egasimus / vite-plugin-electron

:electron: 🔗 ⚡️

vite-plugin-electron

Integrate Vite and Electron

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Usage

Example 👉 vite-plugin-electron-quick-start

vite.config.ts

import electron from 'vite-plugin-electron'

export default {
  plugins: [
    electron({
      main: {
        entry: 'electron/main.ts',
      },
    }),
  ],
}

API

electron(config: Configuration)

import type { LibraryOptions, UserConfig } from 'vite'
import type { InputOption } from 'rollup'

export interface Configuration {
  main: {
    /**
     * Shortcut of `build.lib.entry`
     */
    entry: LibraryOptions['entry']
    vite?: UserConfig
  }
  preload?: {
    /**
     * Shortcut of `build.rollupOptions.input`
     */
    input: InputOption
    vite?: UserConfig
  }
}

How to work

The plugin is just the encapsulation of the built-in scripts of electron-vite-boilerplate/scripts

Recommend structure

Let's use the vanilla-ts template created based on create vite as an example

+ ├─┬ electron
+ │ └── main.ts
  ├─┬ src
  │ ├── main.ts
  │ ├── style.css
  │ └── vite-env.d.ts
  ├── .gitignore
  ├── favicon.svg
  ├── index.html
  ├── package.json
  ├── tsconfig.json
+ └── vite.config.ts

🚨 By default, the files in electron folder will be built into the dist/electron

🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧

vite-plugin-electron/renderer

Use Electron and Node.js API in Renderer-process

If you only need to build the Renderer-process, you can just use the vite-plugin-electron/renderer plugin

Example 👉 electron-vite-boilerplate/packages/renderer/vite.config.ts

Usage

vite.config.ts

import renderer from 'vite-plugin-electron/renderer'

export default {
  plugins: [
    renderer(),
  ],
}

renderer.js

import { readFile } from 'fs'
import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron'

readFile(/* something code... */)
ipcRenderer.on('event-name', () => {/* something code... */})

How to work

Using Electron API in Renderer-process

import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron'
↓
// Actually will redirect by `resolve.alias`
import { ipcRenderer } from 'vite-plugin-electron/renderer/modules/electron-renderer.js'

Using Node.js API in Renderer-process

import { readFile } from 'fs'
↓
// All Node.js API will redirect to the directory created based on `vite-plugin-optimizer` by `resolve.alias`
import { readFile } from '.vite-plugin-electron-renderer/fs'

Config presets

1. Fist, the plugin will configuration something. If you do not configure the following options, the plugin will modify their default values

• base = './'
• build.assetsDir = '' -> TODO: Automatic splicing build.assetsDir
• build.emptyOutDir = false
• build.cssCodeSplit = false
• build.rollupOptions.output.format = 'cjs'
• resolve.conditions = ['node']
• Always insert the electron module into optimizeDeps.exclude

2. The plugin transform Electron and Node.js built-in modules to ESModule format in vite serve phase.

3. Add Electron and Node.js built-in modules to Rollup output.external option in the vite build phase.

FAQ

You may need to use some Node.js modules from npm in the Main-process/Renderer-process.
I suggest you look at electron-vite-boilerplate.