Electron (software framework)

Electron applications include a "main" process and several "renderer" processes. The main process runs the logic for the application (e.g., menus, shell commands, lifecycle events), and can then launch multiple renderer processes by instantiating an instance of the {{code|BrowserWindow|javascript|style=font-weight: bold; color: green;}} class, which loads a window that appears on the screen by rendering HTML and CSS.{{fact|date=October 2024}}

Both the main and renderer processes can run with Node.js integration if the {{code|nodeIntegration}} field in the main process is set to {{code|true|javascript}}.{{fact|date=October 2024}}

Most of Electron's APIs are written in C++ or Objective-C and are exposed directly to the application code through JavaScript bindings.{{Cite web|url=https://electronjs.org/blog/from-native-to-js|title=From native to JavaScript in Electron {{!}} Electron Blog|website=electronjs.org|date=19 March 2019|access-date=2019-04-26|archive-date=26 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426032159/https://electronjs.org/blog/from-native-to-js|url-status=live}}

In September 2021, Electron moved to an eight-week release cycle between major versions to match the release cycle of Chromium Extended Stable and to comply with a new requirement from the Microsoft Store that requires browser-based apps to be within two major versions of the latest release of the browser engine.{{Cite web|url=https://electronjs.org/blog/8-week-cadence|title=New Electron Release Cadence | Electron|date=14 July 2021|website=electronjs.org|access-date=9 February 2022|archive-date=14 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714162435/https://electronjs.org/blog/8-week-cadence|url-status=live}}

Electron frequently releases new major versions along every other Chromium release. The latest three stable versions are supported by the Electron team.{{Cite web |title=Electron Releases {{!}} Electron |url=https://electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/electron-timelines |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=electronjs.org |language=en |archive-date=16 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221216134548/https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/electron-timelines |url-status=live }}

{{Main|List of software using Electron}}

Desktop applications built with Electron include Atom,{{cite web |last1=Sawicki |first1=Kevin |date=23 April 2015 |title=Atom Shell is now Electron |url=https://electronjs.org/blog/2015/04/23/electron |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016124310/https://electronjs.org/blog/electron |archive-date=16 October 2019 |access-date=15 July 2017 |work=Electron}} balenaEtcher,{{cite web |title=Etcher on GitHub |url=https://github.com/balena-io/etcher |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116012922/https://github.com/balena-io/etcher |archive-date=16 November 2018 |access-date=7 July 2020 |website=GitHub}} Eclipse Theia, Microsoft Teams before 2.0,{{Cite web |last=msdmaguire |title=How Microsoft Teams uses memory - Microsoft Teams |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-memory-usage-perf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208013106/https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-memory-usage-perf |archive-date=8 December 2020 |access-date=2021-11-12 |website=docs.microsoft.com |language=en-us}}{{cite web |last1=Redmond |first1=Tony |title=Teams 2.0 Moves Away from Electron to Embrace Edge WebView2 |url=https://office365itpros.com/2021/06/25/teams-2-webview2-replaces-electron/ |website=Office 365 for IT Pros |date=25 June 2021 |access-date=2 August 2024}} Slack,{{cite news |date=25 October 2016 |title=Building hybrid applications with Electron |url=https://slack.engineering/building-hybrid-applications-with-electron-dc67686de5fb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016124311/https://slack.engineering/building-hybrid-applications-with-electron-dc67686de5fb?gi=b2a5127226ea |archive-date=16 October 2019 |access-date=12 August 2017 |work=Several People Are Coding}} and Visual Studio Code.{{cite web |last1=Bright |first1=Peter |date=29 April 2015 |title=Microsoft's new Code editor is built on Google's Chromium |url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/microsofts-new-code-editor-is-built-on-googles-chromium/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507020146/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/microsofts-new-code-editor-is-built-on-googles-chromium/ |archive-date=7 May 2015 |access-date=18 November 2015 |work=Ars Technica}}{{cite web |date=29 March 2022 |title=Open Source project |url=https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123164810/https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode |archive-date=23 November 2015 |access-date=20 May 2018 |website=GitHub}} The Brave browser was based on Electron before it was rewritten to use Chromium directly.{{cite web |last=Singh |first=Jagmeet |date=2017-01-03 |title=People are now even doing machine learning in JavaScript |url=https://www.opensourceforu.com/2017/01/javascript-creator-brendan-eich-interview/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107122039/https://www.opensourceforu.com/2017/01/javascript-creator-brendan-eich-interview/ |archive-date=7 January 2017 |accessdate=2022-08-26 |publisher=Open Source For U}}

The most common criticism of Electron is that it necessitates software bloat when used for simple programs.{{cite web |last=Proven |first=Liam |date=2021-11-19 |title=Some FOSS gems: Franz, RamBox, Pidgin and more |url=https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/19/friday_foss_fest/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119235239/https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/19/friday_foss_fest/ |archive-date=19 November 2021 |accessdate=2022-08-26 |publisher=The Register}} As a result, Michael Larabel has referred to the framework as "notorious among most Linux desktop users for being resource heavy, not integrating well with most desktops, and generally being despised."{{cite web |last=Larabel |first=Michael |date=2019-02-09 |title=Electron Apps Are Bad, So Now You Can Create Desktop Apps With HTML5 + Golang |url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/HTML5-Golang-Desktop-Apps |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826131838/https://www.phoronix.com/news/HTML5-Golang-Desktop-Apps |archive-date=26 August 2022 |accessdate=2022-08-26 |publisher=Phoronix}}

Researchers have shown that Electron's large feature set can be hijacked by bad actors with write access to the source JavaScript files. This requires root access on *nix systems and is not considered to be a vulnerability by the Electron developers.{{cite web |last=Gallagher |first=Sean |date=2019-08-07 |title=Skype, Slack, other Electron based apps can be easily backdoored |url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/skype-slack-other-electron-based-apps-can-be-easily-backdoored/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807173425/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/skype-slack-other-electron-based-apps-can-be-easily-backdoored/ |archive-date=7 August 2019 |accessdate=2022-08-26 |publisher=Ars Technica}} Those who are concerned that Electron is not always based on the newest version of Chromium have recommended progressive web applications as an alternative.{{cite web |last=Hoffman |first=Chris |date=2019-08-15 |title=That native app is probably just an old web browser |url=https://www.howtogeek.com/436841/that-native-app-is-probably-just-an-old-web-browser/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815143207/https://www.howtogeek.com/436841/that-native-app-is-probably-just-an-old-web-browser/ |archive-date=15 August 2019 |accessdate=2022-08-26 |publisher=How To Geek}}

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=35em|

• Apache Cordova
• Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF)
• HTML Application
• Qt WebEngine
• XULRunner
• JavaFX WebView
• DotNetBrowser
• Progressive web app
• Node.js
• Tauri (software framework)
• Flutter (software)
• PyQt

}}

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