Trying to contribute, but unable to get heart/ts built

[snowe2010]

The build docs for heart and ts seem to be really really old. https://github.com/anyproto/anytype-heart/blob/develop/docs/Build.md says on mac that a 'recent breakage' on protobuf caused issues and to install protobuf@3. Protobuf 3 in brew has been disabled (https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/protobuf@3) so it's no longer possible to install with brew, and this also seems like a really really old version to install.

anytype-ts has these instructions: https://github.com/anyproto/anytype-ts/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#-building-from-source

which state to do a make build in anytype-heart, but anytype-heart gives make: Nothing to be done for build'.`

anytype-ts also has a dependency on python 3.11, and will fail if built on 3.12, due to a node-gyp dependency on distutils.

Switching to python 3.11, building with signature checking turned off, and then running with run start:dev just results in a running web server on localhost:8080. Opening that page just results in a blank white page with a browser error:

Uncaught TypeError: can't access property "app", electron.version is undefined
    tsx app.tsx:97
    __webpack_require__ main.js:847846
    fn hot_module_replacement:60
    tsx main.js:773271
    __webpack_require__ main.js:847846
    <anonymous> main.js:849027
    <anonymous> main.js:849028

Turns out you need to do run start:dev and you need to do a npm run electron in a different console to actually open the app for testing.

---

Two questions here:

1. is protobuf@3 really the correct version to use still? if so contributors are going to have to start building it from source.
2. How do you actually run the electron app on mac without having to build and install it every time. currently it seems like I'm going to have to install the dmg every single time.

supplementary questions:

1. are there any more 'modern' build instructions?
2. where is discussion about development happening? I can't find any discussion on development. I have found the discussions page here, and the forum at https://community.anytype.io

[ra3orblade]

Hello, I've fixed the docs, usually you do not need to make a build for development workflow. You just go into anytype-heart directory, pull required branch or create your own, by default now it's develop and build binary and protos with make install-dev-js. After that you switch to anytype-ts and launch the client with SERVER_PORT=8080 npm run start:dev, nothing else is required.

Regarding protobuf I use

/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/bin/protoc
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/include/google/ (127 files)
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/lib/libprotobuf-lite.31.dylib
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/lib/libprotobuf.31.dylib
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/lib/libprotoc.31.dylib
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/lib/pkgconfig/ (2 files)
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/lib/python3.11/ (53 files)
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/lib/python3.12/ (53 files)
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/lib/ (6 other files)
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/sbom.spdx.json
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/share/emacs/site-lisp/protobuf@3/protobuf-mode.el
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/protobuf@3/3.20.3/share/protobuf@3/ (22 files)

[snowe2010]

More updates: so if I instead run npm ci (after removing node-modules) instead of pnpm i and then run the npm start command, I get past many of the strange package errors, but I still get all the type errors

ERROR in ./src/ts/lib/api/mapper.ts:1233:13
TS2748: Cannot access ambient const enums when 'isolatedModules' is enabled.
    1231 |                      if (v == V.CHATUPDATEMESSAGESYNCSTATUS)  t = 'ChatUpdateMessageSyncStatus';
    1232 |
  > 1233 |                      if (v == V.SPACEAUTOWIDGETADDED)                 t = 'SpaceAutoWidgetAdded';
         |                               ^
    1234 |
    1235 |                      return t;
    1236 |              },

This seems to be due to the fact that sveltekit enables isolatedModules by default, but you are unable to override that since sveltekit needs it. This was a mistake on my part, I was changing the wrong project.

I get these errors on both my mac and my linux box. I do not understand how this is working for anyone else.

[snowe2010]

Finally got it working on my linux box. Had to pull the newest version of just the grpc-web binary and use that rather than trying to build an old version with make. Then I set mise to use protobuf 27.1. I was then able to run make setup-protoc and make install-dev-js. Finally I had to add ts-ignores to all the errors in the mapper.ts file in anytype-ts to get rid of all the errors with typescript there.

[ra3orblade]

This seems to be due to the fact that sveltekit enables isolatedModules by default, but you are unable to override that since sveltekit needs it.

I did not get this line, I use standard VSCode with TypeScript support, ts-ignore is a very last thing to do as usually there are no type check errors with the current ts-config.

[snowe2010]

I'm getting that on two different platforms from the cli, so I don't think vscode will have anything to do with it. I'm guessing it's a difference in versions somehow, even though I switched to just installing with npm ci.

Ignore the part about sveltekit, I was somehow editing a different project without realizing it. That was a mistake on my part.

If I leave isolatedModules enabled in anytype-ts, then I get two main types of errors.

ERROR in ./src/ts/lib/api/mapper.ts:9:13
  × Error: TS2475: 'const' enums can only be used in property or index access expressions or the right hand side of an import declaration or export assignment or type query.
  │      7 |
  │      8 | 	BlockType: (v: Model.Block.ContentCase): I.BlockType => {
  │   >  9 | 		const V = Model.Block.ContentCase;
  │        | 		          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  │     10 |
  │     11 | 		let t = I.BlockType.Empty;
  │     12 | 		if (v == V.SMARTBLOCK)			 t = I.BlockType.Page;
ERROR in ./src/ts/lib/api/mapper.ts:9:13
  × Error: TS2748: Cannot access ambient const enums when 'isolatedModules' is enabled.
  │      7 |
  │      8 | 	BlockType: (v: Model.Block.ContentCase): I.BlockType => {
  │   >  9 | 		const V = Model.Block.ContentCase;
  │        | 		          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  │     10 |
  │     11 | 		let t = I.BlockType.Empty;
  │     12 | 		if (v == V.SMARTBLOCK)			 t = I.BlockType.Page;

both occurring multiple times.

If I disable isolatedModules (false) then I get only one kind of error:

ERROR in ./src/ts/lib/api/mapper.ts:44:13
TS2475: 'const' enums can only be used in property or index access expressions or the right hand side of an import declaration or export assignment or type query.
    42 |
    43 |        NotificationPayload (v: Model.Notification.PayloadCase) {
  > 44 |                const V = Model.Notification.PayloadCase;
       |                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    45 |
    46 |                let t = '';
    47 |                if (v == V.IMPORT)                       t = 'import';

I then have to modify each BlockType in the mapper.ts file like this:

	BlockType: (v: Model.Block.ContentCase): I.BlockType => {
		// @ts-expect-error idk
		const V = Model.Block.ContentCase;

to add // @ts-expect-error

Only then does the electron window actually load without typescript errors.

@ra3orblade I would like to make some PRs to update the documentation, but I do not have access to the url to update my pre-commit hook so I can't even push to my own branch. Is there a link to public documentation for how I can update my pre-commit hooks? I don't want to just bypass your checks for the hook in case I've missed something.

[ra3orblade]

Sorry for missing your reply, completely busy with the upcoming release. It's weird that your typescript shows these errors as my does allow such behaviour. I will change the code a bit later so it won't trigger this error or you can allow it in the config somehow.

Which pre-commit hook do you mean? Desktop pre-commit hook is in the repo, it checks linter and package licenses only, while anytype-heart checks commit message to contain the task id in the tracker. In general you can ignore both, they are pure formality in most cases. In Desktop you can just run the linter manually and check your staged files, if you do not add any new packages then it's not required to do a license check.