Creating a desktop application with Electron

Tags: Programming

In this tutorial, we’ll look at how to create a desktop application using the Electron framework. This programming environment enables you to develop GUIs using the Web languages JavaScript, HTML and CSS, compatible with several OS.

Setting up the programming environment

For this tutorial, we’ll be using the VS Code code editor.

The Electron framework works with Node.js software. Download and install the latest version

or enter the following commands on Linux

sudo apt-get install nodejs npm

Check installed versions. This will help you check library compatibility.

node -v
npm -v

In the VSCode terminal, create your working directory

mkdir ElectronApp && cd ElectronApp

In the application directory, enter the initialization command to create the default files

npm init

Enter the requested information. Note that Electron takes main.js as its entry point.

Press ^C at any time to quit.
package name: (electronapp)
version: (1.0.0)
description: custom electron app for dev and tutorials
entry point: (index.js) main.js
test command:
git repository:
keywords:
author: aranacorp
license: (ISC) MIT
About to write to D:\Formation\Javascript\Electron\ElectronApp\package.json:

{
  "name": "electronapp",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "custom electron app for dev and tutorials",
  "main": "main.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "start": "electron ."
  },
  "author": "aranacorp",
  "license": "MIT"
}

You can then install the electron

npm install --save-dev electron

Once the package.json file has been created, add the following line to scripts

    "start": "electron ."

This scirpt is used to launch the application with the command

npm start

Creation of the first Electron application

In this example, we’ll retrieve the versions of node and electron as in the basic tutorial. We’ll also add an input field to define a possible URL.

To create the application, we’ll create 5 files

main.js manages the application lifecycle
index.html contains the HTML page
./src/ac_style.css contains the style of the HTML page
preload.js contains the preload script, including inter-process communication functions
renderer.js contains the functions that manage the HTML page

main.js

const { app, BrowserWindow, ipcMain } = require('electron')
const path = require('node:path')

const createWindow = () => {
    const win = new BrowserWindow({
      width: 800,
      height: 600,
      //icon:'./src/logo_araignee.png',
      webPreferences: {
        preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload.js')
      }
    })

    ipcMain.on('set-url', (event, url) => {
        console.log("url set to: ",url)
      })

    //win.webContents.openDevTools() //Open devtools on launch
    win.setTitle(app.getName()+"@"+app.getVersion());
    win.loadFile('index.html')
  }

  app.whenReady().then(() => {
    createWindow()

    app.on('activate', () => { //for macOS
        if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow()
      })
  })

  app.on('window-all-closed', () => {
    if (process.platform !== 'darwin') app.quit()
  })

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <!-- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CSP -->
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="./src/ac_style.css">
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
    <p>Nous utilisons les versions: </p>
    <ul>
      <li>Node.js : <span id="node-version"></span></li>
      <li>Chromium : <span id="chrome-version"></span></li>
      <li>Electron : <span id="electron-version"></span></li>
  </ul>
  <p>CurrentURL: <span id="current-url">None</span></p>
  <p>URL: <input id="url"/> <button id="btn" type="button">Set</button></p>
  <script src="./renderer.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

./src/ac_style.css

:root {
  --bg-color: #161616;
  --btn-color: #346751;
  --title-color: #3aaa35; /*#c84b31; #ff9900*/
  --text-color: #ecdbba;
}

body {
  background-color: var(--bg-color);
  color: var(--text-color);
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

h1 {
  color: var(--title-color);
}

p {
  font-size: 18px;
  margin-bottom: 20px;
}

preload.js

const { contextBridge, ipcRenderer } = require('electron')

contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld('electronAPI', {
  setURL: (url) => ipcRenderer.send('set-url', url)
})

window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
    const replaceText = (selector, text) => {
      const element = document.getElementById(selector)
      if (element) element.innerText = text
    }
    for (const dependency of ['chrome', 'node', 'electron']) {
      replaceText(`${dependency}-version`, process.versions[dependency])
    }
  })

renderer.js

const urlInput = document.getElementById('url')
const currURL = document.getElementById('current-url')

const setButton = document.getElementById('btn')
setButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
  const url = urlInput.value
  window.electronAPI.setURL(url)
  currURL.innerHTML = url
})

Results

Once the script has been launched with “npm start”, a window opens. You can update the URL using the input field and the “Set” button.

electron-first-application-1 Creating a desktop application with Electron

Create an executable for the application

To create the executable, we use the electron-packager package

npm install --save-dev electron-packager

You can then compile your project with the command

npx electron-packager <sourcedir> <appname> --platform=<platform> --arch=<arch> [optional flags...]

Example for Windows

npx electron-packager . myElectronApp --overwrite --asar --platform=win32 --arch=x64 --icon=./src/logo_araignee.ico --prune=true --out=release-builds

Example for Linux

npx electron-packager . myElectronApp --overwrite --asar --platform=linux --arch=x64 --icon=./src/logo_araignee.ico --prune=true --out=release-builds

OS	platform	architecture
Windows	win32	x86, x86_64, and arm64
Linux	linux	x86, x86_64, armv7l, arm64, and mips64el
macOS	darwin	x86_64, arm64, and universal

In package.json, add these two scripts as shortcuts;

    "build": "electron-packager . myElectronApp --overwrite",
    "clean": "rm -rf release-builds"

You can create an executable with the command

npm run build

or delete folders generated with

npm run clean

You can now launch the application from the executable file myElectronApp.exe

electron-packager-first-application Creating a desktop application with Electron

Bonus: Creating an application with Electron and React

We’re going to create the same application with Electron and React. To do this, we create a new project

npm init electron-app@latest react-electron-app -- --template=webpack

cd react-electron-app

npm install --save-dev @babel/core @babel/preset-react babel-loader

Then modify the webpack.rules.js file

  {
    test: /\.jsx?$/,
    use: {
      loader: 'babel-loader',
      options: {
        exclude: /node_modules/,
        presets: ['@babel/preset-react']
      }
    }
  }

npm install -save react react-dom

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>Hello World!</title>

  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="root"></div>
  </body>
</html>

renderer.js

import React from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom/client";
import "./index.css";
import App from "./app.jsx";

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById("root"));
root.render(
  <React.StrictMode>
    <App />
  </React.StrictMode>
);

app.jsx

import React from "react";

class App extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {    
        super(props);    
        this.state = {      
            url: "None",    
        };  
    }

    setUrl = () => {
        //() => {this.setState({url: document.getElementById("url").value})}
        this.setState({url: document.getElementById("url").value})
    }

    render() {
    return (
        <div>
        
        <h1>Hello World!</h1>
        <p>Welcome to your Electron application.</p>
        <p>CurrentURL: <span id="current-url">{this.state.url}</span></p>
        <p>URL: <input id="url" /> <button id="btn" type="button" onClick={this.setUrl}>Set</button></p>
    
        </div>
    );
    }
}

export default App;

You can then launch the application with the command

npm start

To create the executable

npm run make

Setting up the programming environment

Creation of the first Electron application

Results

Create an executable for the application

Bonus: Creating an application with Electron and React

Sources

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