Book Image

Electron Projects

By : Denys Vuika
Book Image

Electron Projects

By: Denys Vuika

Overview of this book

The Electron framework allows you to use modern web technologies to build applications that share the same code across all operating systems and platforms. This also helps designers to easily transition from the web to the desktop. Electron Projects guides you through building cross-platform Electron apps with modern web technologies and JavaScript frameworks such as Angular, React.js, and Vue.js. You’ll explore the process of configuring modern JavaScript frameworks and UI libraries, real-time analytics and automatic updates, and interactions with the operating system. You’ll get hands-on with building a basic Electron app, before moving on to implement a Markdown Editor. In addition to this, you’ll be able to experiment with major JavaScript frameworks such as Angular and Vue.js, discovering ways to integrate them with Electron apps for building cross-platform desktop apps. Later, you’ll learn to build a screenshot snipping tool, a mini-game, and a music player, while also gaining insights into analytics, bug tracking, and licensing. You’ll then get to grips with building a chat app, an eBook generator and finally a simple digital wallet app. By the end of this book, you’ll have experience in building a variety of projects and project templates that will help you to apply your knowledge when creating your own cross-platform applications.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Generating the project scaffold with React

The fastest way to start the project is to use the React library and the Create React App tool. Follow these steps to get started:

  1. Run the following commands to generate a new React application called crypto-wallet:
npx create-react-app crypto-wallet
cd crypto-wallet
  1. Install the latest electron library with the following command:
npm install -D electron

As you already know, a typical Electron application requires a main entry in the package.json file. We are going to use the public/electron.js file so that we can create a distributable package without any effort.

  1. Update the package.json file and add the main entry:
{
"name": "crypto-wallet",
"version": "0.1.0",
"private": true,
"main": "public/electron.js",
// ...
}

The scripts for React applications usually...