Release of Electron 24.0.0, a platform for building applications based on the Chromium engine

The release of the Electron 24.0.0 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 112 codebase, the Node.js 18.14.0 framework, and the V8 11.2 JavaScript engine.

Among the changes in the new release:

• The image size processing logic in the nativeImage.createThumbnailFromPath(path, size) method has been changed, in which the “maxSize” parameter is replaced by “size” and now reflects the actual size of the created thumbnail, and not the maximum (i.e. if the size is smaller, scaling will be applied) .
• The BrowserWindow.setTrafficLightPosition(position) and BrowserWindow.getTrafficLightPosition() methods have been deprecated, and BrowserWindow.setWindowButtonPosition(position) and BrowserWindow.getWindowButtonPosition() should be used instead.
• In the cookies.get() method, added the ability to filter Cookies in the HttpOnly mode.
• The logUsage parameter has been added to the shell.openExternal() method.
• webRequest now has the ability to filter requests by type.
• Added devtools-open-url event to webContents to open a new window.
• Added the enableLocalEcho flag to the ses.setDisplayMediaRequestHandler() callback handler to reflect external audio input to the local output stream.
• By default, the configuration file includes a general optimization that uses information obtained from compiling all modules.

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