Building with Electron

KVision allows you to develop cross-platform (Windows, Linux and Mac), desktop applications with the full power of Electron framework. You can use all KVision components in your desktop applications, and the kvision-electron module gives you a complete set of Kotlin language bindings for Electron API.

Setting up

The easiest way to start is to clone template-electron project from kvision-examples repository on GitHub. It contains the basic configuration for building, running and bundling your application. To run your application during the development call:

./gradlew runApp                                    (on Linux)
gradlew.bat runApp                                  (on Windows)

It will open an Electron window with your application running inside.

To bundle your application call:

./gradlew bundleApp                                    (on Linux)
gradlew.bat bundleApp                                  (on Windows)

It will create packed and unpacked app in the build/electron directory.

If your application doesn't use any NodeJS or Electron API, you can use standard way of development, inside your favorite web browser.

Configuring Electron builder

The application is build with electron-builder tool. The configuration is contained in the src/main/electron/electron-builder.yml configuration file. You can find documentation of electron-builder here. By default the application is built for the current platform only. Cross-platform build (e.g. for Windows on Linux host) is sometimes possible, but there are some additional requirements.

Using NodeJS and Electron API

To use NodeJS and Electron API in your application, you have to add kvision-electron module to your build.gradle.kts dependencies. NodeJS Kotlin bindings are provided by node-kt project (package node.*) and Electron bindings are provided directly by KVision module (package pl.treksoft.kvision.electron.*).

Note: The KVision application works within renderer process of Electron, and you have to use remote object or ipcRenderer to get access to some parts of Electron API.