CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsreactjselectron
jackson
jackson

Reputation: 57

How to run external script using an Electron-React app

I am trying to write a desktop app using Electron (with React).

When a user clicks on a button in the desktop app it will run an external Node.js script. I want to use Electron to build a GUI that is able to call a script to do some work after the user clicks the button.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1636

Answers (1)

Ameer
Ameer

Reputation: 2000

Look into the child_process node js module. You can implement something like this:

On the client side:

const { ipcRenderer } = require("electron");
document.getElementById("someButton").addEventListener(e => {
  ipcRenderer.send("runScript");
});

On the electron side:

const { ipcMain } = require("electron");
const exec = require('child_process').exec;

ipcMain.on("runScript", (event, data) => {
   exec("node script.js", (error, stdout, stderr) => { 
        console.log(stdout);
    });
});

Keep in mind, in order to use ipcRenderer on the client side you may need to enable nodeIntegration in your browser window.

To be able to kill a process you would have to use the child_process.spawn method and save that in a variable then run variableThatProcessWasSpawned.stdin.pause(); then variableThatProcessWasSpawned.kill(). For example

const spawn = require('child_process').spawn ;

let process = null;

ipcMain.on("runScript", (event, data) => {
   process = spawn("node script.js");
});

ipcMain.on("killProcess", (event, data) => {
   if(process !== null) {
       process.stdin.pause();
       process.stdin.kill();
       process = null;
   }
});

Upvotes: 3

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