Using Immer with Electron: integrating Immer into an Electron project

28 Sep 2023

Introduction

Electron is a popular framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Immer, on the other hand, is a library that simplifies immutable state management in JavaScript applications. In this blog post, we will explore how to integrate Immer into an Electron project to manage the application’s state effectively.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have a basic understanding of Electron and have a working Electron project set up. Additionally, ensure that you have Node.js and NPM installed on your machine.

Setting up the project

Create a new folder for your Electron project and navigate to it in your terminal.
```
mkdir electron-immer-project
cd electron-immer-project
```
Initialize a new Node.js project.
```
npm init
```
Install Electron as a development dependency.
```
npm install electron --save-dev
```
Create the main.js file in the root of your project and add the following code to it. This file will serve as the entry point for our Electron application. ```javascript const { app, BrowserWindow } = require(‘electron’);

function createWindow() { const win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600, webPreferences: { nodeIntegration: true, }, });

win.loadFile(‘index.html’); }

app.whenReady().then(() => { createWindow();

app.on(‘activate’, function () { if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow(); }); });

app.on(‘window-all-closed’, function () { if (process.platform !== ‘darwin’) app.quit(); });

5. Create an index.html file in the root of your project and add a simple HTML structure to it.
```html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Electron Immer Example</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Hello Electron with Immer!</h1>
  <script src="renderer.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Create a renderer.js file in the root of your project and add the following code to it. This file will handle the application’s rendering logic.
```
// Add your Immer logic here
```
Add the following start script in your package.json file to run the Electron application.
```
"scripts": {
  "start": "electron ."
}
```

Integrating Immer into the Electron project

Install Immer as a dependency.
```
npm install immer
```
Open the renderer.js file and import Immer.
```
import produce from 'immer';
```
Use Immer’s produce function to create an immutable state within your application logic. You can apply your desired state updates within the callback provided to produce. ```javascript let state = { counter: 0, };

state = produce(state, draftState => { draftState.counter += 1; });

console.log(state.counter); // Output: 1 ```

Conclusion

By integrating Immer into your Electron project, you can simplify the management of immutable state in your application. Immer’s produce function allows you to easily create and update an immutable state, making your code more readable and maintainable.

Now that you have learned how to integrate Immer into an Electron project, you can leverage its power and build better Electron applications. Happy coding!

Introduction

Prerequisites

Setting up the project

Integrating Immer into the Electron project

Conclusion

#Electron #Immer