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Writing Desktop Applications with Node.js

Shiya Luo

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About me

Shiya Luo

Developer Evangelist at Autodesk

Twitter: @ShiyaLuo

Writes JavaScript

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Desktop to Web

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App

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Desktop Apps with JavaScript

Native desktop APIs

Easy deploy to local machine

Written in JavaScript

The installed app has same UI as the website

Which brings me back to my points with writing desktop applications with JavaScript. When considering choosing a technology, the biggest factor is always the requirements. I’ve listed some advantages that matters to us. First, native desktop APIs, meaning that the program can talk to other programs, and can easily listen to events that are exclusively available to the computer. Easy deploy to local machine. It’s just an install, not a deployment. It’s nice to have internet and servers that are available to you at your leisure but that’s not always the case with our users. Desktop apps can also be written in JavaScript which means all the goodies that come with JavaScript and whatever engine powers your browser (most of the time it’s V8) will power your app too. The installed app has the same UI as the website.

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Frameworks

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Electron

Supports WebGL right out of the box

Call native windows API with JavaScript

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Deploy

Use electron-package

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Thank you