What is electron?
Electron is a framework for creating native applications with web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It combines the Chromium rendering engine and the Node.js runtime, allowing you to build cross-platform desktop applications.
What are electron's main functionalities?
Creating a Browser Window
This feature allows you to create a new browser window in your Electron application. The code sample demonstrates how to create a window and load a URL into it.
const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');
app.on('ready', () => {
const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600 });
mainWindow.loadURL('https://example.com');
});
Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
Electron provides IPC (Inter-Process Communication) to allow communication between the main process and renderer processes. The code sample shows how to send and receive messages asynchronously.
const { ipcMain, ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
// Main process
ipcMain.on('asynchronous-message', (event, arg) => {
console.log(arg); // prints 'ping'
event.reply('asynchronous-reply', 'pong');
});
// Renderer process
ipcRenderer.send('asynchronous-message', 'ping');
ipcRenderer.on('asynchronous-reply', (event, arg) => {
console.log(arg); // prints 'pong'
});
Using Node.js Modules
Electron allows you to use Node.js modules in your application. The code sample demonstrates how to use the 'fs' module to read a file.
const fs = require('fs');
fs.readFile('/path/to/file', (err, data) => {
if (err) throw err;
console.log(data.toString());
});
Packaging the Application
Electron applications can be packaged for distribution using tools like 'electron-packager'. The code sample shows how to package an Electron app for Windows using a child process.
const { exec } = require('child_process');
exec('electron-packager . myApp --platform=win32 --arch=x64', (err, stdout, stderr) => {
if (err) {
console.error(`exec error: ${err}`);
return;
}
console.log(`stdout: ${stdout}`);
console.error(`stderr: ${stderr}`);
});
Other packages similar to electron
nw
NW.js (previously known as node-webkit) is another framework for building desktop applications using web technologies. It also combines Node.js and Chromium but offers different APIs and a different approach to application architecture compared to Electron.
proton-native
Proton Native is a framework for building native desktop applications using React. Unlike Electron, which uses web technologies and Chromium, Proton Native uses native components for rendering, which can result in better performance and a more native look and feel.