Replace ElectronJS file dialogs by custom React components

[mkoskim]

Background

Python Mawe has its own component to choose files. That was made to enable searching and other features not present in most systems' native file open/save dialogs.

For MaweJS, to get the first usable versions done, I made a bridge to call ElectronJS file dialogs to choose and save files.

Why?

In long run, the goal is that you can also edit files in cloud servers. For that purpose, we need to abstract filesystems so that no matter if the file is in local drive, google drive or dropbox, you can load, edit and save it.

That is the reason why ElectronJS backend is stupidly simple. It is mainly a "server-side" access to local filesystem and nothing more. Close everything is happening at the client side.

Furthermore, in long run, it is possible that I make MaweJS as a browser application. As you know, long time ago it was possible to give client code running in a browser permissions to access local file systems. But it is not possible anymore. So, in any case, we will need a custom made, client-side component to choose files.

Prework

There is an old implementation for choosing files in this directory:

https://github.com/mkoskim/mawejs/tree/4bcb47f8a9ea1164cdf5711badac83b356039213/src/gui/filebrowser

[mkoskim]

That is the reason why ElectronJS backend is stupidly simple. It is mainly a "server-side" access to local filesystem and nothing more. Close everything is happening at the client side.

Just to show this. ElectronJS main process side has three different modules accessible through IPC:

1. ipcdispatch.js: This file has all the possible IPC calls from browser side to ElectronJS host system: https://github.com/mkoskim/mawejs/blob/4bcb47f8a9ea1164cdf5711badac83b356039213/public/backend/ipcdispatch.js
2. hostapp.js: This file gives MaweJS information about what it is: https://github.com/mkoskim/mawejs/blob/4bcb47f8a9ea1164cdf5711badac83b356039213/public/backend/hostapp.js
3. hostdialog.js: This file gives MaweJS access to host system dialogs: https://github.com/mkoskim/mawejs/blob/4bcb47f8a9ea1164cdf5711badac83b356039213/public/backend/hostdialog.js
4. hostfs.js: This file gives MaweJS access to local file system: https://github.com/mkoskim/mawejs/blob/4bcb47f8a9ea1164cdf5711badac83b356039213/public/backend/hostfs.js

ElectronJS is therefore mainly for creating the browser window and give access to local filesystem.