Knectron

Utility to connect Electron to remote source such as Create React App.

At first you may think this is overkill but we wrote this as it just connects/fires up in a little cleaner manner. Once you get the hang of it, you'll likely find it useful.

Quick Start

$ npm install knectron

Using API

const knectron = require('../dist/knectron');

knectron({
  args: ['./dist'] // first arg is path to electron app
});

Knectron Options

interface IConnectOptions {
  port?: number;                  // port to listen on (default: 3000)
  host?: string;                  // host to listen on (default: 127.0.0.1)
  spawnOptions?: SpawnOptions;    // child_process options (default: { stdio: pipe })
  args?: any[];                   // args passed to Electron (default: './dist')
  maxTries?: number;              // max reconnect tries (default: 5)
  retryDelay?: number;            // delay between retries (default: 1200)

  // API ONLY - NO CLI
  onConnected?: (url?: string) => void;
  onFailed?: (tries?: number) => void;
  onRetry?: (tries?: number) => void;
  onExit?: (err: Error) => void;
}

Using CLI

Knectron comes with a simple CLI. You can either install globally:

Using Globally

Install Knectron globally.

$ npm install knectron -g

One in your path you can do the following where args after "--" are passed directly to electron as shown here below.

$ knectron ./main.js -- --enable-logging

Using NPM Script

Or you can use npm scripts to execute:

{
  "scripts": {
    "knectron": "knectron ./main.js"
  }
}

Then simply run the script as you would any npm script:

$ npm run knectron

CLI Help

To display help from your terminal run:

$ knectron --help

You will see the below help:

`Usage: knectron <path> [options]

Options:
  --port            the port to connect to
  --host            the host to connect to
  --silent          hides retries
  --max-tries       maximum connection retries
  --retry-delay     delay until retry
  --spawn-options   Node child_process spawn options
  --help, -h        display help
  --examples        show examples

Args provided after "--" directly passed to Electron`

CLI Examples

From your terminal type:

$ knectron --examples

The following will be shown:

`Examples:
  knectron ./main.js --host=127.0.0.1 --port=5000
  knectron ./main.js -- --enable-logging --v=5
  knectron ./main.js --spawn-options.stdio=inherit
  knectron ./main.js --spawn-options.stdio='[0,1,2]'`