Electron

Application and Data / Languages & Frameworks / Cross-Platform Desktop Development

subz390

Developer ·Jan 5, 2022

Needs advice

Electron

Node.js

and

Raspberry Pi

Kiosk App on Raspberry Pi

I have a personal project that I'm developing into a Kiosk app and am considering deploying it on a RaspberryPi as a semi-portable controller user interface.
I'm new to RaspberryPi, I know my way around Debian though, and so I've researched a few Electron tutorials on using Electron on a RaspberryPI and they seem to be what I'm looking for.
However, I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions in working with Electron on the RaspberryPi, in particular in Kiosk with a touchscreen for user input.
What's the performance like, are there memory constraints, any reliability issues I should be aware of?
Once the project is at a working stage I plan to open source it on my GitHub for further input and development.
I'm a long term JavaScript developer (since the late 90's for real I was there when JS was first released, unashamed Vanilla.JS fanboi)
I write for the browser and server backend environments using Web technologies and Node.js.

6 upvotes·22.7K views

Replies (2)

Michael Hengherr

Owner at dreizehnelf - IT Beratung·Jan 11, 2022

Recommends

Node.js

Raspberry Pi

Hey subz390,

I think the Raspberry will fit your bill just fine. What I'm not really clear about is why you'd want to use Electron for the Kiosk App. Electron itself bundles a browser which then executes a web application - so in essence I do think you should be able to totally ditch Electron and just load up your web application in a browser (i.e. Firefox) in Kiosk mode. That could save you some complexity in your stack and maybe even some resources.

7 upvotes·1 comment·10.7K views

subz390

January 12th 2022 at 12:23PM

thanks for the feedback, it would be possible to do what I'm doing in a web page and bundle it in a PWA with `display: standalone` and then run the nodejs server as a separate process.

Lee Dydo

Technology Development Manager at Outform·Jan 12, 2022

Recommends

Electron

Node.js

Raspberry Pi

I use them in kiosks with lower performance demands. You’re going to get some stuttering doing animation.

2 upvotes·10.6K views

Needs advice

and

Hello friends. This is my first "post" here. I'm new to programming :)

Is it possible to use Electron in a web application that has Ruby on the backend?

2 upvotes·3K views

Needs advice

and

We want to create a 3D web and desktop(Windows and macOS) application with a lot of functionalities. This is a 3D furniture customization application in which we give options to add, delete, scale, move, rotate objects. Something like a floor planner. We are also going to add AR and VR.

I am thinking about using Electron or Unity. Please recommend what should I choose for this purpose. Please consider that we have to develop for web and desktop (windows and mac) all platforms.

10 upvotes·41.2K views

Replies (1)

Recommends

Take Unity for development as it is a full engine, with better tools to develop UI, use 3D assets, develop the integration with the API endpoints and deployment not only for Web (w/ WebAssembly) and Desktop, but also Mobile platforms (Android and iOS)

3 upvotes·153 views

Dieudonné ALLOGNON

Junior Fullstack Developer ·Apr 27, 2021

Needs advice

Electron

Sequelize

and

TypeORM

Hey! I am actually in internship and have an app to create for my structure. It will be an intern app which will allow crud dashboard actions with some data provided by the use of an API of one of the structure partner and make a correspondence to data contained in a private database. Since it's an intern app, I thought about Electron for a desktop app because I did a lot of web with Laravel and the structure goes more for the desktop app. But it will be my first occasion working with this tech.

Is Electron a good choice? Wich ORM should be more complete and adapted to this between Sequelize and TypeORM? (Database will be MySQL) Some charts will be displayed in the app. Is there a library (preferably without jQuery) that suits this stack?

Thank you !

5 upvotes·193.2K views

Replies (1)

Recommends

Unless you're either using a local database or a backend server, you shouldn't choose either.

My recommendation would be having a NodeJS API on the backend that connects to the database and Electron connects to the API. Never give the database connection data to the end user, unless it's a planned move and it's to use on a local database.

I can recommend Sequelize because what I'm use the most on every project I need to create database connections. It supports TypeScript, and if you already have the database create you can use sequelize-auto to create the models, as easy as that.

