At the moment when a user tries to open a folder that is not a DAR, the dialog window with an error message ERROR:/home/aleksandra/Stencila/desktop/build is not a valid document archive. is the same size as the Desktop window and actually it's rendered in the same place. This may be confusing for a user who may not realize that all that is needed is just to close the window with the error message and the Desktop is just underneath it.
If possible, the error message should be in a small(er) dialog box.

Hi All,
Each time I want to install Stencila desktop from the source, in Mac (10.13.4, Mac OS High Sierra), I need to issue:

npm install --python=python2.7

Otherwise the installation fails at [email protected]
The other thing is, with post install, I need to do something like:

npm install electron

otherwise the postinstallation does not work. Can you kindly fix these issues?

Probably related to electron/electron#12061

npm install says it can't find Python on Windows 10 even though the executable is exactly where npm claims it cannot find it.
Resetting PYTHONPATH and PYTHON, restart etc. doesn't help.

Trying to solve it via https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows as suggested by @oliver---- (via @nokome ).

Update: node-gyp installed no problem. Now, new error:

MSBUILD : error MSB3428: Could not load the Visual C++ component "VCBuild.exe". To fix this, 1) install the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK, 2) install Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 3) add the location of the component to the system path if it is installed elsewhere.

Function helper tool-tips appear when functions are typed into code cells.

When you click the "?" to open the help slide-out menu, everything in the editor is shifted left except the help tool-tip that was shown by mousing over the function.

I just installed Stencila Desktop. The moment I start typing, the program immediately starts to glitch. The Enter Title section never disappears, and there are multiple cursors present everywhere. The backspace button doesn't work properly. (See screen shot attachment below)

The OS X binary release should be signed with an Apple developer key. As @rgbkrk said well in dat-ecosystem-archive/dat-desktop#120 it "relieves new users of additional points of friction with new tools".

Look into how similar projects do it:

• https://github.com/nteract/nteract/blob/master/RELEASING.md#macos
• dat-ecosystem-archive/dat-desktop#120

Right now the various Stencila packages rely on third party binaries like Pandoc and Git (although libgit2 bindings are sometimes used as an alternative). This desktop app should provide non-coders an easy way to install those dependencies - at the minimum some easy to follow instructions, at the maximum an automated install.

For inspiration see

• @sethvincent 's https://github.com/sethvincent/dev-env-status - an Electron app that helps setup Node, NPM, Git etc
• how RStudio installs Pandoc : https://github.com/rstudio/rstudio/blob/1a6200903f6d245aaa921e7dcb70f314ae3dd41e/dependencies/common/install-pandoc
• how pypandoc installs Pandoc : https://github.com/bebraw/pypandoc/blob/master/pypandoc/pandoc_download.py

Currently we have installation instructions here: https://github.com/stencila/stencila/wiki/Getting-started but they are missing a Windows section. Also, all those instructions should probably get moved here, into the README.

A converted example includes a large (>13MB, >5K records) sheet (converted from plain csv). Opening the dar in Desktop results in blank Desktop screen and no feedback. It's still possible to close the Desktop window but it should:

• display a message "file too large" OR
• (in case it actually can open a Sheet of that size) display a message "please wait"

Some people would like and unistaller which removes the desktop app and any app data. See what other Electron apps do for this: https://www.google.com/search?q=electron+uninstall

References are saved erratically. Sometimes they are not saved at all (I have a manuscript being edited that I can send you for testing that replicates this).

With newly created empty files, references with only their title field filled out are saved but said title is missing when reopening the file. In one instance when reopening the file I got the following error:

    Importing JATS
    Parse XML
    Validate JATS
    <element-citation> is incomplete. Schema: (inline-supplementary-material|related-article|related-object|hr|string-date|bold|fixed-case|italic|monospace|overline|overline-start|overline-end|roman|sans-serif|sc|strike|underline|underline-start|underline-end|ruby|alternatives|inline-graphic|private-char|chem-struct|inline-formula|label|tex-math|mml:math|abbrev|milestone-end|milestone-start|named-content|styled-content|annotation|article-title|chapter-title|collab|collab-alternatives|comment|conf-acronym|conf-date|conf-loc|conf-name|conf-sponsor|data-title|date|date-in-citation|day|edition|email|elocation-id|etal|ext-link|fpage|gov|institution|institution-wrap|isbn|issn|issn-l|issue|issue-id|issue-part|issue-title|lpage|month|name|name-alternatives|object-id|page-range|part-title|patent|person-group|pub-id|publisher-loc|publisher-name|role|season|series|size|source|std|string-name|supplement|trans-source|trans-title|uri|version|volume|volume-id|volume-series|year|fn|target|xref|sub|sup|x)+
    <element-citation publication-type="data">
    </element-citation>
    Transform JATS -> TextureArticle
    Validate Dar Article
    Transform TextureArticle -> InternalArticle
    Validate Texture Article

Essentially saving behavior is erratic. Unless I'm doing something wrong I deem this issue as blocking/very high priority since it makes using stencila on real manuscript drafting impossibile!

