equivalen-electron-connect
v0.0.1
Published
Livereload tools for Electron development
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electron-connect
Utility tool to develop applications with Electron.
Using this in your Node.js scripts (e.g. gulpfile.js
), you can livereload your Electron app.
It provides the following features:
- start (and restart) Electron application.
- reload renderer processes.
- stop Electron application.
Install
Use npm:
npm install electron
npm install electron-connect --save-dev
Usage
electron-connect
has server and client components. They communicate with each other using WebSocket.
The server component manages Electron process and broadcasts reload event to client, and client components reload renderer's resources.
Server
Here is an example creating a server in gulpfile.
'use strict';
var gulp = require('gulp');
var electron = require('electron-connect').server.create();
gulp.task('serve', function () {
// Start browser process
electron.start();
// Restart browser process
gulp.watch('app.js', electron.restart);
// Reload renderer process
gulp.watch(['index.js', 'index.html'], electron.reload);
});
Client
A client can be created in either browser process or renderer process.
Note:
Please make sure it is not done in both.
- RendererProcess
<html>
<body>
<!-- build:remove -->
<!-- Connect to server process -->
<script>require('electron-connect').client.create()</script>
<!-- end:build -->
</body>
</html>
Do you want to use this tool for only develop environment ?
You can remove the <script>
block in your gulpfile using gulp-useref.
- BrowserProcess
'use strict';
var app = require('app');
var BrowserWindow = require('browser-window');
var client = require('electron-connect').client;
app.on('ready', function () {
var mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
width: 400,
height: 300
});
mainWindow.loadUrl('file://' + __dirname + '/index.html');
// Connect to server process
client.create(mainWindow);
});
If you want details, see example/simple.
API References
server.create([options])
options
Objectelectron
Object. Anelectron
module. Set it If you want to use your forked Electron.useGlobalElectron
Boolean. If set, electron-connect useselectron
module installed globally (default:false
).path
String. A path to yourpackage.json
file (default:process.cwd()
).port
Number. WebSocket server port (default:30080
).spawnOpt
Object. Options for spawn.logLevel
Number. The granularity of the electron-connect logging in your prompt.0
- warning only,1
- warning and info only,2
- all logs (default:1
).stopOnClose
Boolean. If set, closing last remaining window stops the electron application.
Returns a new ProcessManager
object.
If neither electron
nor useGlobalElectron
option is set, electron-connect searches for electron
module automatically.
- First, electron-connect searches
electron
installed locally. - If not hit, electron-connect uses
electron
installed globally.
New in version 0.5.x and onwards :
Now, ProcessManager's start()
, restart()
and stop()
methods invoke callback
with an argument that indicates the state
of the electron process, which could be one of the following string values -
started
restarting
restarted
stopped
See example/stop-on-close, where you can find sample code that uses stopOnClose
option and stopped
state to shutdown gulp process gracefully.
Class: ProcessManager
start([args], [callback])
args
String or Array. Additional arguments used when create a process.callback
Function
Starts a server and Electron application process.
restart([args], [callback])
args
String or Array. Additional arguments used when create a process.callback
Function
Kills Electron process if it exsists, and starts new one.
This method is useful for callback of your browserProcess sourcecodes' change event.
reload([ids])
ids
String or Array. A list of id of target client.
Emit reload event to target clients. Broadcasts reload event to all connected Client
object if ids
not set.
This method does not kill any Electron processes.
This method is useful for callback of your rendererProcess sourcecodes' change event.
stop([callback])
callback
Function
Kills Electron process and stops server.
on(eventName, callback)
eventName
Stringcallback
Function
Registers an eventhandler that gets invoked when an event is emitted by Client.sendMessage
.
broadcast(eventName, [data])
eventName
String. A message type.data
Object. A message data.
Broadcasts an event to all clients.
client.create([browserWindow], [options], [callback])
browserWindow
Object. Optional, in rendererProcess only. Required, when client is created in browserProcess.options
Objectport
Number. WebSocket server port (default:30080
) that client should connect to.sendBounds
BooleanlogLevel
Number. See server.create([options]).logLevel.callback
Function
Creates a new Client
object associated with browserWindow
and connects to ProcessManager
.
The browserWindow
should be an Electron browser-window instance.
Once a client is created and connected to the server, client can receive events (e.g. reload).
If sendBounds
is set (default true
), client sends a bounds object when browserWindow
moves or resizes.
And when ProcessManager.restart()
is called, client recovers the bounds stored at server.
Class: Client
id
An identifier of this client. It is a same value browserWindow.id
.
on(eventName, callback)
eventName
Stringcallback
Function
Registers an eventhandler that gets invoked, when an event is emitted by ProcessManager.broadcast
.
sendMessage(eventName, [data])
eventName
String. A message type.data
Object. A message data.
Emits an event to ProcessManager
.
License
MIT