We're starting a monthly roundup to highlight activity in the Electron community. Each roundup will feature things like new apps, upcoming meetups, tools, videos, etc.

This site is updated with new apps and meetups through pull requests from the community. You can watch the repository to get notifications of new additions or if you're not interested in all of the site's changes, subscribe to the blog RSS feed.

If you've made an Electron app or host a meetup, make a pull request to add it to the site and it will make the next roundup.

New Apps​

	Demio	A Webinar platform built for inbound sales and marketing
	Electorrent	A remote client app for uTorrent server
	PhoneGap	The open source framework that gets you building amazing mobile apps using web technology
	WordMark	A lightweight blog publishing editor for Markdown writers
	UbAuth	App to help developers create access tokens for Uber applications with OAuth 2.0
	HyperTerm	HTML/JS/CSS terminal
	Marp	Markdown presentation writer
	Glyphr Studio	A free, web based font designer, focusing on font design for hobbyists
	BitCrypt	A simple file encryption application for Windows Encrypt your bits
	Trym	Beautiful small app for macOS to help you view, optimize and convert SVG icons
	Booker	Text editor with the power of Markdown
	PhonePresenter	The smartest presentation clicker
	Yout	The new way to watch your playlists from YouTube on desktop

New Meetups​

This is the first post of a series that explains the internals of Electron. This post introduces how Node's event loop is integrated with Chromium in Electron.

Houve muitas tentativas de usar o Node para a programação da GUI, como node-gui para ligações GTK+, e node-qt para ligações de TQ. But none of them work in production because GUI toolkits have their own message loops while Node uses libuv for its own event loop, and the main thread can only run one loop at the same time. So the common trick to run GUI message loop in Node is to pump the message loop in a timer with very small interval, which makes GUI interface response slow and occupies lots of CPU resources.

During the development of Electron we met the same problem, though in a reversed way: we had to integrate Node's event loop into Chromium's message loop.

The main process and renderer process​

Before we dive into the details of message loop integration, I'll first explain the multi-process architecture of Chromium.

No Electron existem dois tipos de processos: o processo principal e o processo de renderização (isso é realmente extremamente simplificado, para uma visualização completa, por favor veja Arquitetura Multiprocesso). The main process is responsible for GUI work like creating windows, while the renderer process only deals with running and rendering web pages.

Electron allows using JavaScript to control both the main process and renderer process, which means we have to integrate Node into both processes.

Replacing Chromium's message loop with libuv​

My first try was reimplementing Chromium's message loop with libuv.

It was easy for the renderer process, since its message loop only listened to file descriptors and timers, and I only needed to implement the interface with libuv.

However it was significantly more difficult for the main process. Each platform has its own kind of GUI message loops. macOS Chromium uses NSRunLoop, whereas Linux uses glib. I tried lots of hacks to extract the underlying file descriptors out of the native GUI message loops, and then fed them to libuv for iteration, but I still met edge cases that did not work.

So finally I added a timer to poll the GUI message loop in a small interval. As a result the process took a constant CPU usage, and certain operations had long delays.

Polling Node's event loop in a separate thread​

As libuv matured, it was then possible to take another approach.

The concept of backend fd was introduced into libuv, which is a file descriptor (or handle) that libuv polls for its event loop. So by polling the backend fd it is possible to get notified when there is a new event in libuv.

So in Electron I created a separate thread to poll the backend fd, and since I was using the system calls for polling instead of libuv APIs, it was thread safe. And whenever there was a new event in libuv's event loop, a message would be posted to Chromium's message loop, and the events of libuv would then be processed in the main thread.

In this way I avoided patching Chromium and Node, and the same code was used in both the main and renderer processes.

The code​

You can find the implemention of the message loop integration in the node_bindings files under electron/atom/common/. It can be easily reused for projects that want to integrate Node.

Update: Implementation moved to electron/shell/common/node_bindings.cc.

Procurando por uma introdução ao Electron? Dois podcasts que explicam o que é, porque foi construído e como está sendo usado acabaram de ser lançados.

Disponíveis agora:

Hanselminutes: Criando apps multiplataforma com Electron​

O Electron é "apenas o Chrome em um frame" ou é muito mais? Jessica coloca Scott no caminho certo e explica exatamente onde a plataforma Electron se encaixa no seu mundo de desenvolvimento.