Steps to reproduce:

• Open "Add Reference(s)" modal
• click any of the manual types to open the associated modal.
• click "cancel"
• the modal closes and returns to the editor

I would expect clicking "cancel" to close the new modal and return to the initial "Add Reference(s)" modal.

Just a note to remember to add these when the separate builds are ready.

Not 'Desktopissue per se but may be reported by users trying to runnpm install` and getting the error

npm ERR! code ERR_STREAM_WRITE_AFTER_END
npm ERR! write after end

See npm issue So far the solution looks to be downgrading npm to 5.6.0 (as reported by several people)

npm install --global [email protected]

Upgrading to 6.0 is a better idea but several people reported it didn't work for them.

A newly opened Stencila Sheet has 10 rows and 21 columns. When copy-pasting more than 10 rows / 21 columns from another spreadsheet application, the data gets truncated to these 10 rows / 21 columns. A user will expect the data to be all copied and Stencila Sheet to automatically add more rows columns.

Temporary solution could adding at least a warning ("Only 10 first rows / 21 columns will be copied").

In the dev console I can see this:

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, copyfile 'C:\Users\Oliver\AppData\Local\Programs\stencila-desktop\resources\app.asar\bundle\lib\stencila\examples\blank\sheet.xml' -> 'C:\Users\Oliver\tmp\bla\sheet.xml'

The folder app.asar is missing.

Can you please supply instructions for downloading and installing the latest desktop on Linux? Do I install the tar.gz and then the desktop? Or if it is just the desktop AppImage file, then what do I use to install it? My laptop is suggesting ParPy? Not sure what kind of package it is so I can't tell.

When typing code in a cell that has a selected execution context currently unavailable the error message keeps "blinking" - that is, it is not visible when one is typing but it shows up when a user stops typing. Probably would be better for consistency to have it on all the time (it would also keep reminding the user which context they set they cell in).

Useful but not critical and possibly related to stencila/stencila#641

Windows builds should be signed. Without signing, users get an installation warning "The publisher could not be verfied".

Also, unsigned builds may be lead anti-virus programs to quarantine the app (e.g McAffee LiveSafe as reported here) VirusTotal does not detect any issues with the 0.27.4 Windows build so a lack of code signing is likely to be to blame.

This is equivalent to issue #18 which is for signing Mac builds. See https://www.electron.build/code-signing for instructions on setting up both.

It's uncommon and looks a bit weird (especially on OSX). Better put white explicitly.

ERROR:Cannot read property 'data' of undefined

The variables from one unsaved document is accessible from another unsaved document. This creates problems when creating visualisations with matplotlib.

Current Behaviour

Variable created in document X is accessible in document Y. Both documents weren't save.

Expected Behaviour

Variable created in document X is only accessible in documentX.

How to reproduce

1. Open Stencila.
2. Create one reproducible picture with matplotlib
3. Create a new document.
4. Create another reproducible picture with matplotlib

After opening the hello-world.dar (converted from hello-world.source), the cell menu option Force output is unavailable.

This bug seems to be coming up when there is unhandled error:
A code cell became inactive ('dead'). You can see below that the green border is thin - normally it should be 'fat' on the side and there should be some kind of output.
The solution is to create a new cell and rewrite the code in it. Or even restart the context (R or Python).

Possibly confusing for users but not critical.
If a user goes straight into opening an existing DAR from newly launched Stencila Desktop, a blank document is still open (which opens by default when launching Stencila). This may be confusing for users as most software does not have the blank file (document, spreadsheet etc) still available after a user opened an existing file.
(Hope I managed to explain what I meant)

At the moment Stencila allows for duplicate names for Sheets and Articles (i.e. there may be multiple sheets with the same name). This may lead to problems when referencing sheets (connecting with data). Also other spreadsheet applications don't allow for duplicates so we should be consistent.

Currently, when you install the desktop app, some user guide Documents are installed on the system. Right now they are stored to the user's "Documents" folder e.g. ~/Documents on Linux. It may be better to put these (an other document buffers) in places specifically meant for app data e.g. AppData on Mac, ~/.local on Linux. And wherever they are put, they should get removed on uninstall see #13 .

Once I launch Desktop on my Ubuntu, an additional application icon (though without actual logo) appears in the menu bar:

Also when checking for Unity Launcher for Stencila (following https://askubuntu.com/questions/894990/how-to-change-an-icon-in-16-04)
locate .desktop | grep stencila returns nothing (whilst it does return path to .*desktop files for other applications.

After a code cell is added as the last line, I am unable to add any kind of text after the cell.

Furthermore, if I open a new article and immediately add a code cell, I cannot add paragraph text after or before the cell.

In the main menu Help -> Learn more links to electron website User would probably expect it to link to Stencila website.

