The Navigator is a web-app that connects to any Digital Asset ledger and allows the user to inspect contracts, create contracts, and exercise choices.

The Navigator can be used in development mode (see below) or packaged into a "fat" JAR that includes the compiled frontend assets for distribution.

To build a "fat" JAR of the Navigator that includes the pre-compiled front-end assets, run:

bazel build //navigator:navigator-binary_deploy.jar

This produces a "fat" JAR dist/navigator-x.x.x.jar which can be run with:

java -jar dist/navigator-x.x.x.jar

Notable things in the Navigator build:

Manually written, must be consistent with backend/src/main/scala/com/digitalasset/navigator/graphql/GraphQLSchema.scala. Consistency is checked in a test.

Generated from backend/src/test/resources/schema.graphql with an external codegen tool. Currently, these files are checked in and updated with make update-graphql-types.

Code from frontend/src/**/*.ts*, compiled using TypeScript, and bundled with Webpack. Output includes:

• bundle-[hash].js: bundled frontend code, name uses content hasing.
• browsercheck-[hash].js: tiny module for checking browser compatibility, name uses content hasing.
• Several image and font files, referenced by the above modules. File names use content hashing.
• index.html: Single page application main entry, references the above modules.

Note: Browsers are instructed never to cache index.html, and indefinitely cache all other files. This is why content hashing is used.

The current git commit and the Navigator version is hardcoded in the bundled frontend code. As part of the build process, Webpack replaces the __BUILD_VERSION__ and __BUILD_COMMIT__ identifiers in the source code by values specified in webpack.config.js.

Scala binary, compiled as a fat JAR. Code from backend/src/**/*.scala, bundled frontend code is copied to backend/src/main/resources/frontend.

The backend uses the "com.eed3si9n" % "sbt-buildinfo" plugin to generate a Scala file containing the app version and build commit.

For developing frontend code, webpack-dev-server is used. This serves the current frontend code on a separate port, and does:

• Watch *.ts files for changes
• Perform incremental builds
• Send a push notification to the browser, automatically reloading the page when the build is finished.
• Forward network requests to a different port, where a Navigator backend is expected to run.

This is orders of magnitude faster than what the current Bazel build offers, so it is desirable to keep the webpack-dev-server setup working.

To publish a "fat" JAR of the Navigator that includes the pre-compiled front-end assets, bump the version in backend/build.sbt and then run:

make publish

This uploads a "fat" JAR to the libs-releases-local repo on Artifactory.

To deploy Navigator on a server, first get a "fat" JAR using one of the following options:

• Build Navigator from source (see above)
• Download Navigator from the libs-releases-local repo on Artifactory
• Download the Digital Asset SDK, which includes the Navigator

Once you have the JAR file, run it as described in the Building Navigator section.

To modify the Navigator (frontend) you need to set up the same Artifactory access as per the UI framework section above. You also need to run both a ledger and the backend as per above. To then run the Navigator in development mode on http://localhost:8000/:

cd frontend
yarn install
yarn start

To learn more about developing the different parts of the Navigator see:

• Navigator Frontend README
• Navigator Backend README