Electron react build not launching

Question

I'm having some issues while trying to glue together this two things.

Let me give you some context: I'm trying to build a desktop application based on a web application that I've developed in react and it's fully operative and the build process of react is done without any errors nor issues. The problem comes when I try to glue Electron + a React Built Project.

I'm having the following structure:

• / dist
• / node_modules
• / react-mobx-router
  • / build
    • / static
      • / js
        • main.05ef4655.js
      • / css
        • main.9d8efafe.css
    • index.html
• index.js

At the index.js i have the following code that's basically the sample boilerplate code from electron demo app:

'use strict';
const electron = require('electron');

const app = electron.app;

// adds debug features like hotkeys for triggering dev tools and reload
require('electron-debug')();

// prevent window being garbage collected
let mainWindow;

function onClosed() {
    // dereference the window
    // for multiple windows store them in an array
    mainWindow = null;
}

function createMainWindow() {
    const win = new electron.BrowserWindow({
        width: 1280,
        height: 720,
        minWidth: 1280,
    minHeight: 720
    });

    win.loadURL(`file://${__dirname}/react-mobx-router/build/index.html`);
    //win.loadURL(`http://localhost:3000`);
    win.on('closed', onClosed);

    return win;
}

app.on('window-all-closed', () => {
    if (process.platform !== 'darwin') {
        app.quit();
    }
});

app.on('activate', () => {
    if (!mainWindow) {
        mainWindow = createMainWindow();
    }
});

app.on('ready', () => {
    mainWindow = createMainWindow();
});

I also have to manually change some paths at the react built index.html so it will look like:

<link href="./static/css/main.9d8efafe.css" rel="stylesheet">

instead of:

<link href="/static/css/main.9d8efafe.css" rel="stylesheet">

The second one get's the following errors:

file:///D:/static/css/main.9d8efafe.css Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND

main.05ef4655.js Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND 

The point is that, when I launch the Electron app with yarn start (changing the paths I've told you previously) it launches without any error nor issue but only a blank screen, if I go to the files and look for them, they are correct and the code is inside, bundled and all that react-create-app stuff does.

This is the default configuration of the package.json that comes with Electron and I haven't modified:

{
  "name": "app",
  "productName": "App",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "license": "MIT",
  "repository": "user/repo",
  "author": {
    "name": "",
    "email": "",
    "url": ""
  },
  "scripts": {
    "test": "xo",
    "start": "electron .",
    "build": "electron-packager . --out=dist --asar --overwrite --all"
  },
  "files": [
    "index.js",
    "index.html",
    "index.css"
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "electron-app",
    "electron"
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "electron-debug": "^1.0.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "devtron": "^1.1.0",
    "electron-packager": "^8.0.0",
    "electron": "^1.0.1",
    "xo": "^0.16.0"
  },
  "xo": {
    "esnext": true,
    "envs": [
      "node",
      "browser"
    ]
  }
}

Also this is the package.json of my React Project:

{
  "name": "react-mobx",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "private": true,
  "devDependencies": {
    "custom-react-scripts": "0.0.23",
    "mobx-react-devtools": "^4.2.11"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "mobx": "^3.1.4",
    "mobx-react": "^4.1.2",
    "mobx-react-router": "latest",
    "react": "^15.4.2",
    "react-dom": "^15.4.2",
    "react-router": "latest"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "start": "react-scripts start",
    "build": "react-scripts build",
    "test": "react-scripts test --env=jsdom",
    "eject": "react-scripts eject"
  }
}

Note that the React App is fully functional if I don't make use of Electron.

That's why I ask for your wisdom, mates. I need some light here so I can keep moving on with this project. Hope you can help me with this issue and I've provided you with enough information. If you need more info, just let me know.

Warm regards, Alex.

Answer 1

I'm no React hero (by a long chalk) but I am able to run, hot reload and release build using the schema set out by this boilerplate: electron-es6-react . I added some conditional code to main.js (below) for builds. There are no doubt much better solutions.

You definitely need to merge your React package.json with Electron's.

var isDev = process.env.APP_DEV ? (process.env.APP_DEV.trim() == "true") : false;

if (isDev) {
  // only add this during development
  require('electron-reload')(__dirname, {
    electron: path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules', '.bin', 'electron')
  });
}

---

package.json

 { "name": "electron-es6-react", "version": "0.1.0", "description": "template", "license": "MIT", "production": false, "version-string": { "CompanyName": "Cool Co.", "FileDescription": "template", "OriginalFilename": "template", "ProductName": "template", "InternalName": "template" }, "main": "main.js", "scripts": { "start": "APP_DEV=true electron -r babel-register .", "package-mac": "electron-packager . --overwrite --tmpdir=false --platform=darwin --arch=x64 --prune=true --out=release-builds", "package-win": "electron-packager . --overwrite --tmpdir=false --asar=true --platform=win32 --arch=ia32 --prune=true --out=release-builds" }, "dependencies": { "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.3.13", "babel-preset-react": "^6.3.13", "babel-register": "^6.3.13", "fs-jetpack": "^0.12.0", "react": "^15.3.2", "react-dom": "^15.3.2", "react-images": "^0.5.2" }, "devDependencies": { "electron": "^1.4.3", "electron-packager": "^8.5.2", "electron-reload": "^1.1.0" } }