I am trying to use Webpack since I want to use ES modules in my Electron application but having some hurdles. I just want to use import in my main as well as renderer processes.
My application structure is as follows -
- src/ // contains basic html, css & js
- index.html // <h1>Hello World</h1>
- style.css // is empty
- app.js // console.log('it works 🙈')
- app/ // contains electron code
- main_window.js
- custom_tray.js
- index.js // entry point for electron application
- dist/ // output bundle generated from webpack
- bundle.js
My index.js file looks like -
import path from "path";
import { app } from "electron";
import MainWindow from "./app/main_window";
import CustomTray from "./app/custom_tray";
let win = null,
tray = null;
app.on("ready", () => {
// app.dock.hide();
win = new MainWindow(path.join("file://", __dirname, "/src/index.html"));
win.on("closed", () => {
win = null;
});
tray = new CustomTray(win);
});
My main_window.js file looks like -
import { BrowserWindow } from "electron";
const config = {
width: 250,
height: 350,
show: false,
frame: false,
radii: [500, 500, 500, 500],
resizable: false,
fullscreenable: false
};
class MainWindow extends BrowserWindow {
constructor(url) {
super(config);
this.loadURL(url);
this.on("blur", this.onBlur);
this.show();
}
onBlur = () => {
this.hide();
};
}
export default MainWindow;
My custom_tray.js looks like -
import path from "path";
import { app, Tray, Menu } from "electron";
const iconPath = path.join(__dirname, "../src/assets/iconTemplate.png");
class CustomTray extends Tray {
constructor(mainWindow) {
super(iconPath);
this.mainWindow = mainWindow;
this.setToolTip("Thirsty");
this.on("click", this.onClick);
this.on("right-click", this.onRightClick);
}
onClick = (event, bounds) => {
const { x, y } = bounds;
const { width, height } = this.mainWindow.getBounds();
const isMac = process.platform === "darwin";
if (this.mainWindow.isVisible()) {
this.mainWindow.hide();
} else {
this.mainWindow.setBounds({
x: x - width / 2,
y: isMac ? y : y - height,
width,
height
});
this.mainWindow.show();
}
};
onRightClick = () => {
const menuConfig = Menu.buildFromTemplate([
{
label: "Quit",
click: () => app.quit()
}
]);
this.popUpContextMenu(menuConfig);
};
}
export default CustomTray;
And my webpack.main.config.js looks like -
const path = require("path");
const config = {
entry: "./index.js",
output: {
path: path.resolve(__dirname, "dist"),
filename: "bundle.js"
},
module: {
rules: [{ test: /\.js$/, exclude: /node_modules/, use: "babel-loader" }]
},
stats: {
colors: true
},
target: "electron-main",
devtool: "source-map"
};
module.exports = config;
And my webpack.renderer.config.js looks like -
const path = require("path");
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require("html-webpack-plugin");
const CopyWebpackPlugin = require("copy-webpack-plugin");
const config = {
entry: "./src/app.js",
output: {
path: path.resolve(__dirname, "dist/renderer"),
filename: "app.js"
},
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.js$/,
exclude: /node_modules/,
use: "babel-loader"
},
{
test: /\.css$/,
use: {
loader: "css-loader",
options: {
minimize: true
}
}
},
{
test: /\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg)(\?.*)?$/,
use: {
loader: "url-loader",
query: {
limit: 10000,
name: "imgs/[name].[ext]"
}
}
},
{
test: /\.(woff2?|eot|ttf|otf)(\?.*)?$/,
use: {
loader: "url-loader",
query: {
limit: 10000,
name: "fonts/[name].[ext]"
}
}
}
]
},
stats: {
colors: true
},
target: "electron-renderer",
devtool: "source-map",
plugins: [
new CopyWebpackPlugin([
{ from: "src/app.css" },
{ from: "src/assets", to: "assets/" }
]),
new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
filename: "index.html",
template: path.resolve(__dirname, "./src/index.html"),
minify: {
collapseWhitespace: true,
removeAttributeQuotes: true,
removeComments: true
}
})
]
};
module.exports = config;
My scripts in package.json look like
"scripts": {
"dev:main": "webpack --mode development --config webpack.main.config.js",
"dev:renderer": "webpack --mode development --config webpack.renderer.config.js",
"dev:all": "npm run dev:main && npm run dev:renderer",
"build:main": "webpack --mode production --config webpack.main.config.js",
"build:renderer": "webpack --mode production --config webpack.renderer.config.js",
"build:all": "npm run build:main && npm run build:renderer",
"prestart": "npm run build:all",
"electron": "electron dist/index.js",
"start": "npm run electron",
}
Currently my application creates a dist/bundle.js but when I run electron dist/bundle.js it doesn't work. I get it, it might be because it does not contain src folder but when I copy src folder into dist it still doesn't work.
Firstly, I run npm run dev:main to generate dist/bundle.js then I run npm run dev:renderer to generate dist/renderer/bundle.js & then I run npm run start to start my electron application.
It gives me error "Uncaught Exception: Error: Requires constructor call at new MainWindow" which is in index.js where I call constructor new MainWindow()
I just want to use ES6 in all my JS files. Is there any boilerplate because the ones I found have tons of additional stuff like React JS & all plus a huge number of optimizations ?
After 8 days I found the answer finally. It works with ESM in Electron.
I've made a repo that is minimum & lets you write ESM with Electron.
The complete code can be found at https://github.com/deadcoder0904/electron-webpack-sample
Its very minimal so it should be easy to understand.