Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-10 Thread Gord Tanner
Do you get the prompt's for the calls to native?

If you do press cancel which will should allow things to boot up.

If not try opening your browser to *http://localhost:4400/
?enableRipple=cordova-3.0.0 http://emulate.phonegap.com/#*


On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 10:04 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 That's the thing - I can't get Ripple to load. I get the console.log
 infinite recursion thing I've gotten with PG for a while now. I literally
 can't get to a point where any HTML shows and the extension can take over.

 On 9/9/13 5:23 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey,
 
 got pulled off on some other stuff:
 
 Lets make sure you are not running an old copy of ripple:
 
  cordova create Baz
  cordova platform add android
  cordova prepare
  cd incubator-ripple
  jake
  ./bin/ripple emulate --path ../Baz/platforms/android/assets/www/
 
 Ensure that you have cordova 3.0.0 selected as the platform.




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-10 Thread Ray Camden
That's the thing - I can't get Ripple to load. I get the console.log
infinite recursion thing I've gotten with PG for a while now. I literally
can't get to a point where any HTML shows and the extension can take over.

On 9/9/13 5:23 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

Hey,

got pulled off on some other stuff:

Lets make sure you are not running an old copy of ripple:

 cordova create Baz
 cordova platform add android
 cordova prepare
 cd incubator-ripple
 jake
 ./bin/ripple emulate --path ../Baz/platforms/android/assets/www/

Ensure that you have cordova 3.0.0 selected as the platform.



Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-10 Thread Ray Camden
I can confirm it works. :)

Any way to bypass those alerts? (To be clear, it is easy enough for me to
do, but I worry about the folks new to Ripple.)



On 9/10/13 9:17 AM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

Do you get the prompt's for the calls to native?

If you do press cancel which will should allow things to boot up.

If not try opening your browser to *http://localhost:4400/
?enableRipple=cordova-3.0.0 http://emulate.phonegap.com/#*


On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 10:04 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 That's the thing - I can't get Ripple to load. I get the console.log
 infinite recursion thing I've gotten with PG for a while now. I
literally
 can't get to a point where any HTML shows and the extension can take
over.

 On 9/9/13 5:23 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-10 Thread Gord Tanner
That is something I am working on in my branch ;)


On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 10:54 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 I can confirm it works. :)

 Any way to bypass those alerts? (To be clear, it is easy enough for me to
 do, but I worry about the folks new to Ripple.)



 On 9/10/13 9:17 AM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 Do you get the prompt's for the calls to native?
 
 If you do press cancel which will should allow things to boot up.
 
 If not try opening your browser to *http://localhost:4400/
 ?enableRipple=cordova-3.0.0 http://emulate.phonegap.com/#*
 
 
 On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 10:04 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:
 
  That's the thing - I can't get Ripple to load. I get the console.log
  infinite recursion thing I've gotten with PG for a while now. I
 literally
  can't get to a point where any HTML shows and the extension can take
 over.
 
  On 9/9/13 5:23 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:
 




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-10 Thread Ray Camden
Ok - so anything else I can test - or just chill for now?

On 9/10/13 10:00 AM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

That is something I am working on in my branch ;)


On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 10:54 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 I can confirm it works. :)

 Any way to bypass those alerts? (To be clear, it is easy enough for me
to
 do, but I worry about the folks new to Ripple.)




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-09 Thread Ray Camden
Hey Gord - just checking in. If you've been too busy to return to this -
sorry - but if you missed my messages - let me know.

On 9/3/13 12:30 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

You will need to run:

ripple emulate --path /path/to/cordova/project/platform/android/assets/www

Let me know if that works for you.


On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 Ok, I forgot to run cordova serve. I did, and then I get the same
behavior
 as before. A prompt and then infinite console.log messages.

 On 9/2/13 8:32 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good news!
 






Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-09 Thread Gord Tanner
Hey,

got pulled off on some other stuff:

Lets make sure you are not running an old copy of ripple:

 cordova create Baz
 cordova platform add android
 cordova prepare
 cd incubator-ripple
 jake
 ./bin/ripple emulate --path ../Baz/platforms/android/assets/www/

Ensure that you have cordova 3.0.0 selected as the platform.


