JXA Builder

JavaScript for automation (JXA) builder with automatic dependencies resolution. At the moment you can build a standalone applets and reusable libraries.

Important

JXA is Apple's technology, so you can use it only on macOS.

Features

• Easy splitting of your script into modules
• Automatic module dependencies resolution
• Installation/Uninstallation to/from known locations (~/Library/Scripts, /Library/Scripts, /Applications)
• ability to set custom icon for the applet

Installation

Python 3.8+ is required. Python3 is already installed on macOS, so no need to install it.

pip install jxa-builder
## or if you want some isolation
pipx install jxa-builder

Usage

Project configuration Most of the build options can be specified in different ways The priority from lowest to highest is:

• package.json (if you use a package manager)
• jxa.json
• command line arguments

The naming difference between options in command line and json files is that in json files they are camelCase.

So these json config options:

{
  "compMode": "app",
  "depsInstallMode": "system",
  "version": "2.0.0"
  "main": "src/index.js",
  "appIcon": "Neovim.icns",
  "appName": "Neovim",
}

are equivalent to these command line options:

--comp-mode app \
--deps-install-mode system \
--version 2.0.0 \
--main src/index.js \
--app-icon Neovim.icns \
--app-name "Neovim"

To build and install

cd /path/to/your/project
jxa-builder build
jxa-builder install

## You can also specify locations explicitly
jxa-builder build --project-dir /path/to/your/project
jxa-builder install --path /path/to/your/project

Notes

By default, shell logs are turned off (enabled using --debug flag) However, file logs are always on and are stored in ~/Library/Logs/jxa-builder.log