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Add Windows-focused compiling tooling to create ready-to-use binary for hopr-chat
hoprnet
TypeScript, JavaScript, Windows, nodeJS
# Introduction
As described in our [docs](https://docs.hoprnet.io/home/getting-started/quickstart/windows-quickstart), `hopr-chat` can be run inside a Windows computer using Docker. However, the requirements for having Docker installed inside an average Windows machine are not only high, but also cumbersome for a non-technical user (e.g. enabling Hyper-V, ensuring the machine has virtualisation capabilities, etc). To showcase `hopr-chat` and push for mass adoption, we are looking to ship `hopr-chat` as a standalone binary that can be quickly executed to connect to other running `hopr-chat` nodes.
# Task Description
- [ ] Create a new task inside `chat/package.json` called `build:binary:windows` which runs the required commands to deliver a binary inside `dist/windows/winx64-12.9.1`. The architecture targeted is `x64` and the node version to be used is `12.x` (ideally `12.9.1`, as `12.9.0` has some memory leak issues).
- [ ] Create a release able to be run inside `Windows 10 Home` and `Windows 10 Pro` editions, both on 64-bit architectures, able to be run as standalone binaries executable via “double-click”. In case some external dependencies need to be bundled alongside (e.g. `wrtc.node`), please provide the binary as a `zip` compressed folder which can be extracted and run alongside the dependencies.
# Definition of Complete
The task is considered completed when a build workflow for the Windows Binary has been added to the project and a successful release can be used on any Windows 64-bit machine on a double-click fashion. Furthermore, the binary is able to execute through all the steps shown in our [Documentation](https://docs.hoprnet.io/home/getting-started/quickstart/windows-quickstart), specifically from Step 3 to 5. The easiest way to do so, is by running the binary multiple times inside the same computer with different ports and effectively sending messages across each other.
# Testing Criteria
- [ ] The updated `package.json` includes all the required `devDependencies` to bundle, compile and create a distributable binary usable in any Windows 64-bit computer.
- [ ] The updated `package.json` includes the script `build:binary:windows` which will trigger a local build against the existing codebase to produce an executable binary.
- [ ] The executable binary can be packed and distributed as a single file in an `.exe` format or similar. If additional external dependencies need to be distributed alongside, then the distributable will be a `.zip` file which will be easily extracted and then run in any working directory.
- [ ] The binary will be able to be run in any `Windows 10 *` distribution (e.g. Home, Pro) and all needed dependencies will be included, such as a `node` runtime that can process `hopr-chat` logic.
- [ ] Upon executing the binary, a terminal screen as shown in our [Documentation](https://docs.hoprnet.io/home/getting-started/quickstart/windows-quickstart) will be shown. The binary can also be run from Powershell, and opened via Visual Studio 2019, run and log-traced there using `F5`.
- [ ] The binary will be able to trigger an Administrator Firewall Access Request prompt upon usage, or automatically connect to a bootstrap node when `Run as an Administrator` is used.
- [ ] The binary can read `.env` file inside the same working directory to read env variables such as `BOOTSTRAP_SERVER`
- [ ] The binary can be used to successfully complete all steps (particularly 3 to 5) from our [Documentation](https://docs.hoprnet.io/home/getting-started/quickstart/windows-quickstart). More importantly, the binary can be used to effectively showcase the messaging workflow as seen in our docs.
- [ ] The binary is under `1 GB` in disk space.
# Notes
Some prior work was conducted (see below under “Prior Work”). For the deliverable, we are not only looking for the compiled binary, but also the required steps to build one, alongside the tooling or pipeline setup needed to enable so. If third party tooling is used (e.g. Azure Pipelines), please describe as such.
# Prior Work
There's some previous work done on this task, which can be seen in https://github.com/hoprnet/hopr-core/issues/26 and https://github.com/hoprnet/hopr-core/issues/88 more recently. Right now, all effort on this direction can be seen in https://github.com/hoprnet/hopr-core/issues/86, and might need tasks like https://github.com/hoprnet/hopr-testing/issues/1 to be completed first as to ease the process.
### Nexe
Multiple efforts were done using [nexe](https://github.com/nexe/nexe), but we stumbled upon multiple issues. To mention just some:
- Dependencies were not bundled - https://github.com/nexe/nexe/issues/642
- Native bindings are not available - https://github.com/nexe/nexe/issues/776
- Node_modules are not included - https://github.com/nexe/nexe/issues/727 (similar to 642)
- Dependencies are not resolved - https://github.com/nexe/nexe/issues/717
- Some modules are not found - https://github.com/nexe/nexe/issues/745 (rollup efforts were done w/o success).
- Native options are undocumented - https://github.com/nexe/nexe/issues/335.
In short, some work was done here but even by bundling the entire `node_modules` folder would create a `1.2 GB` binary and would yet still not work. In some cases, the `nexe` created binary would work, but as soon as the binary would be moved to another computer, it will fail to find the dependencies, and even shipping with a `node_modules` folder alongside would produce some errors such as the following:
### Pkg
Another tool called [pkg](https://github.com/vercel/pkg) was also explored, and even with the included externals it would not work.
In this particular case, we were faced with an error `KeccakState`, which we had been unable to resolve and are trying to pin to `ganache-core` as seen in https://github.com/hoprnet/hopr-core-ethereum/issues/63.
So far that has stopped our progress using `pkg` so far, as that doesn't seem to be an issue with `pkg` itself but with the program so far. It's worth mentioning that running the program with `node` running locally in a Windows computer works without any issues, and that `pkg` also has similar issues as `nexe` handling external/native dependencies (see https://github.com/vercel/pkg/issues/663, https://github.com/vercel/pkg/issues/749, and some efforts in https://github.com/vercel/pkg/pull/837)
# State of Art
Some projects are looked upon in order to use them as a reference as to mimic their successful setup. In particular, we had been taking a close look at IPFS as they have effectively being able to run an `ipfs` node based on JavaScript alongside a Desktop App (see https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-desktop).
We have noticed that IPFS created its own bundler, [Aegir](https://github.com/ipfs/aegir) as to bundle some of their code as seen in their [javascript implementation of ipfs](https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/blob/master/packages/ipfs/package.json#L38), and are now actively looking to implement it. It sadly doesn't have TypeScript support yet, but there's an existing [PR](https://github.com/ipfs/aegir/pull/568) driving some of that conversation (i.e. does not provide TypeScript support, only `jsdocs`).
(It's worth mentioning some efforts had already been done with Aegir, but we now stumble with some issues from our own dependencies (i.e. ganache-core) that need to be handled, see screenshot below).
Some of the work in terms of distributed deliverables for `libp2p` based projects for IPFS can be seen in their root GUI repo - https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-gui. From compiling `ipfs` into a single executable file (js-ipfs) to bundling into their desktop app can be found from there. For instance, we have yet to explore [electron-builder](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder) which will be the next step to follow.
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