Electron Desktop App Development · Lesson

Multi-Window Architectures

Design and implement complex multi-window Electron applications, managing inter-window communication and state effectively.

Why Multiple Windows?

Electron applications often benefit from using multiple windows. Think of a chat application: you might have a main contact list and separate windows for each active conversation.

Separate Workflows: Isolate tasks into dedicated windows.
User Preferences: A settings window distinct from the main application.
Auxiliary Tools: Dedicated viewers, inspectors, or side panels.
Enhanced User Experience: Provides flexibility and organization for complex apps.

Spawning a New Window

Creating additional windows in Electron is similar to creating your initial main window. You simply instantiate another BrowserWindow in your main process.

Here's how you can create a second window that loads a different HTML file.

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');
const path = require('path');

let mainWindow;
let secondWindow;

function createMainWindow() {
  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    width: 800,
    height: 600,
    webPreferences: {
      nodeIntegration: false,
      contextIsolation: true,
      preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload.js')
    }
  });
  mainWindow.loadFile('index.html');
}

function createSecondWindow() {
  secondWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    width: 400,
    height: 300,
    parent: mainWindow, // Optional: make it a child window
    modal: false, // Optional: for modal behavior
    show: false, // Don't show immediately
    webPreferences: {
      nodeIntegration: false,
      contextIsolation: true,
      preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload_second.js')
    }
  });
  secondWindow.loadFile('second.html');
  secondWindow.once('ready-to-show', () => {
    secondWindow.show();
  });
}

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  createMainWindow();
  createSecondWindow();

  app.on('activate', () => {
    if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) {
      createMainWindow();
    }
  });
});

app.on('window-all-closed', () => {
  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') {
    app.quit();
  }
});

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