electron reload
This is (hopefully) the simplest way to load contents of all active BrowserWindows within electron when the source files are changed.
Disclaimer: this module is in its very early stages and the logic is still not mature enough.
Installation
npm install electron-reload
Usage
Just initialize this module with desired glob or file path to watch and let it refresh electron browser windows as targets are changed:
'use strict';
const {app, BrowserWindow} = require('electron');
require('electron-reload')(__dirname);
// Standard stuff
app.on('ready', () {
let mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({width: 800, height: 600});
mainWindow.loadUrl(`file://${__dirname}/index.html`);
// the rest...
});
Note that the above code only refreshes WebContents of all BrowserWindows. So if you want to have a hard reset (starting a new electron process) you can just pass the path to the electron executable in the options object. For example if you already have electron pre-built installed you could just do
require('electron-reload')(__dirname, {
electron: require('electron-prebuilt')
});
You could also use the (relatively) new electron package, but you should specify the path directly (no require!):
const path = require('path')
require('electron-reload')(__dirname, {
electron: path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules', '.bin', 'electron')
});
If your app overrides some of the default quit or close actions (e.g. closing the last app window hides the window instead of quitting the app) then the default electron-reload hard restart could leave you with multiple instances of your app running. In these cases you can change the default hard restart action from app.quit() to app.exit() by specifying the hard reset method in the electron-reload options:
const path = require('path')
require('electron-reload')(__dirname, {
electron: path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules', '.bin', 'electron'),
hardResetMethod: 'exit'
});
API
electron_reload(paths, options)
-
paths: a file, directory or glob pattern to watch -
options(optional) containing:chokidaroptionselectronproperty pointing to electron executables.argvstring array with command line options passed to the executed Electron app. Only used when hard resetting.forceHardReset: enables hard reset for every file change and not only the main file
optionswill default to{ignored: /node_modules, [\/\\]\./, argv: []}.
Why this module?
Simply put, I was tired and confused by all other available modules which are so complicated* for such an uncomplicated task!
* e.g. start a local HTTP server, publish change events through a WebSocket, etc.!
Even more!
If you want to have least effort when developing electron packages, take a look at neutron!
Changelog
- 1.5.0:
- Upgrade
chokidarfrom v2 to v3 (lighter/faster installation) - Add friendly linting in dev mode (
node run lint) and fix CI linting issues (see #62)
- Upgrade
- 1.4.1: Fix two minor bugs
- 1.4.0: Enable hard reset for all changes (and not only the main file)
- 1.3.0: Allow passing arguments to electron executable upon hard resets
- 1.2.5: Upgrade dependencies (fix vulnerabilities)
- 1.2.4: Use
index.jsas fallback ifmainis not defined inpackage.json - 1.2.3: Fix multiple instances on restart
- 1.2.2: Fix
browserWindows[]indexing - 1.2.1: Remove logging from production code (d'oh)
- 1.2.0: Allow hard reset in multiple browser windows
- 1.1.0: Add
app.exit()in addition toapp.quit()for hard resets - 1.0.3: Fix hard reset bug
- 1.0.2: Detach child so that killing parent doesn't kill it (on windows)
- 1.0.1: Replace
extendwithObject.assign - 1.0.0: Adapt to Electron 1.0 new API
- 0.3.0: Use new method of accessing
app(e.g.require(electron).app) - 0.2.0: Use new electrons (> v0.32.3)
browser-window-createdevent