JavaScript Air: Aplicativos Electron​

O Electron está se tornando cada vez mais um modo relevante e popular de construir aplicativos multiplataformas para desktop com tecnologias da web. Vamos mergulhar nessa tecnologia incrível e ver como podemos usá-la para melhorar a nossa própria experiência e a experiência do nosso usuário no computador.

Se você está procurando uma introdução ao Electron, escute o primeiro. Já o segundo vai a mais detalhes sobre construir aplicativos, com ótimas dicas do Evan Morikawa, de Nylas.

We are currently working on two more podcasts that should come out next month, keep an eye on the @ElectronJS Twitter account for updates.

Nos últimos dois anos, o Electron tem ajudado desenvolvedores a criar aplicativos usando HTML, CSS e JavaScript. Agora, estamos felizes em anunciar um marco importantíssimo tanto para nossa plataforma quanto para nossa comunidade. A versão do Electron 1.0 está disponível agora a partir de electronjs.org.

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.

Se você estiver pronto para construir seu primeiro aplicativo do Electron, aqui está um guia de início rápido para ajudar você a começar.

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

Electron's Path​

Nós lançamos o Electron quando lançamos o Atom há pouco mais de dois anos atrás. 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.

Agora dirigir o Electron é uma comunidade crescente de desenvolvedores e empresas construindo tudo a partir do e-mail, chat, e aplicativos do Git para Ferramentas de análise de SQL, clientes torrents, e robôs.

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. Faça um tour de alguns dos incríveis aplicativos do Electron e adicione seus próprios se ainda não estiver lá.

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. O aplicativo Demos da API do Electron contém trechos de código para ajudar você a iniciar seu aplicativo e dicas sobre como usar efetivamente a API do Electron.

Devtron​

We've also added a new extension to help you debug your Electron apps. Devtron é uma extensão de código aberto para Chrome Developer Tools criada para ajudá-lo a inspecionar, debug, e resolva seus problemas.

Funcionalidades​

• 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​

Finalmente, estamos lançando uma nova versão do Spectron, a integração framework de testes para aplicativos Electron.

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 é baseado em ChromeDriver e WebDriverIO então ele também tem APIs completas para navegação na página, entrada do usuário e execução de JavaScript.

Comunidade​

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.

Existe agora uma nova página de comunidade que lista muitas das incríveis ferramentas de Electron, apps, bibliotecas e frameworks em desenvolvimento. Você também pode verificar o Electron e Electron Userland organizações para ver alguns desses projetos fantásticos.

New to Electron? Watch the Electron 1.0 intro video:

Electron 0.37 was recently released and included a major upgrade from Chrome 47 to Chrome 49 and also several new core APIs. This latest release brings in all the new features shipped in Chrome 48 and Chrome 49. This includes CSS custom properties, increased ES6 support, KeyboardEvent improvements, Promise improvements, and many other new features now available in your Electron app.

What's New​

CSS Custom Properties​

If you've used preprocessed languages like Sass and Less, you're probably familiar with variables, which allow you to define reusable values for things like color schemes and layouts. Variables help keep your stylesheets DRY and more maintainable.

CSS custom properties are similar to preprocessed variables in that they are reusable, but they also have a unique quality that makes them even more powerful and flexible: they can be manipulated with JavaScript. This subtle but powerful feature allows for dynamic changes to visual interfaces while still benefitting from CSS's hardware acceleration, and reduced code duplication between your frontend code and stylesheets.

For more info on CSS custom properties, see the MDN article and the Google Chrome demo.

CSS Variables In Action​

Let's walk through a simple variable example that can be tweaked live in your app.

:root {
  --awesome-color: #a5ecfa;
}

body {
  background-color: var(--awesome-color);
}

The variable value can be retrieved and changed directly in JavaScript:

// Get the variable value ' #A5ECFA'
let color = window
  .getComputedStyle(document.body)
  .getPropertyValue('--awesome-color');

// Set the variable value to 'orange'
document.body.style.setProperty('--awesome-color', 'orange');

The variable values can be also edited from the Styles section of the development tools for quick feedback and tweaks:

KeyboardEvent.code Property​

Chrome 48 added the new code property available on KeyboardEvent events that will be the physical key pressed independent of the operating system keyboard layout.

