Electron: From Beginner to Pro
Welcome to Electron:
GitHub Electron (or simply Electron) allows you to build desktop applications using just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sounds like a pretty ambitious statement to make.
But it is indeed true, just as Apache Cordova (also known as PhoneGap) enables you to create mobile applications also with just HTML, CSS, JS, and so does Electron for the desktop.
Originally released in July 2013 by Cheng Zhao, an engineer at Github, it was part of their effort to
produce a new code editor, Atom.
Initially, the project was known as the Atom Shell but was soon rebranded simply as Electron.
Although other solutions existed, this project quickly gained traction within the
development community.
In fact, Adobe AIR, released back in 2008, originally supported building desktop
applications with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, in addition to ActionScript. So the desire to leverage web technologies beyond the browser is certainly not a new one.
In this book, we will take you through the entire Electron ecosystem from its initial setup, through its
key features, like creating native menus and windows and more, and how to deploy our app so it can be distributed to our users.
Rather bog you down in understanding some abstract sample applications, we are going to be focusing on the core code needing to make Electron work. So, you don't need to know the latest
framework to use Electron, but having some basic knowledge with Node.js is useful.
Here is a brief outline of what we are going to be covering:
•Setting up Electron
• Exploring creating the application’s window
• Adding native menus
• Implementing native dialogs
• Learning how to interact with the user’s system
• Creating installable and auto-updating applications
So, if you are ready to start learning about Electron, let's get started.