We’ll be using Quasar CLI to develop and build an Electron App. The difference between building a SPA, PWA, Mobile App or an Electron App is simply determined by the “mode” parameter in “quasar dev” and “quasar build” commands.
But first, let’s learn how we can configure the Electron build.
quasar.config file
You may notice that the /quasar.config file contains a property called electron.
// should you wish to change default files
// (notice no extension, so it resolves to both .js and .ts)
sourceFiles: {
electronMain: 'src-electron/electron-main',
electronPreload: 'src-electron/electron-preload'
},
// electron configuration
electron: {
// specify the debugging port to use for the Electron app when running in development mode
inspectPort: 5858,
bundler: 'packager', // or 'builder'
// @electron/packager options
// https://electron.github.io/packager/main/
packager: {
//...
},
// electron-builder options
// https://www.electron.build/configuration/configuration
builder: {
//...
},
// Specify additional parameters when yarn/npm installing
// the UnPackaged folder, right before bundling with either
// electron packager or electron builder;
// Example: [ 'install', '--production', '--ignore-optional', '--some-other-param' ]
unPackagedInstallParams: [],
// optional; add/remove/change properties
// of production generated package.json
extendPackageJson (pkg) {
// directly change props of pkg;
// no need to return anything
},
// optional; webpack config Object for
// the Main Process ONLY (/src-electron/main-process/electron-main.js)
extendWebpackMain (cfg) {
// directly change props of cfg;
// no need to return anything
},
// optional; EQUIVALENT to extendWebpackMain() but uses webpack-chain;
// for the Main Process ONLY (/src-electron/main-process/electron-main.js)
chainWebpackMain (chain) {
// chain is a webpack-chain instance
// of the Webpack configuration
// example:
// chain.plugin('eslint-webpack-plugin')
// .use(ESLintPlugin, [{ extensions: [ 'js' ] }])
},
// optional; webpack config Object for
// the Preload Process ONLY (/src-electron/main-process/electron-preload.js)
extendWebpackPreload (cfg) {
// directly change props of cfg;
// no need to return anything
},
// optional; EQUIVALENT to extendWebpackPreload() but uses webpack-chain;
// for the Preload Process ONLY (/src-electron/main-process/electron-preload.js)
chainWebpackPreload (chain) {
// chain is a webpack-chain instance
// of the Webpack configuration
// example:
// chain.plugin('eslint-webpack-plugin')
// .use(ESLintPlugin, [{ extensions: [ 'js' ] }])
}
}The “packager” prop refers to @electron/packager options. The dir and out properties are overwritten by Quasar CLI to ensure the best results.
The “builder” prop refers to electron-builder options.
Packager vs. Builder
You have to choose to use either packager or builder. They are both excellent open-source projects, however they serve slightly different needs. With packager you will be able to build unsigned projects for all major platforms from one machine (with restrictions). Although this is great, if you just want something quick and dirty, there is more platform granularity (and general polish) in builder. Cross-compiling your binaries from one computer doesn’t really work with builder (or we haven’t found the recipe yet…)
Dependencies optimization
By default, all dependencies from your root package.json file get installed and embedded into the production executable.
This means that it will also include your UI-only deps, which are already bundled in the UI files (so it will duplicate them). From our CLI perspective, we don’t have any generic way of telling whether a dependency is UI only or if it’s used by the main/preload scripts, so we cannot reliably auto-remove them.
However, you can do this by using quasar.conf > electron > extendPackageJson(pkg) and overwriting or tampering with the dependencies key from your package.json file. If you leave only the main & preload threads depdendencies then this will lead to a smaller production executable file.