electron-webpack

electron-webpack

Configurations and scripts to compile Electron applications.

Install

1. yarn add webpack electron-webpack --dev
2. yarn add source-map-support
3. Install support for various languages and frameworks — typescript, vue and less if need.

Yarn is recommended instead of npm.

Project Structure

├─ src
│  ├─ main # main process sources
│  │  └─ index.js
│  ├─ renderer # renderer process sources
│  │  └─ index.js
├─ static # static assets (optional directory)

Index file expected to be named as index.js or main.js (.ts if typescript support installed)

Real project example — electrify.

Hot Module Replacement

Fast development without reloading is supported for both main and renderer processes.

Package Scripts

You can add following scripts to your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "electron-webpack dev",
    "compile": "electron-webpack",
    "dist": "yarn compile && electron-builder",
    "dist-dir": "yarn dist -- --dir -c.compression=store -c.mac.identity=null"
  }
}

• yarn dev Run app in development.
• yarn compile Compile app for production. No need to call this script explicitly, only if you want to inspect your compiled app.
• yarn dist Build app and package in a distributable format for production.
• yarn dist-dir Build app and quickly package in a distributable format for test how does the app work if packed.

Provided Configurations Files

Webpack documentation is fully applicable. For example, to build for production, specify --env.production.

• node_modules/electron-webpack/webpack.main.config.js Compile main.
• node_modules/electron-webpack/webpack.renderer.config.js Compile renderer.
• node_modules/electron-webpack/webpack.app.config.js Compile both main and renderer.
• node_modules/electron-webpack/webpack.renderer.dll.config.js Compile DLL bundles for renderer.

Application Renderer Dependencies

All renderer dependencies should be in the devDependencies. e.g. vue and vue-router should be in the devDependencies. Because Webpack will smartly copy only required files and as result, application size will be minimal (electron-builder cannot do such filtering, because in general it is not applicable for node modules). No doubt, files allows you to filter out anything you want, but it is tedious to write and maintain.

DLL

The Dll provide means to split bundles in a way that can drastically improve build time performance.

Supported out of the box, specify in the package.json:

"electronWebpack": {
  "renderer": {
    "dll": [
      "vue",
      "iview/dist/styles/iview.css"
    ]
  }
}

White-listing Externals

Please see White-listing Externals. electron-webpack supports setting this option in the package.json:

"electronWebpack": {
  "whiteListedModules": ["dependency-name"]
} 

Differences between electron-compile

• Hot Module Replacement for virtually anything and even for main process. electron-compile live reload is limited and works only for some file types.
• Faster Builds (e.g. typescript or generic).
• No runtime dependencies.
• ... and so on. electron-compile is not comparable to webpack because webpack is widely used and popular. There are a lot features, loaders and plugins. And because community is big, answers to any question. Special tool for Electron not required, electron is directly and explicitly supported by webpack.

But keep things simple. electron-compile offers you zero-config setup without predefined project structure and simple on the fly runtime transformation. And for simple projects, even direct usage of typescript/babel maybe enough (example).

So, if you doubt what to use and no suitable boilerplate — use electron-compile. If need, later you can easily migrate to webpack.

Notes

• source-map-support is recommended and supported out of the box, simply install it yarn add source-map-support and that's all.
• webpack-build-notifier is supported, simply install it yarn add webpack-build-notifier --dev and it will automatically enabled for development.

Debug

Set the DEBUG environment variable to debug what electron-webpack is doing:

DEBUG=electron-webpack:*