Desktop Apps in a Javascript World

Marc MacLeod@marbemac

Me

PHP -> Ruby -> Python -> Node / Go

Vanilla -> Backbone -> Ember -> Meteor -> React

Backend

Frontend

<3 Techstars & Austin

StopLight (https://stoplight.io)

JS Desktop Apps? What’s the difference?

Web

Desktop

access to node

JS Desktop Apps? What’s the difference?

access to packages (npm)

access to OS specific functionality / features

app stores!

Electron Node-Webkit (NW.js) MacGap

Sponsor Github Intel N/A

Node? Yes Yes No

OS X Store Maybe Maybe Yes

Windows Store Yes Yes No

Auto-Update Included? Yes No No

Native OS Bindings Yes Yes Yes

Size > 60mb > 60mb ~1mb

The Landscape

http://electron.atom.io/

https://github.com/marbemac/electric-tunes

Let’s build an app

Main Process vs Render Processes

main.js

Sprinkle in some Node (io.js)

app.js

Sprinkle in some native

main.js

IPC!

main -> renderrender -> main

Communicating between main and render processes

electron-packager

Distribution

https://github.com/maxogden/electron-packager

Storage / Persistence

HTML5 Local Storage

NEDB (node)https://github.com/louischatriot/nedb

PouchDB (javascript / couch db)http://pouchdb.com/

What else?

Managing a local http server

Manage command line apps via node child_process / spawn

Load dev tools extensions

Auto-Updates (Squirrel Framework)

Thank You!Questions?

Marc MacLeodmarc@stoplight.io