vite-plugin-electron

vite-plugin-electron

Integrate Vite and Electron

Usage

Example 👉 vite-plugin-electron-quick-start

vite.config.ts

import electron from 'vite-plugin-electron'

export default {
  plugins: [
    electron({
      main: {
        entry: 'electron-main.ts',
      },
    }),
  ],
}

API

electron(config: Configuration)

import type { LibraryOptions, UserConfig } from 'vite'
import type { InputOption } from 'rollup'

export interface Configuration {
  main: {
    /**
     * Shortcut of `build.lib.entry`
     */
    entry: LibraryOptions['entry']
    vite?: UserConfig
  }
  preload?: {
    /**
     * Shortcut of `build.rollupOptions.input`
     */
    input: InputOption
    vite?: UserConfig
  }
}

How to work

The plugin is just the encapsulation of the built-in scripts of electron-vite-vue/scripts

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vite-plugin-electron/renderer

Use Electron and Node.js API in Renderer-process

If you only need to build the Renderer-process, you can just use the vite-plugin-electron/renderer plugin

Example 👉 electron-vite-vue/packages/renderer/vite.config.ts

// renderer/vite.config.ts
import electronRenderer from 'vite-plugin-electron/renderer'

export default {
  plugins: [
    electronRenderer(),
  ],
}

Usage

vite.config.ts

import electronRenderer from 'vite-plugin-electron/renderer'

export default {
  plugins: [
    electronRenderer(),
  ],
}

renderer.js

import { readFile } from 'fs'
import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron'

readFile(/* something code... */)
ipcRenderer.on('event-name', () => {/* something code... */})

How to work

Using Electron API in Renderer-process

import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron'

Actually redirect to node_modules/vite-plugin-electron/renderer/modules/electron-renderer.js by resolve.alias

Using Node.js API in Renderer-process

import { readFile } from 'fs'

All Node.js API will be built into the node_modules/.vite-plugin-electron-renderer directory by vite-plugin-optimizer

Config presets

1. Fist, the plugin will configuration something.

If you do not configure the following options, the plugin will modify their default values

• base = './'
• build.assetsDir = '' -> TODO: Automatic splicing build.assetsDir
• build.rollupOptions.output.format = 'cjs'
• resolve.conditions = ['node']

1. The plugin transform Electron and Node.js built-in modules to ESModule format in vite serve phase.

2. Add Electron and Node.js built-in modules to Rollup output.external option in the vite build phase.

FAQ

You may need to use some Node.js modules from npm in the Main-process/Renderer-process.
I suggest you look at electron-vite-vue.

---

When we use Node.js API in the Renderer-process, we will build the code into the CommonJs format.
Sometimes it will cause the console to report an error exports is not defined. See 👉 issues#103
Now, before we find the answer, we can fix it using the vite-plugin-electron/polyfill-exports

import polyfillExports from 'vite-plugin-electron/polyfill-exports'

export default {
  plugins: [
    polyfillExports(),
  ],
}