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Electron 1.0

· 4 min read
jlord
jlord

For the last two years, Electron has helped developers build cross platform desktop apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Now we're excited to share a major milestone for our framework and for the community that created it. The release of Electron 1.0 is now available from electronjs.org.

Electron 1.0

Electron 1.0 represents a major milestone in API stability and maturity. This release allows you to build apps that act and feel truly native on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Building Electron apps is easier than ever with new docs, new tools, and a new app to walk you through the Electron APIs.

If you're ready to build your very first Electron app, here's a quick start guide to help you get started.

We are excited to see what you build next with Electron.

Electron's Path​

We released Electron when we launched Atom a little over two years ago. Electron, then known as Atom Shell, was the framework we'd built Atom on top of. In those days, Atom was the driving force behind the features and functionalities that Electron provided as we pushed to get the initial Atom release out.

Now driving Electron is a growing community of developers and companies building everything from email, chat, and Git apps to SQL analytics tools, torrent clients, and robots.

In these last two years we've seen both companies and open source projects choose Electron as the foundation for their apps. Just in the past year, Electron has been downloaded over 1.2 million times. Take a tour of some of the amazing Electron apps and add your own if it isn't already there.

Electron downloads

Electron API Demos​

Along with the 1.0 release, we're releasing a new app to help you explore the Electron APIs and learn more about how to make your Electron app feel native. The Electron API Demos app contains code snippets to help you get your app started and tips on effectively using the Electron APIs.

Electron API Demos

Devtron​

We've also added a new extension to help you debug your Electron apps. Devtron is an open-source extension to the Chrome Developer Tools designed to help you inspect, debug, and troubleshoot your Electron app.

Devtron

Features​

  • Require graph that helps you visualize your app's internal and external library dependencies in both the main and renderer processes
  • IPC monitor that tracks and displays the messages sent and received between the processes in your app
  • Event inspector that shows you the events and listeners that are registered in your app on the core Electron APIs such as the window, app, and processes
  • App Linter that checks your apps for common mistakes and missing functionality

Spectron​

Finally, we're releasing a new version of Spectron, the integration testing framework for Electron apps.

Spectron

Spectron 3.0 has comprehensive support for the entire Electron API allowing you to more quickly write tests that verify your application's behavior in various scenarios and environments. Spectron is based on ChromeDriver and WebDriverIO so it also has full APIs for page navigation, user input, and JavaScript execution.

Community​

Electron 1.0 is the result of a community effort by hundreds of developers. Outside of the core framework, there have been hundreds of libraries and tools released to make building, packaging, and deploying Electron apps easier.

There is now a new community page that lists many of the awesome Electron tools, apps, libraries, and frameworks being developed. You can also check out the Electron and Electron Userland organizations to see some of these fantastic projects.

New to Electron? Watch the Electron 1.0 intro video: