web5design / backtick Goto Github PK

Backtick is a console for bookmarklets and scripts, packaged as a Chrome extension. For a better explanation, try out the demo at backtick.io/. The extension is free to use, but it will occasionally nag you to install the $5 Backtick license.

MIT Licensed 2013 Joel Besada

The code is open for you to play around with and contribute to, if you wish. Here's some instructions on how to get up and running.

To compile Backtick, you'll need to install the following dependencies on your system:

• Node.js
• Grunt
• Bower
• Compass

With that installed, run these two commands to download the NPM and Bower packages:

  npm install
  bower install

To build all the files, just run grunt in the root folder. This will put all built files into the dist/ folder.

To load the built extension files from the dist/ folder into Chrome, follow these instructions.

You can also use grunt serve if you want to run the code inside a web page instead of an extension. This gives you an option to more quickly develop "front-end" features of Backtick, with auto compiling and live reloading. You can't test any extension-specific code with this, however.

There are a couple of tests in the test/ folder. Use grunt test to run this on a web page. This also uses live reload, so you can write code or new tests and the page will automatically refresh.

If you'd like to use Vagrant instead, there is a Vagrantfile for setting everything up for building the extension. If you haven't already, download Vagrant and VirtualBox, and then do the following:

git clone https://github.com/JoelBesada/Backtick.git
cd Backtick
vagrant up

After making changes to the source files, you can rebuild dist/ as follows:

# either run it as one command:
vagrant ssh -- 'bash -l -c "cd /vagrant/ ; grunt build"'

# or do it interactively
vagrant ssh
cd /vagrant
grunt build

Because that's just something I like to do to contribute back to the community. It also forces me to write cleaner code. (Well, in theory at least.)

Yes, you absolutely could. That's why I've made it extra easy for you, just flip that boolean to true and you're good to go. However, a nicer option would be to actually buy the license to support the continued development of Backtick.