On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 6:17 PM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 Hey Gord - just checking in. If you've been too busy to return to this -
 sorry - but if you missed my messages - let me know.

 On 9/3/13 12:30 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 You will need to run:
 
 ripple emulate --path /path/to/cordova/project/platform/android/assets/www
 
 Let me know if that works for you.
 
 
 On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:
 
  Ok, I forgot to run cordova serve. I did, and then I get the same
 behavior
  as before. A prompt and then infinite console.log messages.
 
  On 9/2/13 8:32 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Good news!
  
 
 
 




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-03 Thread Ray Camden
Ok, I forgot to run cordova serve. I did, and then I get the same behavior
as before. A prompt and then infinite console.log messages.

On 9/2/13 8:32 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

Good news!

I have a branch that is booting projects made with cordova 3.0 [1].

It is basically a stripped down platform and I tested it booting a project
with android and ios.

To run:

 cordova create Baz
 cordova platform add android
 cordova prepare
 ripple emulate

(make sure you pick cordova 3.0.0)

I was noticing that when I ran cordova serve android it wouldn't have the
cordova_plugins.js file.

Next Steps:

- audit API's that are emulated and ensure they are up to spec (most are
just using the 2.0 emulated versions)
- reintegrate with cordova cli.

Let me know if you take this for a test drive and have any problems.

Gord





Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-03 Thread Michal Mocny
Wildshot:  localhost:4400/ripple ?


On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 Ok, forgive me if I did something stupid here.

 I cloned https://github.com/apache/incubator-ripple/tree/cordova-3.0. I
 did configure, jake, and then in Chrome I installed the unpacked
 extension. I chose pkg/chrome.extension. Of the three folders I assume
 that is the right one.

 I then made a new project as described below, and run ripple from
 /whereIclone/bin/ripple and I get this in terminal:

 INFO: Server instance running on: http://localhost:4400
 INFO: CORS XHR proxy service on: http://localhost:4400/ripple/xhr_proxy
 INFO: JSONP XHR proxy service on:
 http://localhost:4400/ripple/jsonp_xhr_proxy


 I then tried to hit localhost:4400 and I get Cannot GET /.

 On 9/2/13 8:32 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good news!
 
 I have a branch that is booting projects made with cordova 3.0 [1].
 
 It is basically a stripped down platform and I tested it booting a project
 with android and ios.
 
 To run:
 
  cordova create Baz
  cordova platform add android
  cordova prepare
  ripple emulate
 
 (make sure you pick cordova 3.0.0)
 
 I was noticing that when I ran cordova serve android it wouldn't have the
 cordova_plugins.js file.
 
 Next Steps:
 
 - audit API's that are emulated and ensure they are up to spec (most are
 just using the 2.0 emulated versions)
 - reintegrate with cordova cli.
 
 Let me know if you take this for a test drive and have any problems.
 
 Gord
 
 
 [1] - https://github.com/apache/incubator-ripple/tree/cordova-3.0
 
 
 On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 6:21 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:
 
 
 
  On 8/27/13 11:41 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  
  I think with some tweaks we could have ripple working on all platform
  cordova.js files again.  I am going to need to version out a new
 platform
  for cordova to handle the updated hacks and overrides to boot each
  platform
  cleanly but doesn't seem like an impossible task.
 
  If you need someone to help test, just let me know.
 
  -rc
 
 




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-03 Thread Ray Camden
No go. I mean the command ran of course, but upon opening it up in my
browser, I got the same.


On 9/3/13 12:30 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

You will need to run:

ripple emulate --path /path/to/cordova/project/platform/android/assets/www

Let me know if that works for you.


On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 Ok, I forgot to run cordova serve. I did, and then I get the same
behavior
 as before. A prompt and then infinite console.log messages.

 On 9/2/13 8:32 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good news!
 
 I have a branch that is booting projects made with cordova 3.0 [1].
 
 It is basically a stripped down platform and I tested it booting a
project
 with android and ios.
 




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-03 Thread Gord Tanner
You will need to run:

ripple emulate --path /path/to/cordova/project/platform/android/assets/www

Let me know if that works for you.


On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 Ok, I forgot to run cordova serve. I did, and then I get the same behavior
 as before. A prompt and then infinite console.log messages.

 On 9/2/13 8:32 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good news!
 
