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* The view MUST *only* refer to the CSS rules defined in its own CSS file.
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'Stealing' styling information from other components (including parents)
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is not cool, as it breaks the independence of the components.
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* CSS classes are named with an app-specific namespacing prefix to try to avoid
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CSS collisions. The base skin shipped by Matrix.org with the matrix-react-sdk
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uses the naming prefix "mx_". A company called Yoyodyne Inc might use a
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prefix like "yy_" for its app-specific classes.
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* CSS classes use upper camel case when they describe React components - e.g.
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.mx_MessageTile is the selector for the CSS applied to a MessageTile view.
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* CSS classes for DOM elements within a view which aren't components are named
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by appending a lower camel case identifier to the view's class name - e.g.
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.mx_MessageTile_randomDiv is how you'd name the class of an arbitrary div
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within the MessageTile view.
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* We deliberately use vanilla CSS 3.0 to avoid adding any more magic
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dependencies into the mix than we already have. App developers are welcome
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to use whatever floats their boat however. In future we'll start using
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css-next to pull in features like CSS variable support.
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* The CSS for a component can override the rules for child components.
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For instance, .mx_RoomList .mx_RoomTile {} would be the selector to override
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styles of RoomTiles when viewed in the context of a RoomList view.
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Overrides *must* be scoped to the View's CSS class - i.e. don't just define
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.mx_RoomTile {} in RoomList.css - only RoomTile.css is allowed to define its
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own CSS. Instead, say .mx_RoomList .mx_RoomTile {} to scope the override
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only to the context of RoomList views. N.B. overrides should be relatively
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rare as in general CSS inheritence should be enough.
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* Components should render only within the bounding box of their outermost DOM
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element. Page-absolute positioning and negative CSS margins and similar are
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generally not cool and stop the component from being reused easily in
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different places.
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Originally `matrix-react-sdk` followed the Atomic design pattern as per
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http://patternlab.io to try to encourage a modular architecture. However, we
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found that the grouping of components into atoms/molecules/organisms
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made them harder to find relative to a functional split, and didn't emphasise
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the distinction between 'structural' and 'view' components, so we backed away
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from it.
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Github Issues
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=============
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All issues should be filed under https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues
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for now.
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OUTDATED: To Create Your Own Skin
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=================================
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**This is ALL LIES currently, as skinning is currently broken - see the WARNING
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section at the top of this readme.**
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Skins are modules are exported from such a package in the `lib` directory.
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`lib/skins` contains one directory per-skin, named after the skin, and the
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`modules` directory contains modules as their javascript files.
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A basic skin is provided in the matrix-react-skin package. This also contains
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a minimal application that instantiates the basic skin making a working matrix
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client.
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You can use matrix-react-sdk directly, but to do this you would have to provide
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'views' for each UI component. To get started quickly, use matrix-react-skin.
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To actually change the look of a skin, you can create a base skin (which
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does not use views from any other skin) or you can make a derived skin.
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Note that derived skins are currently experimental: for example, the CSS
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from the skins it is based on will not be automatically included.
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To make a skin, create React classes for any custom components you wish to add
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in a skin within `src/skins/<skin name>`. These can be based off the files in
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`views` in the `matrix-react-skin` package, modifying the require() statement
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appropriately.
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If you make a derived skin, you only need copy the files you wish to customise.
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Once you've made all your view files, you need to make a `skinfo.json`. This
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contains all the metadata for a skin. This is a JSON file with, currently, a
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single key, 'baseSkin'. Set this to the empty string if your skin is a base skin,
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or for a derived skin, set it to the path of your base skin's skinfo.json file, as
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you would use in a require call.
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Now you have the basis of a skin, you need to generate a skindex.json file. The
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`reskindex.js` tool in matrix-react-sdk does this for you. It is suggested that
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you add an npm script to run this, as in matrix-react-skin.
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For more specific detail on any of these steps, look at matrix-react-skin.
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Alternative instructions:
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* Create a new NPM project. Be sure to directly depend on react, (otherwise
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you can end up with two copies of react).
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* Create an index.js file that sets up react. Add require statements for
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React and matrix-react-sdk. Load a skin using the 'loadSkin' method on the
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SDK and call Render. This can be a skin provided by a separate package or
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a skin in the same package.
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* Add a way to build your project: we suggest copying the scripts block
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from matrix-react-skin (which uses babel and webpack). You could use
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different tools but remember that at least the skins and modules of
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your project should end up in plain (ie. non ES6, non JSX) javascript in
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the lib directory at the end of the build process, as well as any
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packaging that you might do.
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* Create an index.html file pulling in your compiled javascript and the
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CSS bundle from the skin you use. For now, you'll also need to manually
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import CSS from any skins that your skin inherts from.
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