Chapter 1. Introducing Electron and NW.js
This chapter covers
- Understanding why Node.js desktop apps are the rage these days
- Previewing Node.js desktop application frameworks Electron and NW.js
- Using these frameworks to build cross-platform desktop apps with Node.js
- Comparing the frameworks
- Identifying real-world applications built with Electron and NW.js
Node.js is known as a programming framework that lets developers build server-side applications in JavaScript. Since its creation in 2009, it has spawned a variety of popular web frameworks like Express and Hapi, as well as real-time web frameworks like Meteor and Sails. It has also allowed developers to create isomorphic web apps using tools like Facebook’s React, a UI library that has had a huge impact on web development in recent years. It’s fair to have the impression that Node.js is purely about web apps, but the truth is that Node.js is far more than that.
Node.js can be used to build cross-platform desktop apps, and chances are you’re using one of them today. If you’ve ever used Slack at work, edited code using Atom from GitHub, or watched a movie using Popcorn Time, then you’ve used a Node.js desktop app. It’s becoming a popular choice for developers, in particular web developers with little experience in desktop application development—even Microsoft has built and shipped an IDE (Visual Studio Code) using Node.js.