Hello, just trying to launch the appImage for the Linux Desktop app under Fedora 27 64bit. Unfortunately, after initially popping up a window to ask for setting up to work alongside the desktop, the app core dumped. Now if I try and run it again, it immediately coredumps...
The initial error was a Javascript error
Tried via sudo - same sequence as when launched as a normal user. Window popped up, I selected yes, it crashed.

Interestingly, I have 5 seperated .mount_stenci..... files in /tmp which I do not have permission to read as sudo! And a .mount_stenciJDVlVp directory. I can't delete any of them in this current desktop session. I will reboot and see if that unlocks anything.
Files gone from /tmp on reboot. But appImage launch still fails immediately. Output from ls -al /tmp/.mount_stencip7zyQw/
ls: /tmp/.mount_stencip7zyQw/: Transport endpoint is not connected

It's primarily a converter problem (stencila/encoda#20) but maybe the Desktop could be more robust to it:

Opening a dar with converted sheets (from simple csv) results with ERROR:Invalid dimension: row... has ... cells, expected ...., eg ERROR:Invalid dimension: row 2 has 11 cells, expected 12.

The code cell menu opened by clicking the 3 vertical dots does not close unless you click an item in the menu or somewhere in the code input area of the cell. I would expect the menu to close when the user clicks anywhere off the menu.

Furthermore, the menu stays open when clicking items in the menu.

this allows the user to "cycle" through the various languages...although I am not sure how useful such a behavior is or if this was intentional.

The desktop file is lacking a Categories= entry in the *.desktop file.

According to the menu spec,

By including one of the Main Categories in an application's desktop entry file, the application will be ensured that it will show up in a section of the application menu dedicated to this category. If multiple Main Categories are included in a single desktop entry file, the entry may appear more than once in the menu.

Hence, please add at least one of the following in the Categories= key.

In addition, you could specify one or more from the longer list of Additional Categories.

Please test the result with desktop-file-validate and make sure it passes.

electron-builder offers native support for this since v19.22.1.

Reference: AppImage/appimage.github.io#2

Sweet to try out Stencila desktop!

For all the links in the document, you should make sure to use shell.openExternal for all external links. It's either that or ensuring the window being opened doesn't have node access. Check the console on the link to gitter in the welcome notebook -- you and, by extension gitter, have access to the user's computer remotely.

Within nteract we setup a listener on the will-navigate event: https://github.com/nteract/nteract/blob/6383c940f38017088ff3612c2ff3f2d072055983/src/main/launch.js#L46

We should have automated builds on Travis (MacOS & Linux) and Appveyor (Windows) creating binaries and uploading then to Github releases for each tagged release. See:

https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/wiki/Multi-Platform-Build
https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/wiki/Publishing-Artifacts

https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/deployment/releases/
dat-ecosystem-archive/dat-desktop#63

We should probably consider how allowing for special characters in sheet and article naming may impact referencing them.
Google Spreadsheets seems to allow special characters such as [ ] * /
However, Libre Office and Excel don't allow [ ] * ? : / \

How should we go about this one?

As per the gif below - Desktop throws an error when trying to use Save as, after the document has been already saved in the same location. There is no way to enter a custom name for the file (change the name, as usually Save as works).
When trying to use Save as for the first time - there is no error but there is also no way to change the name.
The error doesn't come up when using bundled application.

It is unclear for when (and whether) it is better to use Desktop by running npm start or the bundled release. (I myself am not sure :-( )

When trying to save document from the menu or by Ctrl+S shortcut, Desktop opens Save as dialog window.

Reload re-opens with a clean new Stencila document not giving any warning about it. Any unsaved changes are lost.

The word Reload can also be confusing. The user may expect that it will just refresh the document / restart connections to execution contexts etc. Maybe Reset would be better?

Using asar was causing issues (e.g. #50) but now we are diabling it, electron-builder is warning us that "asar using is disabled — it is strongly not recommended solution=enable asar and use asarUnpack to unpack files that must be externally available".

This hints at the problem perhaps, the embedded DAR server was unable to access the files when using asar. Using asarUnpack, whatever that is, may remedy that.

After copy-pasting data (cells) from another spreadsheet programme (Libre Office), can't switch back to the article tab.
Also the click brings up the submenu (Remove).

When typing paragraph text in a new article, pressing the return key (n > 0 times) does not move the cursor until new text is typed

• type text, press return n times > cursor does not move (it should)
• type text, press "return n times", type text > text appears after return(s) (this is good and expected behavior)

Brand new build on Ubuntu 16.04 of Desktop 0.28

1. Trying to open https://github.com/stencila/stencila/tree/develop/examples/kitchen-sink or https://github.com/stencila/stencila/tree/develop/examples/mini gives
   ERROR:Could not find <dar> element.

2. Trying to open a dar created from a simple Markdown (eg. https://github.com/stencila/examples/tree/master/mtcars/mtcars.dar) using stencila convert gives:
   ERROR:Cannot read property 'hasPendingChanges' of undefined

3. Trying to open https://github.com/stencila/examples/tree/master/intermine/tutorials.dar gives
   ERROR:Cannot read property 'rest' of undefined