Chapter 3. Building your first desktop application
This chapter covers
- Opening files from the file explorer
- Accessing the filesystem
- Refactoring code using Node.js’s module functionality
- Implementing search features in the desktop app
Building an app is a journey of creating an initial skeleton of the app and progressively adding to the skeleton until it begins to resemble a complete product. The moment when the product comes alive with features is often, for me, the moment I get excited, and in this chapter those moments shall arrive.
In chapter 2, you began a journey of building a file explorer called Lorikeet and got to a stage where you had the UI for a working desktop application. In this chapter, you’ll continue that journey and add features that will result in a file explorer app you can call a minimally viable product.
The goal is that not only will you have made the app’s features by the end of the chapter, but you’ll understand exactly how Electron and NW.js let you do that. The process will give you enough experience to start using those desktop app frameworks in other places as well. Chances are, your mind will open up with lots of ideas for things you can do that you didn’t know how to do before. Excited? Good! Get comfortable and settle in for round two.