Build desktop GUI applications using JavaScript and Electron.js

In today's technological era, desktop applications assume a huge significance in our daily lives, providing enhanced user experience and making full use of the capabilities of the local computer. Traditionally, developing desktop applications required expertise in platform-specific programming languages ​​and frameworks, which posed a challenge for web developers looking to get into desktop development. However, Electron.js effectively solves this challenge.

Electron.js, formerly known as Atom Shell, is an open source framework originating from GitHub. It enables developers to build cross-platform desktop applications using familiar web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. By bridging the gap between web development and desktop application development, Electron.js creates new opportunities for developers to create powerful and feature-rich desktop applications.

Electron.js architecture

To understand how Electron.js works, let’s take a closer look at its architecture. Electron.js combines two main components: the Chromium rendering engine and the Node.js runtime.

• Chromium Rendering Engine − Electron.js uses the same rendering engine as the popular web browser Google Chrome — Chromium. This enables Electron.js applications to render and display web content with the same functionality and performance as a web browser.

• Node.js runtime − span>Electron.js integrates the Node.js runtime, providing access to the underlying operating system Access and native API. This means developers can take advantage of the full power of Node.js and leverage its extensive ecosystem of modules and libraries to build desktop applications.

Electron.js utilizes a multi-process architecture, where each Electron.js application consists of two main processes: the main process and the renderer process.

• Main process − The main process runs as an independent Node.js process and is responsible for creating and managing browser windows. It communicates with the renderer process, handles system-level events, and has access to native APIs. The main process controls the lifecycle of the application and serves as the entry point to the Electron.js application.

• Renderer process − Each Electron.js application can have multiple renderer processes, each corresponding to A separate browser window. The renderer process is responsible for rendering and displaying web content in each browser window. They run in a separate JavaScript context, providing a level of isolation and security. Each renderer process has access to the Electron.js API, allowing it to interact with the main process and perform tasks such as manipulating the DOM, making network requests, and handling user interaction.

Building a simple Electron.js application

Now that we have a good understanding of Electron.js and its architecture, let’s dive into building a simple Electron.js application using JavaScript. We will create an application that displays a window with a "Hello, Electron.js" message.

To get started, follow these steps -

Set up development environment

Make sure you have Node.js installed on your computer, as Electron.js is built on top of Node.js. You can download and install the latest version of Node.js from the official website (https://nodejs.org).

Create a new Electron.js project

Create a new project folder and navigate to the folder using the command line. Initialize a new Node.js project by running the following command -

npm init -y

This command initializes a new Node.js project with default settings.

Install Electron.js

Install Electron.js as a development dependency by executing the following command -

npm install electron --save-dev

This command will install the Electron.js package in your project.

Create the main entry point

Create a new file named index.js in the project folder and add the following code -

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');

function createWindow() {
   // Create the browser window
   const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
      width: 800,
      height: 600,
      webPreferences: {
         nodeIntegration: true,
      },
   });

   // Load the index.html file
   mainWindow.loadFile('index.html');
}

// When Electron has finished initialising and is ready to create browser windows
app.whenReady().then(() => {
   createWindow();

   app.on('activate', function () {
      if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow();
   });
});

// Quit the application when all windows are closed
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
   if (process.platform !== 'darwin') app.quit();
});

illustrate

In this code, we import the necessary modules from the Electron.js package, define the createWindow function to create the browser window, and set up the necessary event handlers for window creation and application exit.

Create HTML file

Create a new file named index.html in the project folder and add the following code -

示例

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <head>
      <meta charset="UTF-8">
      <title>Electron.js Application</title>
   </head>
   <body>
      <h1>Hello, Electron.js</h1>
   </body>
</html>

此 HTML 文件将显示在 Electron.js 应用程序的窗口中。

运行 Electron.js 应用程序

npx electron.

结论

Electron.js 彻底改变了开发人员使用 Web 技术构建桌面应用程序的方式。它提供了一个强大的框架，结合了 Chromium 渲染引擎和 Node.js 运行时，使开发人员能够使用 HTML、CSS 和 JavaScript 创建跨平台桌面应用程序。凭借其丰富的插件和工具生态系统，Electron.js 使开发人员能够构建功能丰富、高性能且具有视觉吸引力的桌面应用程序。

在本文中，我们探讨了 Electron.js 的基础知识，并学习了如何使用 JavaScript 构建简单的 Electron.js 应用程序。我们讨论了 Electron.js 的架构、它的主要进程以及主进程和渲染进程的作用。我们还逐步完成了设置开发环境和构建 Electron.js 应用程序的过程。

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