This should make implementing custom keyboard shortcuts in your Electron app more accurate and consistent across machines and configurations.

window.addEventListener('keydown', function (event) {
  console.log(`${event.code} was pressed.`);
});

Check out this example to see it in action.

Promise Rejection Events​

Chrome 49 added two new window events that allow you to be notified when an rejected Promise goes unhandled.

window.addEventListener('unhandledrejection', function (event) {
  console.log('A rejected promise was unhandled', event.promise, event.reason);
});

window.addEventListener('rejectionhandled', function (event) {
  console.log('A rejected promise was handled', event.promise, event.reason);
});

Check out this example to see it in action.

ES2015 Updates in V8​

The version of V8 now in Electron incorporates 91% of ES2015. Here are a few interesting additions you can use out of the box—without flags or pre-compilers:

Default parameters​

function multiply(x, y = 1) {
  return x * y;
}

multiply(5); // 5

Atribuição de desestruturação​

Chrome 49 added destructuring assignment to make assigning variables and function parameters much easier.

This makes Electron requires cleaner and more compact to assign now:

Browser Process Requires​

const { app, BrowserWindow, Menu } = require('electron');

Renderer Process Requires​

const { dialog, Tray } = require('electron').remote;

Other Examples​

// Destructuring an array and skipping the second element
const [first, , last] = findAll();

// Destructuring function parameters
function whois({ displayName: displayName, fullName: { firstName: name } }) {
  console.log(`${displayName} is ${name}`);
}

let user = {
  displayName: 'jdoe',
  fullName: {
    firstName: 'John',
    lastName: 'Doe',
  },
};
whois(user); // "jdoe is John"

// Destructuring an object
let { name, avatar } = getUser();

New Electron APIs​

A few of the new Electron APIs are below, you can see each new API in the release notes for Electron releases.

show and hide events on BrowserWindow​

These events are emitted when the window is either shown or hidden.

const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron');

let window = new BrowserWindow({ width: 500, height: 500 });
window.on('show', function () {
  console.log('Window was shown');
});
window.on('hide', function () {
  console.log('Window was hidden');
});

platform-theme-changed on app for OS X​

This event is emitted when the system’s Dark Mode theme is toggled.

const { app } = require('electron');

app.on('platform-theme-changed', function () {
  console.log(`Platform theme changed. In dark mode? ${app.isDarkMode()}`);
});

app.isDarkMode() for OS X​

This method returns true if the system is in Dark Mode, and false otherwise.

scroll-touch-begin and scroll-touch-end events to BrowserWindow for OS X​

These events are emitted when the scroll wheel event phase has begun or has ended.

const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron');

let window = new BrowserWindow({ width: 500, height: 500 });
window.on('scroll-touch-begin', function () {
  console.log('Scroll touch started');
});
window.on('scroll-touch-end', function () {
  console.log('Scroll touch ended');
});

Building an Electron application means you only need to create one codebase and design for one browser, which is pretty handy. But because Electron stays up to date with Node.js and Chromium as they release, you also get to make use of the great features they ship with. In some cases this eliminates dependencies you might have previously needed to include in a web app.

There are many features and we'll cover some here as examples, but if you're interested in learning about all features you can keep an eye on the Google Chromium blog and Node.js changelogs. You can see what versions of Node.js, Chromium and V8 Electron is using at electronjs.org/#electron-versions.

ES6 Support through V8​

Electron combines Chromium's rendering library with Node.js. The two share the same JavaScript engine, V8. Many ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) features are already built into V8 which means you can use them in your Electron application without any compilers.

Below are a few examples but you can also get classes (in strict mode), block scoping, promises, typed arrays and more. Check out this list for more information on ES6 features in V8.

