CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.jsreactjselectroncreate-react-app
Icecubelegacy
Icecubelegacy

Reputation: 319

Electron shows blank screen when running in development yet works in production

When I run "yarn run electron-dev" in the CLI, opening http://localhost:3000 in the browser is showing the homepage, but the electron app is showing blank.

Unlike similar issues where other people are having issues with production but working in development, I am having the opposite issue.

Looking at the devtools there are no errors in the browser console, and also nothing is coming up in the console even when I do console.log().

electron.js

const electron = require('electron');
const app = electron.app;
const BrowserWindow = electron.BrowserWindow;
const edge = require('electron-edge-js');
const path = require('path');
const isDev = require('electron-is-dev');
require('electron-reload')

let mainWindow;

function createWindow() {
  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
      width: 900, 
      height: 680,
      webPreferences: {
        nodeIntegration: true,
      },
  });
  console.log('isDev', isDev);
  mainWindow.loadURL(isDev ? 'http://localhost:3000' : `file://${path.join(__dirname, '../build/index.html')}`);
  if (isDev) {
    // Open the DevTools.
    //BrowserWindow.addDevToolsExtension('<location to your react chrome extension>');
    mainWindow.webContents.openDevTools();
  }

  mainWindow.on('closed', () => mainWindow = null);
}

app.on('ready', createWindow);

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

app.on('activate', () => {
  if (mainWindow === null) {
    createWindow();
    console.log('entering func123');
    func123();
  }
});

Package.json

{
  "name": "myelectronapp",
  "description": "Electron + Create React App + Electron Builder",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "private": true,
  "author": {
    "name": "Andrew C",
    "email": "your.email@domain.com",
    "url": "https://your-website.com"
  },
  "build": {
    "appId": "com.andrewchoi.my-electron-app",
    "productName": "MyElectronApp",
    "copyright": "Copyright © 2019 ${author}",
    "mac": {
      "category": "public.app-category.utilities"
    },
    "files": [
      "build/**/*",
      "node_modules/**/*"
    ],
    "directories": {
      "buildResources": "assets"
    }
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@material-ui/core": "^4.9.4",
    "@testing-library/jest-dom": "^4.2.4",
    "@testing-library/react": "^9.3.2",
    "@testing-library/user-event": "^7.1.2",
    "electron-edge-js": "^12.8.1",
    "electron-is-dev": "^1.1.0",
    "mssql-connection-string": "^0.3.2",
    "react": "^16.12.0",
    "react-dom": "^16.12.0",
    "react-scripts": "3.4.0"
  },
  "main": "public/electron.js",
  "homepage": "./",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "react-scripts start",
    "build": "react-scripts build",
    "test": "rescripts test",
    "eject": "react-scripts eject",
    "electron-dev": "concurrently \"cross-env BROWSER=none yarn start\" \"wait-on http://localhost:3000 && electron .\"",
    "postinstall": "electron-builder",
    "preelectron-pack": "yarn build",
    "electron-pack": "electron-builder build -w"
  },
  "eslintConfig": {
    "extends": "react-app"
  },
  "browserslist": {
    "production": [
      ">0.2%",
      "not dead",
      "not op_mini all"
    ],
    "development": [
      "last 1 chrome version",
      "last 1 firefox version",
      "last 1 safari version"
    ]
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@rescripts/cli": "^0.0.13",
    "@rescripts/rescript-env": "^0.0.11",
    "concurrently": "^5.1.0",
    "cross-env": "^7.0.0",
    "electron": "8.0.1",
    "electron-builder": "22.3.5",
    "wait-on": "^4.0.0"
  }
}

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <link rel="icon" href="%PUBLIC_URL%/favicon.ico" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
    <meta name="theme-color" content="#000000" />
    <meta
      name="description"
      content="Web site created using create-react-app"
    />
    <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="%PUBLIC_URL%/logo192.png" />
    <!--
      manifest.json provides metadata used when your web app is installed on a
      user's mobile device or desktop. See https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/web-app-manifest/
    -->
    <link rel="manifest" href="%PUBLIC_URL%/manifest.json" />
    <!--
      Notice the use of %PUBLIC_URL% in the tags above.
      It will be replaced with the URL of the `public` folder during the build.
      Only files inside the `public` folder can be referenced from the HTML.

      Unlike "/favicon.ico" or "favicon.ico", "%PUBLIC_URL%/favicon.ico" will
      work correctly both with client-side routing and a non-root public URL.
      Learn how to configure a non-root public URL by running `npm run build`.
    -->
    <title>React App</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
    <div id="root"></div>
    <!--
      This HTML file is a template.
      If you open it directly in the browser, you will see an empty page.

      You can add webfonts, meta tags, or analytics to this file.
      The build step will place the bundled scripts into the <body> tag.

      To begin the development, run `npm start` or `yarn start`.
      To create a production bundle, use `npm run build` or `yarn build`.
    -->
  </body>
</html>

Upvotes: 4

Views: 7628

Answers (2)

Icecubelegacy
Icecubelegacy

Reputation: 319

This issue has been resolved. I removed electron-edge-js and electron-reload, and went back to using npm instead of yarn to run the scripts and install dependencies, etc. And now it is working for both dev and prod.

Upvotes: 0

Andreas Dolk
Andreas Dolk

Reputation: 114837

This looks strange to me:

mainWindow.loadURL(isDev ? 'http://localhost:3000' : `file://${path.join(__dirname, '../build/index.html')}`);

Is there a reason to use a separate server for the client content instead of just passing the index file as a file resource just like in prod?

Check that this other server is running. I know the 'blank page' effect when I try to load web url but the server is not running.

Upvotes: 2

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