The release of Electron platform 38.0.0 has been announced, providing a self-sufficient framework for developing cross-platform user applications based on components of Chromium, V8, and Node.js.
Among the changes in the new release:
- Updated versions of the Chromium browser engine 140, Node.js platform 22.18.0, and JavaScript engine V8 14.0 have been released (the previous branch used Chromium 138, Node.js 22.16.0, and V8 13.8).
- The ability to change accent colors used for highlighting active elements, as well as the color of the active window border, has been provided.
- Added calls to tray.{get|set}AutosaveName to save the positions of icons in the system tray after a restart (for macOS).
- A method webFrameMain.fromFrameToken(processId, frameToken) has been added to obtain an instance of WebFrameMain by specifying the related token.
- Support for the method app.getRecentDocuments() has been added for Windows and macOS platforms.
- To determine resources through app.getPath, the path from the environment variable DIR_ASSETS is used instead of DIR_MODULE/DIR_EXE.
- A 'before-mouse-event' event has been added to intercept and prevent processing of mouse events in the WebContents class.
- Options 'innerWidth' and 'innerHeight' have been added to the window.open() method.
- Options 'priority' and 'priorityIncremental' have been added to the net.request() method.
- Flags '--no-experimental-global-navigator' and '--experimental-network-inspection' have been added.
- Support for macOS 11 has been removed, as well as the plugin-crashed event and the environment variable ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT (by default, the mode for automatic platform detection is enabled; to use Wayland, simply set the environment variable 'XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland').
The Electron platform allows you to create any graphical applications using web technologies, with logic defined in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, and functionality that can be extended through a plugin system. Developers have access to Node.js modules as well as an extended API for creating native dialogs, integrating applications, creating context menus, integrating with the notification output system, window manipulation, and interaction with Chromium subsystems.
Unlike web applications, Electron-based programs are delivered as self-contained executable files that are not browser-dependent. Additionally, developers do not need to worry about porting the application to different platforms; Electron provides the ability to build for all systems supported in Chromium. Electron also offers tools for automating the delivery and installation of updates (updates can be delivered either from a separate server, or directly from GitHub).
Notable applications built on the Electron platform include the Atom and Visual Studio Code editors, the Mailspring email client, Git management tool GitKraken, the blogging platform WordPress Desktop, the BitTorrent client WebTorrent Desktop, as well as official clients for services like Signal, Slack, Basecamp, Twitch, Ghost, Wire, Wrike, and Discord. A total of 612 applications are listed in the Electron app catalog. To simplify the development of new applications, a set of sample demo applications has been prepared, including code examples to address various tasks.
Source: opennet.ru
