Cross-Platform Desktop Apps with Electron (Music City Code 2016)

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Up Ahead • What is Electron? • Why desktop? • Crash course • Tips

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.NET + Mono + Xamarin Pros: • Shared .NET code base Cons: • Xamarin Mac !== Xamarin iOS/Android • Native UI is hard • Deployment • Licensing

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Electron Pros: • HTML + CSS + JavaScript • Node.js + Chrome • No deployment dependencies

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Electron Cons: • HTML + CSS + JavaScript

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History • Created by GitHub for Atom • Formerly Atom Shell • Active since January 2013 • 1.0 release May 2016 • 1.2.6 release July 6th

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Electron Features • Rapid development • Themes • Shared code/UI • Deployment + “silent” updates • Native UX

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Why Desktop Apps? • Offline • Printers, devices, other local hardware • On-premises • Internal, LOB • Edit local files • App Store • Kiosk • Desktop > Intranet • Sometimes it “just feels right”

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Desktop App Ideas • Disconnected data entry • Editor • Time management • Media player • Email client • Messaging, collaboration • Kiosk • Mapping, route planner • Social media client • Calendar • Bulk media editor • File management, backup • Document generation, reading • Audio/video conferencing • Games

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Atom

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Slack

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Visual Studio Code

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Wagon

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Postman

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Nylas N1

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Jibo

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> npm install electron > touch main.js > touch index.html

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( main.js )

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( main.js )

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( main.js ) ( index.html )

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( main.js ) ( home.html ) ( editor.html ) ( settings.html )

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main.js

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main.js

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main.js

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main.js

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main.js

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main.js

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main.js

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index.html

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index.html > electron main.js

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index.html

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index.html

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index.html

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index.html

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index.html

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index.html

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index.html

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index.html

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main.js

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main.js

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main.js

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Process modules • app • ipc • dialog • menu, menu-item • power-monitor • tray

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Render modules • ipc • remote • web-frame

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Modules available to both • clipboard • crash-reporter • native-image • screen • shell

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Recommended Tools • electron-debug • electron-reload • electron-packager • electron-builder • electron-updater • electron-mocha

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Devtron

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Test your app

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Boilerplate Projects • electron-boilerplate • electron-react-boilerplate

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electron-prebuilt-compile • ES6/ES7 (Babel), TypeScript, CoffeeScript • React.js • LESS • Jade • CSON

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photonkit.com

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Building for Windows • Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 minimum (https://dev.modern.ie) • Visual Studio 2015 Community • Python 2.7 • Node.js • Git

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Building for Mac • OS X 10.8+ • Xcode 5.1+ • Node.js • pyobjc (only if using Python installed with Homebrew)

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Building for Linux • Python 2.7 • Node.js • Clang 3.4+ • GTK+ & libnotify dev headers

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Tips • Use CSS default cursor • -webkit-user-drag:none • -webkit-user-drag:text • Keep windows open • Offload work to main over ipc

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Local Storage • Read/write .json files – Pro tip: use fs-jetpack • nedb • pouchdb

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Relational DB Storage • seriate • pg • mysql • oracledb

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From here… https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome-electron Pluralsight Course: Rob Conery’s “Electron Playbook” http://electron.atom.io http://atom-slack.herokuapp.com/