The boilerplate code to get started creating Cross-platform Desktop Apps with Electron and Cuttlebelle as front-end technology.

    

      

✒️ Overview

The aim of this project is to provide Web Developers using cuttlebelle the power to create cross-platform desktop apps using electron.

🧐 What packages does the project use?

electron enables you to create desktop applications with pure JavaScript by providing a runtime with rich native (operating system) APIs. You could see it as a variant of the Node.js runtime that is focused on desktop applications instead of web servers.

electron-builder is used as a complete solution to package and build a ready for distribution (supports Numerous target formats) Electron app with "auto update" support out of the box.

electron-serve is used for Static file serving for Electron apps.

cuttlebelle is a static site generator that uses react for layouts and let's you use one layout per page-partial and cleanly separates content from code.

concurrently is used to run multiple commands concurrently.

wait-on is used as it can wait for sockets, and http(s) resources to become available.

🚀 Getting Started

Note: If you wish to use npm over yarn then modify package.json by replacing yarn with npm in electron-dev and preelectron-pack scripts. But I strongly recommend using yarn as it is a better choice when compared to npm.

🤓 Use this boilerplate

# Clone the Project

# Use degit scaffolding tool
$ npx degit soulehshaikh99/create-cuttlebelle-electron-app create-cuttlebelle-electron-app
# or GitHub CLI Users
$ gh repo clone https://github.com/soulehshaikh99/create-cuttlebelle-electron-app.git
# or Normal Git Users
$ git clone https://github.com/soulehshaikh99/create-cuttlebelle-electron-app.git

# Switch location to the cloned directory
$ cd create-cuttlebelle-electron-app

# Install dependencies
$ yarn # or npm install

# Run your app
$ yarn electron-dev # or npm run electron-dev

# Package Your App
$ yarn electron-pack # or npm run electron-pack

💫 Create this boilerplate from scratch (Manual Setup)

1) Start by installing cuttlebelle globally

$ yarn global add cuttlebelle
# npm i -g cuttlebelle

2) Create a project directory and switch location to it.

$ mkdir create-cuttlebelle-electron-app
$ cd create-cuttlebelle-electron-app

3) Initialize project with your favorite package manager

# set entry point to main.js
$ yarn init # or npm init

4) Initialize project directory using cuttlebelle.

$ cuttlebelle init

5) Install Development Dependencies

$ yarn add --dev electron electron-builder wait-on concurrently
# npm i -D electron electron-builder wait-on concurrently

6) Install Production Dependency

$ yarn add electron-serve # or npm i electron-serve

7) Your dependencies should look something like this

"dependencies": {
  "electron-serve": "^1.0.0"
},
"devDependencies": {
  "concurrently": "^5.3.0",
  "electron": "^9.2.0",
  "electron-builder": "^22.8.0",
  "wait-on": "^5.2.0"
},

8) Download the app icon

favicon.png and place it in the assets directory.

9) Paste cuttlebelle configuration in package.json file

# Adding this configuration makes sure the browser will not 
# automatically open http://localhost:8080/.
"cuttlebelle": {
  "site": {
    "browserSync": {
      "open": false
    }
  }
}

10) Create main.js file (serves as entry point for Electron App's Main Process)

# Windows Users
$ fsutil file createnew main.js 0
# notepad main.js 

# Linux and macOS Users
$ touch main.js

11) Paste the below code in main.js file

// Modules to control application life and create native browser window
const { app, BrowserWindow, dialog } = require('electron');
const path = require('path');
const serve = require('electron-serve');
const loadURL = serve({ directory: 'site' });

// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
// be closed automatically when the JavaScript object is garbage collected.
let mainWindow;

function isDev() {
    return !app.isPackaged;
}

function createWindow() {
    // Create the browser window.
    mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 800,
        height: 600,
        webPreferences: {
            nodeIntegration: true
        },
        // Use this in development mode.
        icon: isDev() ? path.join(process.cwd(), 'assets/favicon.png') : path.join(__dirname, 'site/assets/favicon.png'),
        // Use this in production mode.
        // icon: path.join(__dirname, 'site/assets/favicon.png'),
        show: false
    });

    // This block of code is intended for development purpose only.
    // Delete this entire block of code when you are ready to package the application.
    if (isDev()) {
        mainWindow.loadURL('http://localhost:8080/');
    } else {
        loadURL(mainWindow);
    }
    
    // Uncomment the following line of code when app is ready to be packaged.
    // loadURL(mainWindow);

    // Open the DevTools and also disable Electron Security Warning.
    // process.env['ELECTRON_DISABLE_SECURITY_WARNINGS'] = true;
    // mainWindow.webContents.openDevTools();

    // Emitted when the window is closed.
    mainWindow.on('closed', function () {
        // Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
        // in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
        // when you should delete the corresponding element.
        mainWindow = null
    });

    // Emitted when the window is ready to be shown
    // This helps in showing the window gracefully.
    mainWindow.once('ready-to-show', () => {
        mainWindow.show()
    });
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
// Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
app.on('ready', createWindow);

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
    // On macOS it is common for applications and their menu bar
    // to stay active until the user quits explicitly with Cmd + Q
    if (process.platform !== 'darwin') app.quit()
});

app.on('activate', function () {
    // On macOS it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
    // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
    if (mainWindow === null) createWindow()
});
// In this file you can include the rest of your app's specific main process
// code. You can also put them in separate files and require them here.

12) Add scripts in package.json

"scripts": {
  "start": "cuttlebelle watch --silent",
  "build": "cuttlebelle",
  "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
  "electron": "wait-on http://localhost:8080/ && electron .",
  "electron-dev": "concurrently \"yarn run start\" \"yarn run electron\"",
  "preelectron-pack": "yarn run build",
  "electron-pack": "electron-builder"
}

13) Add the following configuration in package.json

Note: build configuration is used by electron-builder, modify it if you wish to add more packaging and native distribution options for different OS Platforms.

"main": "main.js",  # Application Entry Point, please verify entry point is set to main.js 
"build": {
  "icon": "assets/favicon.png",
  "productName": "Cuttlebelle and Electron App",
  "files": [
    "site/**/*",
    "main.js"
  ],
  "win": {},  # Windows Specific Configuration
  "linux": {},  # Linux Specific Configuration
  "mac": {}  # MacOs Specific Configuration
}

14) Test drive your app

# Run your app
$ yarn electron-dev # or npm run electron-dev

# Package Your App
$ yarn electron-pack # or npm run electron-pack

💯 Result

😍 Made with ❤️ from Souleh

📋 License:

Licensed under the MIT License.