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<p align="center"> <img width="170" src="https://github.com/electron-vite/vite-plugin-electron/blob/main/logo.svg?raw=true"> </p> <div align="center"> <h1>vite-plugin-electron-renderer</h1> </div> <p align="center">Support use Node.js API in Electron-Renderer</p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://npmjs.com/package/vite-plugin-electron-renderer"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/vite-plugin-electron-renderer.svg"> </a> <a href="https://npmjs.com/package/vite-plugin-electron-renderer"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/dm/vite-plugin-electron-renderer.svg"> </a> <a href="https://discord.gg/YfjFuEgVUR"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/chat-discord-blue?logo=discord"> </a> </p> <p align="center"> <strong> <span>English</span> | <a href="https://github.com/electron-vite/vite-plugin-electron-renderer/blob/main/README.zh-CN.md">简体中文</a> </strong> </p> <br/>

In short, vite-plugin-electron-renderer is responsible for polyfilling Electron, Node.js built-in modules.

Install

npm i vite-plugin-electron-renderer -D

Usage

  1. This just modifies some of Vite's default config to make the Renderer process works.
import renderer from 'vite-plugin-electron-renderer'

export default {
  plugins: [
    renderer(),
  ],
}
  1. Using the third-part C/C++, esm package in the Renderer process.
import renderer from 'vite-plugin-electron-renderer'

export default {
  plugins: [
    renderer({
      resolve: {
        // C/C++ modules must be pre-bundle
        serialport: { type: 'cjs' },
        // `esm` modules only if Vite does not pre-bundle them correctly
        got: { type: 'esm' },
      },
    }),
  ],
}

By the way, if a module is marked as type: 'cjs', the plugin just loads it in using require(). So it should be put into dependencies.

API (Define)

renderer(options: RendererOptions)

export interface RendererOptions {
  /**
   * Explicitly tell Vite how to load modules, which is very useful for C/C++ and `esm` modules
   * 
   * - `type.cjs` just wraps esm-interop
   * - `type.esm` pre-bundle to `cjs` and wraps esm-interop
   * 
   * @experimental
   */
  resolve?: {
    [module: string]: {
      type: 'cjs' | 'esm',
      /** Full custom how to pre-bundle */
      build?: (args: {
        cjs: (module: string) => Promise<string>,
        esm: (module: string, buildOptions?: import('esbuild').BuildOptions) => Promise<string>,
      }) => Promise<string>
    }
  }
}

Examples

How to work

<!-- ###### Electron-Renderer(vite serve) -->

Load Electron and Node.js cjs-packages/built-in-modules (Schematic)

 ┏————————————————————————————————————————┓                 ┏—————————————————┓
 │ import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron' │                 │ Vite dev server │
 ┗————————————————————————————————————————┛                 ┗—————————————————┛
                 │                                                   │
                 │ 1. Pre-Bundling electron module into              │
                 │    node_modules/.vite-electron-renderer/electron  │
                 │                                                   │
                 │ 2. HTTP(Request): electron module                 │
                 │ ————————————————————————————————————————————————> │
                 │                                                   │
                 │ 3. Alias redirects to                             │
                 │    node_modules/.vite-electron-renderer/electron  │
                 │    ↓                                              │
                 │    const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron')    │
                 │    export { ipcRenderer }                         │
                 │                                                   │
                 │ 4. HTTP(Response): electron module                │
                 │ <———————————————————————————————————————————————— │
                 │                                                   │
 ┏————————————————————————————————————————┓                 ┏—————————————————┓
 │ import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron' │                 │ Vite dev server │
 ┗————————————————————————————————————————┛                 ┗—————————————————┛
<!-- ###### Electron-Renderer(vite build) 1. Add "fs module" to `rollupOptions.external`. 2. Modify `rollupOptions.output.format` to `cjs` *(If it you didn't explicitly set it)*. ```js import { ipcRenderer } from 'electron' ↓ const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron') ``` -->

Dependency Pre-Bundling

In general. Vite will pre-bundle all third-party modules in a Web-based usage format, but it can not adapt to Electron Renderer process especially C/C++ modules. So we must be make a little changes for this.

<!-- When a module detected as a `cjs` module. it will be pre-bundle like the following. -->
// 👉 https://github.com/electron-vite/vite-plugin-electron-renderer/blob/v0.13.0/src/optimizer.ts#L139-L142
const _M_ = require("serialport");

export default (_M_.default || _M_);
export const SerialPort = _M_.SerialPort;
// export other members ...
<!-- **By the way**. If an npm package is a pure ESM format package, and the packages it depends on are also in ESM format, then put it in `optimizeDeps.exclude` and it will work normally. [See the explanation](https://github.com/electron-vite/vite-plugin-electron-renderer/blob/v0.10.3/examples/quick-start/vite.config.ts#L33-L36) -->

dependencies vs devDependencies

<table> <thead> <th>Classify</th> <th>e.g.</th> <th>dependencies</th> <th>devDependencies</th> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Node.js C/C++ native modules</td> <td>serialport, sqlite3</td> <td>✅</td> <td>❌</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Node.js CJS packages</td> <td>electron-store</td> <td>✅</td> <td>✅</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Node.js ESM packages</td> <td>execa, got, node-fetch</td> <td>✅</td> <td>✅ (Recommend)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Web packages</td> <td>Vue, React</td> <td>✅</td> <td>✅ (Recommend)</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Why is it recommended to put properly buildable packages in devDependencies?

Doing so will reduce the size of the packaged APP by electron-builder.

<!-- ## Config presets (Opinionated) If you do not configure the following options, the plugin will modify their default values - `build.cssCodeSplit = false` (*TODO*) - `build.rollupOptions.output.format = 'cjs'` (nodeIntegration: true) - `resolve.conditions = ['node']` - `optimizeDeps.exclude = ['electron']` - always -->