Cross-platform Desktop Application Development: Electron, Node, NW.js, and React

Building and maintaining cross-platform desktop applications with native languages isn't a trivial task. Since it's hard to simulate on a foreign platform, packaging and distribution can be quite platform-specific and testing cross-platform apps is pretty complicated.In such scenarios, web technologies such as HTML5 and JavaScript can be your lifesaver. HTML5 desktop applications can be distributed across different platforms (Window, MacOS, and Linux) without any modifications to the code.

The book starts with a walk-through on building a simple file explorer from scratch powered by NW.JS. So you will practice the most exciting features of bleeding edge CSS and JavaScript. In addition you will learn to use the desktop environment integration API, source code protection, packaging, and auto-updating with NW.JS.

As the second application you will build a chat-system example implemented with Electron and React. While developing the chat app, you will get Photonkit. Next, you will create a screen capturer with NW.JS, React, and Redux.

Finally, you will examine an RSS-reader built with TypeScript, React, Redux, and Electron. Generic UI components will be reused from the React MDL library. By the end of the book, you will have built four desktop apps. You will have covered everything from planning, designing, and development to the enhancement, testing, and delivery of these apps.

What you will learn:

Plan, design, and develop different cross-platform desktop apps
Application architecture with React and local state
Application architecture with React and Redux store
Code design with TypeScript interfaces and specialized types
CSS and component libraries such as Photonkit, Material UI, and React MDL
HTML5 APIs such as desktop notifications, WebSockets, WebRTC, and others
Desktop environment integration APIs of NW.js and Electron
Package and distribute for NW.JS and Electron