electron-typescript-aurelia-starter

Requirements

Development

Globally installed NPM packages:

• jspm
• typings
• gulp

Packaging

Glboally installed NPM packages:

• wine (when packing win on linux)
• electron-packager

Prepare

npm install
jspm install -y
typings install

Run

gulp build
electron dist/main.js

Working

• Electron main-process code can be written in typescript.

• Aurelia code running in renderer-processes can be written in typescript.

• UX solution uses Aurelia, SystemJS, JSPM.

• Aurelia code can utilizes render process Electron API via nodeRequire, welcome.ts features IPC between main and render process as an example: var ipc: Electron.IpcRenderer = window.nodeRequire('electron').ipcRenderer;

Adoptions made

• Layout changed:

  • All UX components like the Aurelia SPA (multiple would be possible too) are located in /src/ux.

  • Electron main process code is located in /src, main.ts is the electron starting point.

  • Styles are inside /src/ux.

• Aurelia launcher /src/ux/index.html:

  • Script tag in header does save the node-inject require implementation into window.nodeRequire before deleting those. This way jQuery will detect a normal browser environment and the node-integration does not have to be deactivated.

    • Because of this the ambient declaration custom_typings/node-require.d.ts was added.

  • FontAwesome is imported through SystemJS - recommended for all Aurelia projects as you no longer need to hardcode its version.

• SystemJS configuration /config.js:

  • Paths relative to import point of SystemJS, which is [src|dist]/ux/index.html so we go a bit up.

Todo

[ ] Is there a way to use TypeScript import-syntax to load electron modules instead of window.nodeRequire?

[ ] Enable SASS/SCSS for CSS

[ ] Adopt gulp watch task to automatically reload electron after rebuilding

[ ] Electron packaging

[ ] Re-integrate testing

[ ] VS Code launch/debug integration

[ ] Replace old typings with the new typescript npm @types completly?

[ ] Better possibility for using electron API than nodeRequire?