 I have a branch that is booting projects made with cordova 3.0 [1].
 
 It is basically a stripped down platform and I tested it booting a project
 with android and ios.
 
 To run:
 
  cordova create Baz
  cordova platform add android
  cordova prepare
  ripple emulate
 
 (make sure you pick cordova 3.0.0)
 
 I was noticing that when I ran cordova serve android it wouldn't have the
 cordova_plugins.js file.
 
 Next Steps:
 
 - audit API's that are emulated and ensure they are up to spec (most are
 just using the 2.0 emulated versions)
 - reintegrate with cordova cli.
 
 Let me know if you take this for a test drive and have any problems.
 
 Gord
 
 




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-09-02 Thread Gord Tanner
Good news!

I have a branch that is booting projects made with cordova 3.0 [1].

It is basically a stripped down platform and I tested it booting a project
with android and ios.

To run:

 cordova create Baz
 cordova platform add android
 cordova prepare
 ripple emulate

(make sure you pick cordova 3.0.0)

I was noticing that when I ran cordova serve android it wouldn't have the
cordova_plugins.js file.

Next Steps:

- audit API's that are emulated and ensure they are up to spec (most are
just using the 2.0 emulated versions)
- reintegrate with cordova cli.

Let me know if you take this for a test drive and have any problems.

Gord


[1] - https://github.com/apache/incubator-ripple/tree/cordova-3.0


On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 6:21 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:



 On 8/27/13 11:41 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 
 I think with some tweaks we could have ripple working on all platform
 cordova.js files again.  I am going to need to version out a new platform
 for cordova to handle the updated hacks and overrides to boot each
 platform
 cleanly but doesn't seem like an impossible task.

 If you need someone to help test, just let me know.

 -rc




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-28 Thread Ray Camden


On 8/27/13 11:41 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:


I think with some tweaks we could have ripple working on all platform
cordova.js files again.  I am going to need to version out a new platform
for cordova to handle the updated hacks and overrides to boot each
platform
cleanly but doesn't seem like an impossible task.

If you need someone to help test, just let me know.

-rc



Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-27 Thread Ray Camden
Dude, if you get this working, I won't buy you a beer. I'll go back and
time and make it so that when beer was invented, it was called Gord, and
your name would forever be synonymous with the best thing ever created.
Not being able to use Ripple has been a real pain in my rear when doing
presentations. I've even taken to just using a PG 2.6 files.

On 8/27/13 1:16 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

I can take a look at this tonight.  We may not be upto date with API
support (not a lot of people working on the project right now) but we
shouldn't crash.

I will ping back on this list when I know more

Gord



Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-27 Thread Brian LeRoux
I'll buy you a gord for that too!


On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 11:19 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 Dude, if you get this working, I won't buy you a beer. I'll go back and
 time and make it so that when beer was invented, it was called Gord, and
 your name would forever be synonymous with the best thing ever created.
 Not being able to use Ripple has been a real pain in my rear when doing
 presentations. I've even taken to just using a PG 2.6 files.

 On 8/27/13 1:16 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:

 I can take a look at this tonight.  We may not be upto date with API
 support (not a lot of people working on the project right now) but we
 shouldn't crash.
 
 I will ping back on this list when I know more
 
 Gord




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-27 Thread Gord Tanner
Took a look at what was breaking ripple and it is a little more involved
then I was hoping:

- Android crashing the browser is caused by changes to how android sets up
it's polling and how the modules all work together in the exec module.  We
used to have everything regarding polling rolled into the
'cordova/plugin/android/polling' module in which ripple would just override
[1] to do nothing since ripple handled everything by replacing the entire
exec function.  I think this module was removed / moved to another place in
3.0 but there is much more thought to be done to get this working better.

Switched over to using the cordova.ios.js file since it doesn't have this
problem and ripple was able to boot and emulate geolocation fine.  The
plugins were not loading from cordova serve ios though (couldn't load
cordova_plugins.js).

I think with some tweaks we could have ripple working on all platform
cordova.js files again.  I am going to need to version out a new platform
for cordova to handle the updated hacks and overrides to boot each platform
cleanly but doesn't seem like an impossible task.


[1] -
https://github.com/apache/incubator-ripple/blob/master/lib/client/platform/cordova/2.0.0/spec.js#L81-L83


On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 5:45 PM, Brian LeRoux b...@brian.io wrote:

 I'll buy you a gord for that too!


 On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 11:19 AM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

  Dude, if you get this working, I won't buy you a beer. I'll go back and
  time and make it so that when beer was invented, it was called Gord, and
  your name would forever be synonymous with the best thing ever created.
  Not being able to use Ripple has been a real pain in my rear when doing
  presentations. I've even taken to just using a PG 2.6 files.
 
  On 8/27/13 1:16 PM, Gord Tanner gtan...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  I can take a look at this tonight.  We may not be upto date with API
  support (not a lot of people working on the project right now) but we
  shouldn't crash.
  
  I will ping back on this list when I know more
  
  Gord
 
 



Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-26 Thread Wargo, John
So, how do I use it?  

cordova ripple?

@ray: how is it broken?


John M. Wargo

On Aug 12, 2013, at 4:55 PM, Ray Camden rayca...@adobe.com wrote:

 Although please note Ripple has not worked since 2.6 (or 2.7 - I forget).
 I know (assume) folks know this, but I keep hoping it gets repaired soon.
 :)
 
 
 On 8/6/13 10:28 AM, Filip Maj f...@adobe.com wrote:
 
 Ripple does exactly what serve does but provides an in-browser emulator
 experience on top
 
 On 8/6/13 7:47 AM, Wargo, John john.wa...@sap.com wrote:
 
 Thanks.  Another question, how is Ripple used with the CLI?
 
 John M. Wargo
 SAP | Charlotte, NC | USA
 Office: +1 704.321.0265 | Mobile: +1 704.249.7476
 Email: john.wa...@sap.com
 Twitter: @johnwargo
 


Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-12 Thread Michael Wolf
This is how we are using itÅ  as a local server for remote devices to then
attach for example chrome remote debugging.

mw

On 8/6/13 10:20 AM, Michal Mocny mmo...@chromium.org wrote:

file:// urls come with a lot of restrictions in chrome in desktop, but
that
isn't the intended use case anyway.

The intended purpose was to load the web assets from a mobile device
instead of loading the bundled versions, so as to get rapid edit-refresh
when not making changes to native bits.  As Andrew points out 'serve'
command will 'prepare' whenever necessary (grunt watch?) and also serve up
files via local web server.

The simple local alternative may be to just use your own local web server
from the top level www/ dir, thus avoiding the need to prepare -- but it
only works if and only if you do not use merges/, and none of your plugins
have web assets (js-modules are fine I think?), which is not usually the
situation.

-Michal


On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Andrew Grieve agri...@chromium.org
wrote:

 One of the original motivations for cordova serve was for it to watch
for
 changes and automatically run prepare for you. I don't think this is
 working right now though.


 On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 4:23 PM, Anis KADRI anis.ka...@gmail.com wrote:

  XHRs won't work by default on certain browsers such as Chrome. I don't
  think there are any other benefits.
  This restriction does not exist on a device.
 
  On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 1:13 PM, John M. Wargo jwarg...@gmail.com
 wrote:
   Can someone help me understand why I would want to use cordova serve
  rather
   than just loading the web content in the browser directly (through
 File -
   Open for example)?
  
   Is there something special that serve does that makes this approach
  better?
 




Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-12 Thread Ray Camden
Although please note Ripple has not worked since 2.6 (or 2.7 - I forget).
I know (assume) folks know this, but I keep hoping it gets repaired soon.
:)


On 8/6/13 10:28 AM, Filip Maj f...@adobe.com wrote:

Ripple does exactly what serve does but provides an in-browser emulator
experience on top

On 8/6/13 7:47 AM, Wargo, John john.wa...@sap.com wrote:

Thanks.  Another question, how is Ripple used with the CLI?

John M. Wargo
SAP | Charlotte, NC | USA
Office: +1 704.321.0265 | Mobile: +1 704.249.7476
Email: john.wa...@sap.com
Twitter: @johnwargo






Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-06 Thread Andrew Grieve
One of the original motivations for cordova serve was for it to watch for
changes and automatically run prepare for you. I don't think this is
working right now though.