I've only used Electron once and I liked it, but it's not a good comparison, since it doesn't offer any database access by default. I used React for the frontend part of the app, you can use whatever you want.

6 upvotes·2 comments·7.4K views

Dieudonné ALLOGNON

May 24th 2021 at 7:13AM

Thank you! That's what I finally decided. Your answer makes me sure that I am on the right track

Alexandre Desroches

July 25th 2021 at 4:41PM

If possible, avoid making an Electron App because the build process can be much more irritating and complex than making a web app. If you're able to use technologies like Firebase Firestore and a simple front-end to serve the data it will be hundred times faster than handling a full desktop app!

Needs advice

and

I would like to share my stack in Web/Mobile application Development for Mid Sized Applications.

Project-1 : Laravel + jQuery + Android Java + IOS Swift

Project-2 : Node.js + React + React Native + Electron.

This is my current Stack, Can you comment on my selection and add your thoughts if my choice is a perfect match? Thanks

4 upvotes·325.9K views

Replies (2)

John Clifford de Vera

Software Engineer at CircleYY·Oct 1, 2020

Recommends

Node.js

I would say go for Node.js since you probably would only build a REST API that would talk to the frontend and some communication with the database.

On the other hand, Laravel is a much heavier framework that follows MVC pattern. Since you don't need the V in the MVC of Laravel. You can go for a straight Express that just handles the API request and return a response.

6 upvotes·271.3K views

Nathan De Pachtere

Fullstack Developer at Alpsify·Sep 24, 2020

Recommends

Flutter

Alpsify

Hello Varun S,

Project-1 : If the Laravel part is an API, you should check Flutter or Quasar Framework for your frontend in order to reduce the development time and process.

3 upvotes·1 comment·276K views

Varun S

September 26th 2020 at 12:56PM

Thanks for your comment, I like Flutter for some extend.

but not quasar since I am not a big fan of vue.js due to lack of much community support. Thanks

Fernando Albertengo

Full Stack Developer ·Sep 21, 2020

Needs advice

and

I'm currently doing some research to build a full cross-platform system that our personnel will use for various management and selling purposes, this is just a first step to migrate (and clean, lots of cleaning) a gigantic and obsolete system made in Java 7 with a nightmarish coupling between logic and view layers.

Since the system itself is considerably large, we are currently migrating the essential modules of its logic to an ExpressJS driven Restful API.

As a complementary project, I must find a way to share the highest possible amount of view code while achieving said cross-platform capacity.

My approach is the following:

Angular 7+ and Ionic 5 for Android and iOS.
Angular 7+ for the web.
Angular 7+ and Electron for Desktop.

While Angular is the common part, and considering that Ionic can work on any platform, i'm wondering what is the best way to achieve a non-conflicting integration of Electron.js to the very-commonly-used Angular+Ionic Stack for both Mobile and Web development?

I've stumbled with a quite good template build called Polyonic but I would love to hear more about the matter before taking such a long-lasting decision.

(twitter.com)

9 upvotes·72.8K views

Replies (1)

Recommends

Hello Fernando, I think that most of your approach is correct but maybe you're forgetting that an Ionic and Angular (together or not) could be a PWA that solves your desktop problem. With a PWA you only have to build a mobile and web solution and remember that you can build a library of components shared between Angular and Ionic. I hope this helps.

5 upvotes·2 comments·12.8K views

Fernando Albertengo

September 24th 2020 at 7:37PM

Oh yes, absolutely, with your PWA approach i even get a simpler distribution process. In that case, the only question that remains is if i will have the same level of access to the host. (i do have to connect to some periferials)

Thank you very much!

monikaja47

September 25th 2020 at 9:25AM

Hi again,

here you have a good resume of PWA characteristics:

https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engineering/progressive-web-apps/

If you need to use some native functionalities is possible PWA does not fit your necessities but I think it worths it to take a look.