Arrow Functions

findTime () => {
  console.log(new Date())
}

String Interpolation

var octocat = 'Mona Lisa';
console.log(`The octocat's name is ${octocat}`);

New Target

Octocat() => {
  if (!new.target) throw "Not new";
  console.log("New Octocat");
}

// Throws
Octocat();
// Logs
new Octocat();

Array Includes

// Returns true
[1, 2].includes(2);

Rest Parameters

// Represent indefinite number of arguments as an array
(o, c, ...args) => {
  console.log(args.length);
};

Chromium Features​

Thanks to all the hard work Google and contributors put into Chromium, when you build Electron apps you can also use cool things like (but not limited to):

• MouseEvent.getModifierState()
• CSS.escape()
• Fetch API Streaming

Follow along with the Google Chromium blog to learn about features as new versions ship and again, you can check the version of Chromium that Electron uses here.

What are you excited about?​

Tweet to us @ElectronJS with your favorite features built into V8 or Chromium.

Since the beginning of Electron, starting way back when it used to be called Atom-Shell, we have been experimenting with providing a nice cross-platform JavaScript API for Chromium's content module and native GUI components. The APIs started very organically, and over time we have made several changes to improve the initial designs.

Now with Electron gearing up for a 1.0 release, we'd like to take the opportunity for change by addressing the last niggling API details. The changes described below are included in 0.35.x, with the old APIs reporting deprecation warnings so you can get up to date for the future 1.0 release. An Electron 1.0 won't be out for a few months so you have some time before these changes become breaking.

Deprecation warnings​

By default, warnings will show if you are using deprecated APIs. To turn them off you can set process.noDeprecation to true. To track the sources of deprecated API usages, you can set process.throwDeprecation to true to throw exceptions instead of printing warnings, or set process.traceDeprecation to true to print the traces of the deprecations.

New way of using built-in modules​

Os módulos integrados agora estão agrupados em um módulo, em vez de serem separados em módulos independentes, para que você possa usá-los sem conflitos com outros módulos:

var app = require('electron').app;
var BrowserWindow = require('electron').BrowserWindow;

The old way of require('app') is still supported for backward compatibility, but you can also turn if off:

require('electron').hideInternalModules();
require('app'); // throws error.

An easier way to use the remote module​

Because of the way using built-in modules has changed, we have made it easier to use main-process-side modules in renderer process. You can now just access remote's attributes to use them:

// New way.
var app = require('electron').remote.app;
var BrowserWindow = require('electron').remote.BrowserWindow;

Instead of using a long require chain:

// Old way.
var app = require('electron').remote.require('app');
var BrowserWindow = require('electron').remote.require('BrowserWindow');

Splitting the ipc module​

The ipc module existed on both the main process and renderer process and the API was different on each side, which is quite confusing for new users. We have renamed the module to ipcMain in the main process, and ipcRenderer in the renderer process to avoid confusion:

// In main process.
var ipcMain = require('electron').ipcMain;

// In renderer process.
var ipcRenderer = require('electron').ipcRenderer;

And for the ipcRenderer module, an extra event object has been added when receiving messages, to match how messages are handled in ipcMain modules:

ipcRenderer.on('message', function (event) {
  console.log(event);
});

Standardizing BrowserWindow options​

The BrowserWindow options had different styles based on the options of other APIs, and were a bit hard to use in JavaScript because of the - in the names. They are now standardized to the traditional JavaScript names:

new BrowserWindow({ minWidth: 800, minHeight: 600 });

Following DOM's conventions for API names​

The API names in Electron used to prefer camelCase for all API names, like Url to URL, but the DOM has its own conventions, and they prefer URL to Url, while using Id instead of ID. We have done the following API renames to match the DOM's styles:

• Url is renamed to URL
• Csp is renamed to CSP

You will notice lots of deprecations when using Electron v0.35.0 for your app because of these changes. An easy way to fix them is to replace all instances of Url with URL.

Changes to Tray's event names​

The style of Tray event names was a bit different from other modules so a rename has been done to make it match the others.

• clicked is renamed to click
• double-clicked is renamed to double-click
• right-clicked is renamed to right-click

Recently Electron added two exciting features: a Mac App Store compatible build and a built-in Windows auto updater.

Mac App Store Support​

As of v0.34.0 each Electron release includes a build compatible with the Mac App Store. Previously an application built on Electron would not comply with Apple's requirements for the Mac App Store. Most of these requirements are related to the use of private APIs. In order to sandbox Electron in such a way that it complies with the requirements two modules needed to be removed:

• crash-reporter
• auto-updater

Additionally some behaviors have changed with respect to detecting DNS changes, video capture and accessibility features. You can read more about the changes and submitting your app to the Mac App store in the documentation. The distributions can be found on the Electron releases page, prefixed with mas-.