On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 4:23 PM, Anis KADRI anis.ka...@gmail.com wrote:

 XHRs won't work by default on certain browsers such as Chrome. I don't
 think there are any other benefits.
 This restriction does not exist on a device.

 On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 1:13 PM, John M. Wargo jwarg...@gmail.com wrote:
  Can someone help me understand why I would want to use cordova serve
 rather
  than just loading the web content in the browser directly (through File -
  Open for example)?
 
  Is there something special that serve does that makes this approach
 better?



Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-06 Thread Michal Mocny
file:// urls come with a lot of restrictions in chrome in desktop, but that
isn't the intended use case anyway.

The intended purpose was to load the web assets from a mobile device
instead of loading the bundled versions, so as to get rapid edit-refresh
when not making changes to native bits.  As Andrew points out 'serve'
command will 'prepare' whenever necessary (grunt watch?) and also serve up
files via local web server.

The simple local alternative may be to just use your own local web server
from the top level www/ dir, thus avoiding the need to prepare -- but it
only works if and only if you do not use merges/, and none of your plugins
have web assets (js-modules are fine I think?), which is not usually the
situation.

-Michal


On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Andrew Grieve agri...@chromium.org wrote:

 One of the original motivations for cordova serve was for it to watch for
 changes and automatically run prepare for you. I don't think this is
 working right now though.


 On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 4:23 PM, Anis KADRI anis.ka...@gmail.com wrote:

  XHRs won't work by default on certain browsers such as Chrome. I don't
  think there are any other benefits.
  This restriction does not exist on a device.
 
  On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 1:13 PM, John M. Wargo jwarg...@gmail.com
 wrote:
   Can someone help me understand why I would want to use cordova serve
  rather
   than just loading the web content in the browser directly (through
 File -
   Open for example)?
  
   Is there something special that serve does that makes this approach
  better?
 



RE: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-06 Thread Wargo, John
Thanks.  Another question, how is Ripple used with the CLI?

John M. Wargo
SAP | Charlotte, NC | USA
Office: +1 704.321.0265 | Mobile: +1 704.249.7476
Email: john.wa...@sap.com
Twitter: @johnwargo

-Original Message-
From: mmo...@google.com [mailto:mmo...@google.com] On Behalf Of Michal Mocny
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 10:21 AM
To: dev
Subject: Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

file:// urls come with a lot of restrictions in chrome in desktop, but that
isn't the intended use case anyway.

The intended purpose was to load the web assets from a mobile device
instead of loading the bundled versions, so as to get rapid edit-refresh
when not making changes to native bits.  As Andrew points out 'serve'
command will 'prepare' whenever necessary (grunt watch?) and also serve up
files via local web server.

The simple local alternative may be to just use your own local web server
from the top level www/ dir, thus avoiding the need to prepare -- but it
only works if and only if you do not use merges/, and none of your plugins
have web assets (js-modules are fine I think?), which is not usually the
situation.

-Michal


On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Andrew Grieve agri...@chromium.org wrote:

 One of the original motivations for cordova serve was for it to watch for
 changes and automatically run prepare for you. I don't think this is
 working right now though.


 On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 4:23 PM, Anis KADRI anis.ka...@gmail.com wrote:

  XHRs won't work by default on certain browsers such as Chrome. I don't
  think there are any other benefits.
  This restriction does not exist on a device.
 
  On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 1:13 PM, John M. Wargo jwarg...@gmail.com
 wrote:
   Can someone help me understand why I would want to use cordova serve
  rather
   than just loading the web content in the browser directly (through
 File -
   Open for example)?
  
   Is there something special that serve does that makes this approach
  better?
 



Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-02 Thread John M. Wargo

Can someone help me understand why I would want to use cordova serve rather 
than just loading the web content in the browser directly (through File - Open 
for example)?

Is there something special that serve does that makes this approach better?


Re: Serve vs. opening an HTML file in the browser

2013-08-02 Thread Anis KADRI
XHRs won't work by default on certain browsers such as Chrome. I don't
think there are any other benefits.
This restriction does not exist on a device.

On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 1:13 PM, John M. Wargo jwarg...@gmail.com wrote:
 Can someone help me understand why I would want to use cordova serve rather
 than just loading the web content in the browser directly (through File -
 Open for example)?

 Is there something special that serve does that makes this approach better?