NW.js v0.20.3 Released with Node.js v7.6.0, More Print Options and Better Proxy Support

[Roger Wang]

NW.js 0.20.3 is here with multiple bug fixes and more features on the stable branch. Node.js was updated to v7.6.0

• More print options: now you can customize the default print preview dialog by setting options and setting autoprint to false; change the header and footer by setting 'headerString' and 'footerString' options.
• Setting proxy PAC file url and auto proxy detection are supported.
• JS Source Protection: evalNWBin now accepts Buffer or ArrayBuffer besides path to file.
• nwuseragent feature was ported from 0.12 so you can change the user agent string for resource loading in iframes.

Please see the changelog for details.

Previously we launched 0.20 based on Chromium 56, which contains under-the-hood performance and stability tweaks, and some cool new features to explore like CSS position: sticky and Web Bluetooth. See the upstream announcement for more information. NW20 also features V8 5.6, which delivers a number of key improvements in memory and performance footprint, as well as Ignition and TurboFan pipeline for ES.next. This version is going to ship the WebAssembly browser preview, which is a new runtime and compilation target for the web. Please refer to the dedicated upstream blog post for further information.

Chromium 56 introduces an optimization to save CPU when tabs are in the background. It's done by throttling background tabs' timers. See this blog post for more information. If you don't want this in your NW.js application, you can use the --disable-raf-throttling switch to disable it.

We've been working on 3 branches simultaneously: a released branch on current Chromium stable, a beta branch on Chromium beta and a 0.14 branch for legacy OS support.

For more information on the new milestone 0.13 and later versions, please see our blog "What's New in 0.13" for a better introduction.

ChangeLog

• Update Node.js to v7.6.0
• Support passing Buffer or ArrayBuffer to evalNWBin (#5220)
• Support pac_url and auto proxy detection (#916)
• New print options: autoprint, headerString, footerString (#5702)
• Fix: nwuseragent not working after 0.13 (#5397)
• Fix: flash in embed or object tag not working using file protocol (#5706)
• Fix: multiple menu shortcuts issues (#5657)
• Disable resolving www.google.com in DNS predictor on startup
• [docs] upstream Windows build instructions has moved
• [docs] update for new features

Full ChangeLog: https://github.com/nwjs/nw.js/blob/nw20/CHANGELOG.md

Download

• https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.3/nwjs-v0.20.3-win-x64.zip
• https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.3/nwjs-v0.20.3-osx-x64.zip
• https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.3/nwjs-v0.20.3-linux-x64.tar.gz

SDK build:

• https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.3/nwjs-sdk-v0.20.3-win-x64.zip
• https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.3/nwjs-sdk-v0.20.3-osx-x64.zip
• https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.3/nwjs-sdk-v0.20.3-linux-x64.tar.gz

Binary for other platforms: https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.3/

There are 2 builds for each platform - normal build, and SDK build. Normal build doesn't have devtools, only SDK build does. lt can be opened by pressing F12 (Cmd-Alt-I on OSX). SDK packages also have more development tools to be exposed in the following releases, as well as the NaCl support.

Our build infrastructure enables live binary build from git tip so you can access to the latest binary from https://dl.nwjs.io/live-build/

Known issues

http://docs.nwjs.io/en/latest/For%20Users/Migration/From%200.12%20to%200.13/#known-issues