Cross-Platform Desktop Apps with Electron - FluentConf 2018

Would you like to leverage your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills to build cross-platform desktop applications? Electron is an open source application shell created by GitHub, designed to make building great desktop applications easy. You may have already experienced Electron using applications such as Atom, Slack, or Visual Studio Code. In this talk, you will learn its features, how to quickly get started, and tips from my experience building Electron applications.

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

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

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

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31. Electron
    Cons:
    • HTML + CSS + JavaScript
    

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32. History
    • Created by GitHub for Atom
    • Formerly Atom Shell
    • Active since January 2013
    • 1.0 release May 2016
    • Current: 2.0 May 2nd
    

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

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35. 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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36. 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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37. Atom
    

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38. Slack
    

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39. Visual Studio Code
    

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40. Postman
    

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41. GitHub Desktop
    

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48. ( main.js )
    

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49. ( main.js )
    

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50. ( main.js )
    ( index.html )
    

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

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53. main.js
    

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54. main.js
    

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55. main.js
    

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56. main.js
    

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57. main.js
    

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58. main.js
    

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59. main.js
    

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60. main.js
    

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61. index.html
    

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62. index.html
    > electron main.js
    

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63. index.html
    

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64. index.html
    

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65. index.html
    

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66. index.html
    

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67. index.html
    

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68. index.html
    

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69. index.html
    

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70. index.html
    

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72. main.js
    

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73. main.js
    

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

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83. Render modules
    • ipc
    • remote
    • web-frame
    

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

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85. Deploying Electron
    

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86. Deploying Electron
    

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87. Deploying Electron
    

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88. Deploying Electron
    

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89. Deploying Electron
    

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90. Recommended Tools
    • electron-debug
    • electron-reload
    • electron-mocha
    

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91. Devtron
    

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93. Boilerplate Projects
    • electron-boilerplate
    • electron-react-boilerplate
    • angular-electron
    • electron-vue
    

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94. electron-prebuilt-compile
    • ES7 (Babel), TypeScript, GraphQL
    • React.js
    • LESS, Sass/SCSS, Stylus
    • Jade
    • Vue components
    

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96. photonkit.com
    

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98. Tips
    • Use CSS default cursor
    • Keep windows open
    • Offload work to main over ipc
    

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

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100. Relational DB Storage
     • seriate (SQL Server)
     • pg
     • mysql
     • oracledb
     

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101. From here…
     https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome-electron
     Pluralsight: “Electron Fundamentals” by Jake Trent
     http://electron.atom.io
     http://atom-slack.herokuapp.com/
     

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