#Starting a Pear Desktop Project

This section shows how to generate, configure, and develop a Pear desktop project, in preparation for Making a Pear Desktop Application.

#Step 1. Initialization

Use pear init to create a new Pear project.

mkdir chat
cd chat
pear init ui --yes

This creates the base project structure.

package.json. App configuration. Notice the pear property.
index.js. App entrypoint.
ui/index.html. GUI entrypoint.
ui/app.js. Main code.
test/index.test.js. Test skeleton.

#Step 2. Verify Everything Works

Use pear run to verify everything works as expected.

pear run --dev .

A directory or link needs to be specified with pear run, here . denotes the current Project directory.

The app should open in development mode. In this mode developer tools are also opened.

Running pear run --dev .

#Step 3. Automatic Reload

To enable automatic reloading, add the following lines to app.js :

Pear.updates(() => Pear.reload())

Run the app again using:

pear run --dev .

Now Pear watches project files. When they change, the app is automatically reloaded.

While keeping the pear run --dev . command running, open index.html in an editor.

Change <h1>desktop</h1> to <h1>Hello world</h1>.

The app should now show:

Automatic reload

Live reload with hot-module reloading is possible by using the pear.watch configuration and the pear.updates API. The pear-hotmods convenience module can also be used.

#Step 4. Configuration

Application configuration is under the pear property in package.json

Open package.json and update it to:

{
  ...
  "pear": {
    "gui": {
      "height": 400,
      "width": 700
    }
  }
  ...
}

Close the app and re-run pear run --dev . to see the changes, the initial window size is different now.

See the Configuration Documentation for all options.

#Next

Making a Pear Desktop Application