Why does a packaged Electron app fail due to Menu.getApplicationMenu() returning null while running it with electron . is fine?

Question

I get a strange error when running a packaged Electron app on Windows 10.

When I press Ok on this error, the application boots up, but without a menu. If I run the same application using electron . it works perfectly, it has a menu.

The error occurs here:

var filemenu = Menu.getApplicationMenu().items[0].submenu;
filemenu.items[0].visible = false;
filemenu.append(new MenuItem({ label: 'Build Project', click: function () { buildProject(); } }));

I'm trying to edit the default File menu and add a "Build Project" item.

This is my first attempt to package an Electron app so I welcome any feedback as to what went wrong?

Answer 1

It seems that the default menu is not added to the app when in production.

The solution is to check if you are in development:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/electron-is-dev

// Check if we are in development
var isDev = require('electron-is-dev');

If in production, you have to construct the menu from scratch.

if(isDev){
    // In development
    // modify existing menu
}else{
    // In production
    // construct menu from scratch
    var template = [
            {
                label: "File",
                submenu: [
                    {
                        label: "Exit",
                        click: function () { quit(); }
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                label: "Project",
                submenu: [
                    {
                        label: "Delete",
                        click: function () { deleteProject(); }
                    },
                    {
                        label: "Build",
                        click: function () { buildProject(); }
                    }
                ]
            }
        ];        
    // build menu from template
    var menu = Menu.buildFromTemplate(template);    
    // set menu for main window
    mainWindow.setMenu(menu);
};