WebUI Hybrid Rendering

SoulSync's web UI is in a transition phase:

most pages still render through the legacy vanilla JS shell
/issues is rendered by the new React app
a small shell bridge keeps both runtimes aware of the active page, profile context, and navigation state

How It Fits Together

flowchart LR
    Browser["Browser parses /webui/index.html"]
    Legacy["Legacy shell scripts\n(core.js -> ... -> init.js)"]
    Bridge["shell-bridge.js\nwindow.SoulSyncWebShellBridge"]
    React["Vite React app\nsrc/app/main.tsx"]
    Router["TanStack Router\nwindow.SoulSyncWebRouter"]

    Browser --> Legacy
    Browser --> React
    Legacy --> Bridge
    React --> Router
    Router --> Bridge
    Bridge --> Legacy

Runtime Roles

webui/static/init.js
- boots the legacy shell
- selects the active profile
- handles the old page activation flow
webui/static/shell-bridge.js
- owns the browser-side bridge object
- exposes window.SoulSyncWebShellBridge
- syncs page chrome between legacy and React
webui/src/app/main.tsx
- mounts the React app
- binds window.SoulSyncWebRouter
webui/src/platform/shell/route-controllers.tsx
- listens for bridge readiness
- keeps React pages aligned with the shell

Load Order

The current order in index.html matters:

legacy shell scripts load first
init.js sets up the shell runtime
shell-bridge.js publishes the shell bridge after those helpers exist
the Vite React app is injected through {{ vite_assets('body') }} and boots as a module after parsing

That order avoids load-time references to missing globals and keeps the React side able to react to bridge readiness events. The React entry can start fetching early, but the shell bridge and legacy globals are already available by the time the React runtime starts acting on them.

Notes

The bridge is intentionally small and browser-only.
This is the start of the migration, not a full replacement of the legacy shell.
When adding another React page, check whether it needs:
- a route entry in webui/src/platform/shell/route-manifest.ts
- bridge typings in webui/src/platform/shell/globals.d.ts
- a legacy fallback path in webui/static/init.js
- bridge glue or handoff logic in webui/static/shell-bridge.js

Development

The recommended dev flow keeps the backend and frontend separate:

Start the Python backend:
```
gunicorn -c gunicorn.dev.conf.py wsgi:application
```
The dev Gunicorn config watches backend files and restarts the Python server when they change.
Start the Vite dev server in another terminal:
```
cd webui
npm ci
npm run dev -- --host 127.0.0.1 --port 5173
```
Vite hot reloads the React side when you change webui files.

For linting and formatting, use:

npm run check
npm run fix

If you want a convenience wrapper, the repo root also includes ./dev.sh. It starts both halves together and is most useful on Linux, macOS, and WSL.

3 KiB Raw Blame History