This example show how you can use Next.js inside an Electron application to avoid a lot of configuration, use Next.js router as view and use server-render to speed up the initial render of the application. Both Next.js and Electron layers are written in TypeScript and compiled to JavaScript during the build process.
| Part | Source code (Typescript) | Builds (JavaScript) |
|---|---|---|
| Next.js | /renderer |
/renderer |
| Electron | /electron-src |
/main |
| Production | /dist |
For development it's going to run a HTTP server and let Next.js handle routing. In production it use output: 'export' to pre-generate HTML static files and use them in your app instead of running an HTTP server.
Execute create-next-app with npm, Yarn, or pnpm to bootstrap the example:
npx create-next-app --example with-electron-typescript with-electron-typescript-appyarn create next-app --example with-electron-typescript with-electron-typescript-apppnpm create next-app --example with-electron-typescript with-electron-typescript-appAvailable commands:
"build-renderer": build and transpile Next.js layer
"build-electron": transpile electron layer
"build": build both layers
"dev": start dev version
"dist": create production electron build
"type-check": check TypeScript in projectYou can create the production app using npm run dist.
note regarding types:
- Electron provides its own type definitions, so you don't need @types/electron installed! source: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@types/electron
- There were no types available for
electron-nextat the time of creating this example, so until they are available there is a fileelectron-next.d.tsinelectron-srcdirectory.