GNOME JavaScript helpers

These helper modules are made to make working with GJS easier. Especially when you're coming from a node environment.

Currently these include,

• Promise implementation based on the ES6 spec.
• Polyfill for setTimeout and setInterval.
• Promise based library for working with files.
• Promise based library for fetching data over network.

Usage

Since I'm not aware of any good module architecture for GJS, you've to manually copy the files to your project directory and use them. Which means you'll miss on updates.

First you'll need to add the current directory to search path.

imports.searchPath.unshift(".");

Then, say you want to use the Promise library, place the promise.js file in a directory named helpers, and import it,

const Promise = imports.helpers.promise.Promise;

Now you have access to the Promise object for use.

let promise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    let file = Gio.File.new_for_path("/tmp/new_dir");

    file.make_directory_async(GLib.PRIORITY_DEFAULT, null, (source, res) => {
        resolve(source.make_directory_finish(res));
    });
});

promise.then(() => print("Directory created successfully!"));
promise.catch(() => print("Directory creation failed!"));

Note that the Promise library automatically catches synchronously thrown errors and the promise fails.

Running tests

Tests are written using a custom tool (included as litmus.js in the repo). To run tests, simply cd into the src directory and run the intended test file.

cd src
gjs promise-test.js