Improve the developer experience by choosing a UI framework or creating an API

This issue relates to a discussion had on twitter about adopting a frontend framework for easier development.

Original thread: https://twitter.com/nmdmatt/status/860206053048414209

Angular 2

I attempted to work Angular 2 into the project (seen here) but it is incomplete to say the least.

The main issue I ran into was that the frontend scripts could not access electron related data/objects.

Apparently systemjs overrides the require() function, which results in the inability to access node_modules- related stuff. There are a supposed work around or 3, but none of them have worked in my attempts.

This means that in an angular route or component, I couldn’t call fs = require('fs');, because systemjs would look in the wrong location and not find it.

I’ve seen a number of videos which show the interaction between angular2 to be easy, and without the issue around require(). They all use webpack.

If we’re to continue with angular, maybe we start from a working angular-electron skeleton, and rebuild the conductor functionality on top of it. I believe angular-cli uses webpack, and when using webpack we can use the cheat-code (video2, ~3:20m) to get it to import election.

Alternatively we look at another frontend framework.

[mglaman]

Vuetify works for me

[daggerhart]

Since we’ve chosen a js view layer for now, I’m wanting to get thoughts for next steps working with the UI.

1. Should we adopt a CSS framework to simplify implementation of design. Some options that jump out to me are:
   • Minimal: PureCSS - https://purecss.io/
   • Expansive: Vuetify (like bootstrap for vue.js, includes components) - https://vuetifyjs.com/
2. How would you like for me to proceed w/ UI work? Should I make mockups and submit them in the issue queue for approval? Or will PRs w/ screenshots be fine?

Edit: Because I’m a lazy developer, I’d vote for Vuetify for the CSS framework. I like material design okay, and there is value in the speed in which we could implement and have a great looking app.