The release of the Electron 23.0.0 platform has been prepared, which provides a self-sufficient framework for developing multi-platform user applications based on Chromium, V8 and Node.js components. The significant version number change is due to updates to the Chromium 110 codebase, the Node.js 18.12.1 framework, and the V8 11 JavaScript engine.
Among the changes in the new release:
- Added support for the WebUSB API, which allows you to directly interact with specialized peripheral devices connected via a USB port. WebUSB makes it possible to organize work with USB devices without installing specialized drivers into the system, defining the logic of low-level interaction in the application.
- The "label" property has been added to the Display object with a text label that visually identifies the screen.
- The app.getPreferredSystemLanguages() API has been implemented to determine the languages ββselected in the system.
- The SerialPort.forget() method has been added to return a Promise to handle the closing of the serial port, and the serial-port-revoked event has been implemented, which is generated when access to the serial port is revoked after the connection to it is closed.
- Added the win.setHiddenInMissionControl API to hide the application window in the Mission Control interface on macOS systems.
- The deprecated scroll-touch-begin, scroll-touch-end, and scroll-touch-edge events have been removed from the BrowserWindow object and should be replaced by the input-event on WebContents.
- Ended support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2.
The Electron platform allows you to create any graphical applications using browser technologies, the logic of which is defined in JavaScript, HTML and CSS, and the functionality can be extended through a system of add-ons. 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 display system, manipulating windows, and interacting with Chromium subsystems.
Unlike web applications, Electron-based programs are delivered as self-contained executables that are not tied to a browser. At the same time, the developer does not need to worry about porting the application for various platforms, Electron will provide the ability to build for all systems supported in Chromium. Electron also provides tools to organize automatic delivery and installation of updates (updates can be delivered either from a separate server or directly from GitHub).
Of the programs built on the basis of the Electron platform, one can note the Atom editor, the Mailspring email client, the GitKraken toolkit for working with Git, the WordPress Desktop blogging system, the WebTorrent Desktop BitTorrent client, as well as official clients for such services as Skype, Signal, Slack , Basecamp, Twitch, Ghost, Wire, Wrike, Visual Studio Code and Discord. In total, 734 applications are presented in the Electron software catalog. To simplify the development of new applications, a set of sample demo applications has been prepared, including code examples for solving various problems.
Source: opennet.ru