I have an Electron app. I try to make the app open an .exe file. I created a directory in the root folder named lib
and placed the .exe file there. In development, I have no problem opening the file by using __dirname + '/lib/file.exe
, but when I package the app (using yarn dist
), it does not open the exe file and there is no lib
folder anymore on the dist
folder.
I tried writing to console the default location using console.log(__dirname)
and it outputs \dist\win-unpacked\resources\app.asa
(which is a file).
How can I add an external file that can be accessed when the app is packaged?
Add the following code to package.json:
"build": {
"extraResources": [
{
"from": "./src/extraResources/",
"to": "extraResources",
"filter": [
"**/*"
]
}
]
}
Then, you can access the files using
const configFile = path.join(path.dirname(__dirname), 'extraResources','config.json');
I use the following folders structure which allows me to run the app any way.
from project folder:
node_modules\.bin\electron.cmd src\main\index.js
from unpacked source
dist\win-unpacked\app.exe check-for-update
from installed folder
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\app\app.exe
+-- dist
| +-- win-unpacked
| +-- resources
| +-- extraResources
| config.json
+-- node_modules
+-- src
| +-- extraResources
| config.json
| someFile.js
| +-- main
| index.js
| +-- render
| index.js
Managed to solve it by using extraResources. Should be declared under build in your package.json
file.
For example:
- Create a new folder named extraResources adjacent to pacakge.json
Add the following code to your package.json
file:
"build": {
"extraResources": ["./extraResources/**"]
}
- Then, you can access the files inside this folder by using
__dirname + '/../extraResources/'
from your main app.
there I found a new solution,
using electron-packager on Windows do not add the files into the resources folder at the end of the process.
So I added this command into the package.json
"build-win": "electron-packager . --platform=win32 --asar --prune --arch=ia32 --extra-resource=./extraResources/documents/QuickStartGuideWN-H1.pdf --extra-resource=./extraResources/MAC_drivers/MacOS10.14/ --icon=assets/alfa_a.ico --out ./dist --overwrite",
And now the files are insied the resource fodlder just add
--extra-resource=./extraResources/file