I am using Electron to make a desktop app. In my app I am loading a an external site (outside Atom app) lets say http://mydummysite/index.html page.
Here is the structure of my app in Atom Editor:
i.e it is having following parts:
- main.js
- package.json
- nodemodules>jquery (to load jquery)
Source code:
main.js:
'use strict';
var app = require('app');
app.on('ready', function() {
var BrowserWindow = require('browser-window');
var win =
new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600, show: false,
'node-integration':true });
win.on('closed', function() {
win = null;
});
win.loadUrl('http://mydummysite/index.html ');
win.show();
});
package.json:
{
"name": "my-mac-app",
"version": "5.2.0",
"description": "My Mac Desktop App",
"main": "main.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "electron ."
},
"author": "Me",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"jquery": "^2.1.4"
}
}
External page - http://mydummysite/index.html page code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello World!</h1>
</body>
<script>
var jqr=require('jquery');
</script>
</html>
When I run the above app (by dragging the application folder to Electron) the external page (http://mydummysite/index.html) loads in Electron shell
but with the error "Uncaught Error: Cannot find module 'jquery'"
Can you help me finding the cause of this issue?
As you can see in my screenshot of directory structure I have alread installed jquery module to my folder and I did it via "npm install jquery" command.
Note: To play with "require" command in JS I tried adding "require("ipc")" in my external page http://mydummysite/index.html page and it was working so what could be the reason with require("jquery").
Did I add external module (jquery) in correct way in Electron?
Am I missing some dependency in package.json?
What I have already tried:
- npm cache clean, npm install jquery (to my app folder)
- npm install --save jquery
- npm install jquery -g
- npm rebuild
- sudo npm install jquery -g
- sudo npm install jquery
- export NODE_PATH=/usr/local/lib/node_modules
Here is the screenshot of the location from where the error is thrown in module.js
Can someone suggest why require("ipc") is working and require("jquery") not?
My goal is to use jQuery with electron app with node-integration true.
tl;dr
In contrast to a normal nodejs app, where you have access to global modules (e.g. located in /usr/bin/node
), electron doesn't automatically set the NODE_PATH
environment variables. You have to set it manually to all the paths containing your desired modules.
Update:
The answer to the question
why require("ipc")
is working and require("jquery")
not?
is to be found in this issue, stating that system/user modules should not be included in the global path of the module
since they could contain modules not shipped with the app and possibly compiled with the wrong v8 headers.
And if you take a look at electron's source you can see that internal modules are added to the module.globalPaths
:
# Add common/api/lib to module search paths.
globalPaths.push path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'api', 'lib')
thats why you have access to ipc
, app
, etc. but not the modules that you have installed globally using npm install -g
.
I just tried it out with the latest electron-prebuilt
version with a local server serving exactly the same HTML file that you provided and I think I know what the problem is: If you don't append the path to your app node_modules
directory under your app root to the NODE_PATH
variable it is not going to work. So you need to do something like this:
export NODE_PATH=/PATH/TO/APP/node_modules
electron /PATH/TO/APP
When exporting NODE_PATH
make sure that you provide an absolute path.
Update 2:
The answer to the comment:
I get jQuery not found errors
Is to be found in this ticket. Basically if you use the jQuery's npm package or do something like the following in your HTML files inside electron:
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.4.min.js"></script>
What you get is a factory and not the actual jQuery object attached to the global context (e.g window
). As I mentioned in a previous answer (containing also jQuery's source code)
When you require jQuery inside a CommonJS or similar environment which provides module
and module.exports
, what you get is a factory and not the actual jQuery object.
Now to use that factory (either by importing the code from the CDN or if you have the npm module available locally) you would need something as the following:
<script>
window.jQuery = window.$ = require('jquery');
</script>
I have written an article that explains the combination of Node + jQuery.
Install jquery with npm isn't enough :
npm install --save jquery
It recovers the source files of jQuery in your project. But you have to include the script in your html file :
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<h1>Hello World!</h1>
</body>
<!-- Try to load from cdn to exclude path issues. -->
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.4.min.js"></script>
<script>
window.jQuery = window.$ = jQuery;
$(document).ready(function() {
console.log( "jQuery is loaded" );
});
</script>
</html>
# assuming you have installed jquery locally instead of globally like in as
npm install jquery -s # without -g flag
instead of require("jquery"), give relative path from source directory
require("./node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js");
Try the following:
<script>window.$ = window.jQuery = require('./node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js');</script>
OR
<script>var $ = jQuery = require('./node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js');</script>
I have the same issue when using jQuery with electron, and find out a solution for these case:
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.min.js"
onload="window.$ = window.jQuery = module.exports;" ></script>
Source: https://discuss.atom.io/t/electron-app-to-host-external-site/16390/9
I hope below link will put some light on your doubt for
why require("ipc") is working and require("jquery") not?
https://github.com/atom/electron/issues/254
https://discuss.atom.io/t/electron-app-to-host-external-site/16390/7
The same issue happened to me , a simple solution is to add this to your index.js file :
app.on('ready', function() {
var mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
"node-integration": false
})
//rest of your initialization code here.
})
the issue is caused by node , for more information please refer to this post
Setting node-integration to false will disable node.js in the renderer
process - i.e. your app can only do what a web browser will do.