Manual testing in the starter

examples/starter is the reference app used to exercise every subsystem by hand. This page tracks how to run it and what to check. It is a living document.

Status legend:

• ✅ Verified — tested end to end on the indicated platform.
• 🟡 Partial — implemented; UI panel in the starter pending.
• ⏳ Pending — not implemented or not yet tested in the starter.

Running the starter

# Linux
cd examples/starter
npm run dev

On Windows (cross-built kernel pulled over HTTP):

taskkill /IM owear.exe /F 2>$null
$dst = "$env:USERPROFILE\owear-dev\deps\win32-x64"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $dst -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
iwr http://<linux-host>:8000/win-out.zip -OutFile $env:TEMP\win-out.zip
Expand-Archive -Force $env:TEMP\win-out.zip $dst
$env:OW_KERNEL_BIN = "$dst\bin\owear.exe"
cd <path-to-starter>
npm.cmd run dev

Block A — Execution / IPC

// worker
const w = app.forkWorker('echo-worker.js')
w.on('message', (m) => console.log('worker →', m))
w.postMessage({ ping: 1 })
// app/workers/echo-worker.ts (Electron style)
process.parentPort.on('message', (e) => process.parentPort.postMessage({ echo: e.data }))

// context handler
app.handleContext('whoami', (ctx) => ({ windowId: ctx.windowId }))

The CLI compiles app/workers/** → .owear/workers/** and exposes OW_APP_WORKERS.

Block B — Protocol / data / OS

await app.protocol('scrakk-ext', {
  privileged: { secure: true, cors: true },
  handler: async () => new Response('<h1>hi</h1>', { headers: { 'content-type': 'text/html' } }),
})
await app.protocol('assets', { serve: '/path/to/dir' })

const { data, encrypted } = await safeStorage.encrypt('token')
const text = await safeStorage.decrypt(data)

await theme.setSource('dark')
theme.watch()   // ow.on('theme.changed', …)

session.onPermissionRequest(({ permission, origin }) => permission === 'geolocation')

webRequest.onBeforeRequest({ urls: ['*://example.com/*'] }, () => ({ cancel: true }))

Block C — App shell

C1 — app

Verified on Linux (paths, setPath, identity, commandLine, lifecycle events). On Windows, userData should be %LOCALAPPDATA%\<OW_APP_ID> and exe the owear.exe folder.

app.on('window-all-closed', () => console.log('window-all-closed'))
for (const n of ['home', 'userData', 'temp', 'logs', 'downloads', 'exe', 'appPath'])
  console.log('path', n, '=', app.getPath(n))
app.commandLine.appendSwitch('use-gl', 'angle')

C2 — dialog

Verified on Linux (modal dialogs, not automatable). Windows compiles (IFileDialog + TaskDialogIndirect).

await ow.invoke('dialog', 'showOpenDialog', { properties: ['openFile', 'multiSelections'] })
await ow.invoke('dialog', 'showSaveDialog', { defaultPath: 'x.txt' })
await ow.invoke('dialog', 'showMessageBox', { type: 'question', message: 'Continue?', buttons: ['Yes', 'No'] })

C3 — webContents

Verified on Linux (did-finish-load, capturePage, getURL, send).

const wc = win.webContents
wc.on('did-finish-load', () => {})
const img = await wc.capturePage()
wc.setWindowOpenHandler(() => ({ action: 'deny' }))

C4 — nativeImage

Verified on Linux (SDK tests) and Windows (pure Node).

const img = nativeImage.createFromPath('icon.png')
img.resize({ width: 16 }).toPNG()
img.toDataURL()

C5 — Menu

Verified on Linux (GTK popup with roles/checkbox/radio); the menubar is a no-op by design. Accelerators are display-only in v1.

C6 — Tray

On Linux, the kernel uses native StatusNotifierItem. Modern GNOME needs the appindicator extension; see Linux platform notes.

C7 — theme

Linux: read + events ✅; forcing is limited (WebKitGTK). Windows: forcing works via WebView2 PreferredColorScheme.

C8 — print / printToPDF

Linux supports print (dialog) and printToPDF (rasterized via Cairo). Windows compiles real print + printToPDF.

C9 — BrowserWindow

Verified on Linux (state, onTop, progress, min/max, getAllWindows, getFocusedWindow, fromId).

C10 — screen and powerMonitor

Verified on Linux (displays/cursor/nearest/matching, idle/state/battery, watch, blockers, X11/GDK events).

Manual event check: connect/disconnect a monitor or change its resolution → a screen.added/removed/changed line should appear. Suspend the machine or switch AC/battery → power.*. On Windows, locking the session → power.lock/unlock.

Still to document here

• Concrete starter buttons/panels per subsystem.
• Session partitions and webRequest.
• Windows testing of everything marked 🟡 (once hardware is available).