Related Pull Requests: electron/electron#3108, electron/electron#2920

Windows Auto Updater​

In Electron v0.34.1 the auto-updater module was improved in order to work with Squirrel.Windows. This means that Electron ships with easy ways for auto updating your app on both OS X and Windows. You can read more on setting up your app for auto updating on Windows in the documentation.

Related Pull Request: electron/electron#1984

Houveram algumas atualizações e conversações interessantes sobre o Electron recentemente, aqui está um resumo geral.

Fonte​

O Electron agora está atualizado com o Chrome 45 a partir de v0.32.0. Outras atualizações incluem...

Melhor Documentação​

Reestruturamos e normalizamos a documentação para melhor visualização e melhor leitura. Também há traduções da documentação que contribuem para a comunidade, como japonês e coreano.

Requests pull relacionados: electron/electron#2028, electron/electron#2533, electron/electron#2557, electron/electron#2709, electron#2725, electron#2698, electron/electron#2649.

Node.js 4.1.0​

Desde v0.33.0 o Electron vem com Node.js 4.1.0.

Pul request relacionado: electron/electron#2817.

node-pre-gyp​

Módulos que dependem de node-pre-gyp agora podem ser compilados contra Electron ao construir a partir da fonte.

Related pull request: mapbox/node-pre-gyp#175.

Suporte ARM​

O Electron agora fornece compilações para Linux no ARMv7. Ele é executado em plataformas populares como Chromebook e Raspberry Pi 2.

Problemas relacionados: atom/libchromiumcontent#138, electron/electron#2094, electron/electron#366.

Janela sem Frame estilo de Yosemit​

Um ‘patch’ de @jaanus foi mesclado que, como os outros aplicativos integrados do OS X, permite criar janelas sem frames com os semáforos do sistema integrados no OS X Yosemite e posteriormente.

Pull request relacionado: electron/electron#2776.

Suporte à Impressão do Google Summer of Code​

Após o Google Summer of Code , fizemos merge dos patches por @hokein para melhorar o suporte à impressão. e adicione a possibilidade de imprimir a página em arquivos PDF.

Problemas relacionados: electron/electron#2677, electron/electron#1935, electron/electron#1532, electron/electron#805, electron/electron#1669, electron/electron#1835.

Atom​

Atom agora foi atualizado para Electron v0.30.6 rodando Chrome 44. Uma atualização para v0.33.0 está em progresso no atom/atom#8779.

Talks​

O GitHubber Amy Palamountain fez uma excelente introdução ao Electron em uma palestra em Nordic.js. Ela também criou a biblioteca electron-accelerator.

Construindo aplicações nativas com Electron por Amy Palomountain​

Ogle, também na equipe Atom , falou com Electron na YAPC Asia:

Construindo Aplicativos de Desktop com Tecnologias Web por Ben Ogle​

O membro da Atom da equipe Kevin Sawicki e outros deram palestras sobre o Electron na plataforma Bay são recentemente o Grupo de Usuários Electron. Os vídeos foram postados, aqui estão alguns:

A História do Electron por Kevin Sawicki​

Fazendo com que um aplicativo da web pareça nativo por Ben Gotow​

Join us September 29th at GitHub's HQ for an Electron meetup hosted by Atom team members @jlord and @kevinsawicki. There will be talks, food to snack on, and time to hangout and meet others doing cool things with Electron. We'll also have a bit of time to do lightning talks for those interested. Hope to see you there!

Talks

• Jonathan Ross and Francois Laberge from Jibo will share how they use Electron to animate a robot.
• Jessica Lord will talk about building a teaching tool, Git-it, on Electron.
• Tom Moor will talk about the pros and cons of building video and screen sharing on Electron with speak.io.
• Ben Gotow will preview N1: The Nylas Mail Client and talk about developing it on Electron.

Detalhes​

• Location: GitHub HQ, 275 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107
• Date: Tuesday, September 29th, 2015
• Time: 6pm - 9pm
• RSVP: ti.to/github-events/electron-meetup