The repository contains several packages and apps:

• tns-core-modules - The core NativeScript TypeScript modules used to develop NativeScript apps.
• apps - UI app used for manual testing and automation.
• e2e - applications and e2e tests.
• tests - Unit tests app for the tns-core-modules.
• tns-platform-declarations - TypeScript definitions for Android and iOS native APIs.

Working with the repo is organized with npm scripts, go and read through the scripts section in the package.json.

Managing dependencies:

• tns-core-modules depends on:
  • tns-platform-declarations
• apps depends on:
  • tns-platform-declarations
  • tns-core-modules
• e2e depends on:
  • tns-core-modules
• tests depends on:
  • tns-platform-declarations
  • tns-core-modules

NOTE: tns-core-modules depends on tns-core-modules-widgets, this dependency contains native code and is rarely modified so for now it remains outside this repo.

Clone (or fork/clone) the repo:

git clone https://github.com/NativeScript/NativeScript.git

Install devDependencies:

npm install

cd ./tests
tns run android| ios

The test app is an ordinary NativeScript app that logs the test results as it go. After the initial setup you can run the tests with:

# Make sure TypeScript is transpiled
tsc

# Run the app
tns run ios --path apps
tns run android --path apps

The initial setup will npm-link the tns-core-modules globally. You can use it in any local project:

# Run once: Link tns-core-modules in your project
npm link tns-core-modules

# Run the app
tns run ios
tns run android

Note: You still have to rebuild the TypeScript if you have made changes in the code of the core-modules.

To update the platform declarations (the ios.d.ts-es) you can run:

npm install
npm run dev-declarations

This script will update the iOS declarations. Android tools are not integrated yet. The declarations are generated from the test app and will include the native code from tns-core-modules-widgets.

The following will build the API reference pages in bin/dist/apiref:

npm run typedoc

If you want to improve on the documentation you can also build and start up dev web server:

npm run dev-typedoc

The terminal will point the address you can open in your web browser.