# Developer Tips

Welcome to the Firefly developer tips! Here you will find all sorts of helpful information for general things across the codebase.

It is likely that you will NOT have to re-compile the backend (NodeJS or Capacitor) bindings, unless you have either changed or modified specific "bridge" functions (like this one).

If simply making changes to Svelte component files, it is not usually required to fully refresh the development instance (it is typically refreshed for you).

In some cases, the changes can cause unrecoverable errors unless you refresh via the developer console. This usually happens when changing imports or adding a new Svelte file.

If making changes within the TypeScript library files, it is usually necessary to refresh the development instance via the console so load the changes.

If editing files that are imported within packages/desktop, then it will be necessary to fully rebuild and restart the development instance. In particular, the following files require rebuilding:

• shared/lib/core/shell/*.ts
• shared/lib/core/validation/*.ts

To add a new (SVG-based) icon for use in the application, simply create a new object entry here.

Most entries here simply include width, height, and path properties, however please be sure that whatever icon you are adding contains all of the necessary SVG data to be displayed correctly (e.g. fillRules, clipRules, strokeWidth).

If the icon is still not displaying properly, it is likely that it was either exported incorrectly or can be flattened in the design software before being exported.

There are a few steps to add a settings component to the Settings menu in Firefly:

• Add your component to the correct folder under packages/shared/routes/dashboard/settings/views
• Add an export statement to the barrel import/export file in the directory of your new component
• Add your component to the settings of the file with the same name as the settings (e.g. Advance.svelte for the advanced setting)
• Add your route enum to the appropriate settings route in packages/shared/lib/core/router/enums/routes.ts
• Add the correct title and additional texts to the view property in packages/shared/locales/en.json for the translations.
• Add an appropriate icon topackages/shared/lib/typings/icons.ts

There are a few steps besides just creating the component file before it can work in Firefly:

• Add an export statement to the barrel import/export file in the directory of your new component
• Add the correct route value to the appropriate enum in packages/shared/lib/typings/routes.ts
• Add the correct HTML (Route nested with <Page> element) in packages/desktop/App.svelte
• Change logic as needed in routerNext in packages/shared/lib/router.ts

wallet.rs has an actor interface, which makes it easy to call functions via messages. To expose a new function one needs to add it to the MessageType and ResponseType enums in wallet.rs/src/actor/message.rs and to the handle method inside of impl WalletMessageHandler { in wallet.rs/src/actor/mod.rs. An example can be seen in this commit.

Firefly uses wallet.rs in the backend to handle functionality around value-based transfers. See its README for the required dependencies.

Log files are often required to debug wallet.rs issues. They can be found in the following folders:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Roaming\Firefly\logs
• MacOS: $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Firefly/logs
• Linux: ~/.config/Firefly/logs

For developer/alpha/beta builds you have to look for Electron/'Firefly - Alpha'/'Firefly - Beta' respectively.

There may be times when Firefly just won't seem to compile correctly or you're getting an uncommon error while using it. If you get a blank electron application, reloading the electron application (MacOS: Cmd+R, Linux/Windows: Ctrl+R) might solve your issue. Another approach is updating the yarn dependencies:

# in root dir
yarn

When developing on Firefly, it is possible that your heap runs out of memory. This has to do with the heap space nodeJS allocates (on Linux this is 2048MB). Setting the heap space to 4096MB fixes this issue. Add the following line to your ~/.bashrc file: export NODE_OPTIONS=--max_old_space_size=4096.

To debug what's going on in the backend you can add

Wallet.initLogger({
    color_enabled: true,
    name: 'wallet.log',
    level_filter: 'debug'
})

in desktop/electron/preload.js after const Wallet = binding. Debug logs will then be added to the wallet.log file in the same location where Firefly or the Electron / Capacitor development instance is installed.

If you want to reset Firefly your profiles are stored in the following places on the different OS'es for the official release:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Roaming\Firefly\__storage__/
• MacOS: $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Firefly/__storage__/
• Linux: ~/.config/Firefly/__storage__/

For developer/alpha/beta builds you have to look for Electron/'Firefly - Alpha'/'Firefly - Beta' respectively.