Needs advice

and

Hi, I'm a web dev and am using Electron for a desktop app. Now I have to develop a mobile app with the following features:

Posting/uploading files by users, private messaging between users, download files, moderation of the uploads, push notification of new posts.
Mods can ban users and delete files.
Share buttons from the library folder of the user phone.
When a user uploads a photo, a pencil tool for deleting staff on the pic.

Which tool is better for such a project?

Thanks in advance

4 upvotes·364.5K views

Replies (2)

Lee Dydo

Technology Development Manager at Outform·Apr 8, 2020

Recommends

React Native

Given your experience in electron I think the shortest hop is going to be React Native. Especially since half of the requirements are server-side. Google is doing a pretty great job bringing up Flutter and the tooling is pretty great. For me however, dart seemed like quicksand and not everything is in its final home. React Native is mature, and considering my cursory analysis of your experience and the low complexity of this project, you've got quite a lot of room to grow into Javascript Land. Ultimately, my recommendation is always "play with both, see what you like, and get to know the documentation and the community." Keep your head on a swivel and set aside time to peek greener pastures, but spend most of your time delving deeply into what you're already doing.

But yeah, go with React Native first, get bored of it, learn what the shortcomings are through experience and then see if something else is really more attractive or just a new shiny.

5 upvotes·1 comment·326.7K views

zensabbah

April 9th 2020 at 6:39PM

Thanks a lot Lee, really appreciate your suggestion :)

Varun Sharma

CTO at Nugen Computer & I.T. Services·Apr 8, 2020

Recommends

React Native

Well, I will personally recommend to go for React Native as I have worked in both of them. React native has big community and it is easy to opt as compared to Flutter. There no doubt about the fact that Flutter is a great framework for developing both Android/IOS apps. However, you should have some experience to go for the same. Both will require prior knowledge as for React Native you have to go through Javascript first with which you are already familiar and for Flutter you need to go through Dart. So being familiar with Javascript you should go for React Native. You can go expo which has lot of inbuilt functionalities for the React Native developers.

5 upvotes·2 comments·326.7K views

zensabbah

April 9th 2020 at 6:43PM

Thanks Varun for your suggestion! Just a little more help.

I saw Pepperoni Kit seems to accomplish a lot of the features I need to build.

Also I saw Expo, it seems help avoiding the installation both Xcode and Android Studio, but it's less "complete out of the box", am I right?

I'm curious to heard your opinion regarding this.

Sincerely,

Varun Sharma

April 10th 2020 at 7:22AM

Hi Zensabbah,

thanks for asking. Expo is a great toolchain that is built around React Native and you can achieve almost every task using expo in react native. As far as Pepperoni Kit is concerned. It is new in market as compared to Expo toolchain. I do not have any experience with the same. However, I personally recommend Expo because you will able to get help as the community for expo is so big. So, you won't be having any issues in troubleshooting your stuff. In case you need any help regarding any stuff of expo then let me know.

Jeff Galbraith

Jul 12, 2019

Shared insights

PostgreSQL Modeler

Vue.js vuex Vue Router Quasar Framework Electron Node.js npm Yarn Git GitHub Netlify My tech stack that helps me develop quickly and efficiently. Wouldn't want it any other way.

11 upvotes·398.5K views

Paul Whittemore

Developer and Owner at Appurist Software·Jul 8, 2019

Shared insights

I'm building most projects using: Server: either Fastify (all projects going forward) or ExpressJS on Node.js (existing, previously) on the server side, and Client app: either Vuetify (currently) or Quasar Framework (going forward) on Vue.js with vuex on Electron for the UI to deliver both web-based and desktop applications for multiple platforms.

The direct support for Android and iOS in Quasar Framework will make it my go-to client UI platform for any new client-side or web work. On the server, I'll probably use Fastly for all my server work, unless I get into Go more in the future.

Update: The mobile support in Quasar is not a sufficiently compelling reason to move me from Vuetify. I have decided to stick with Vuetify for a UI for Vue, as it is richer in components and enables a really great-looking professional result. For mobile platforms, I will just use Cordova to wrap the Vue+Vuetify app for mobile, and Electron to wrap it for desktop platforms.

15 upvotes·1 comment·930.2K views

Paul Whittemore

November 8th 2019 at 2:16AM