Electron State

React-like IPC backed state objects for Electron.

Example

You can run this example yourself! Just run yarn start in this repo to play with this dummy login flow. The files live in this repo at /test/app.

UserState.ts

import { ElectronState, main, renderer, State } from 'electron-state';

// Extend the `ElectronState` base class to create a new IPC based shared memory model.
export default class UserState extends ElectronState {

  // Properties declared on your model define the interface of this state object.
  isLoggedIn: boolean = false;
  firstName: string | null = null;
  lastName: string | null = null;
  email: string | null = null;

  // The `@main` decorator forces async methods to run in Electron's main process.
  @main static async logIn(email: string, password: string): Promise<boolean> {
    // If you need code that can / should only execute in one process, make sure you import it only as needed.
    const { db } = await import('database');

    const user = await db.users.getByEmail(email);

    if (user?.password !== password) { return false; }

    // Use `ElectronState.setState()` to modify state objects.
    UserState.setState({
      isLoggedIn: true,
      firstName: user.firstName,
      lastName: user.lastName,
      email: user.email,
    });

    return true;
  }

  // The `@renderer` decorator forces async methods to run in Electron's renderer process.
  @renderer static async logOut(): Promise<void> {
    // Access state data at any time by calling `ElectronState.toJSON()`
    const data: State<UserState> = UserState.toJSON();

    if (!data.isLoggedIn) { return; }

    // Use `ElectronState.setState()` to modify state objects.
    UserState.setState({
      isLoggedIn: false,
      firstName: null,
      lastName: null,
      email: null,
    });

    alert("You've been logged out!");
  }
}

main.ts

import { app, BrowserWindow } from 'electron';

// You can import your custom `ElectronState` models into the main process.
import UserState from './UserState';

// The main process can listen for changes to the state object. It is passed a copy of the state data.
UserState.onChange((user) => {
  if (user.isLoggedIn) {
    console.log(`${user.firstName} ${user.lastName} has logged in. Auto logging out in 10s.`);

    // As defined in our UserState class, the `UserState.logOut()` method will always be run in the renderer process.
    setTimeout(() => UserState.logOut(), 10000);
  }
});

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  const win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600 });
  win.loadFile('/static/index.html'));
});

app.tsx

import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

// ElectronState delivers a React hook for your convenience.
import { useElectronState } from 'electron-state/hooks';

// You can import your custom `ElectronState` models into the renderer process.
import UserState from './UserState';

async function handleSubmit(evt: React.FormEvent<HTMLFormElement>) {
  evt.preventDefault();
  const email = (evt.currentTarget.elements.namedItem('email') as HTMLInputElement)?.value || null;
  const password = (evt.currentTarget as HTMLFormElement.elements.namedItem('password') as HTMLInputElement)?.value || null;
  if (!email || !password) {
    alert('Please provide your email and password');
    return;
  }

  // As defined in our UserState class, the `UserState.logIn` method will always be run in the main process.
  const logInSuccess = await UserState.logIn(email, password);
  alert(logInSuccess ? 'Successfully logged in!' : 'Incorrect login information.');
}

function App() {
  // ElectronState delivers a React hook for your convenience.
  const [ user, setUser ] = useElectronState(UserState);

  if (user.isLoggedIn) {
    return <section>
      <h1>{user.firstName} {user.lastName} is Logged In</h1>
      <button onClick={() => setUser({ isLoggedIn: false })}>Log Out</button>
    </section>;
  }

  return <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
    <input type="email" name="email" />
    <input type="password" name="password" />
    <button type="submit">Log In</button>
  </form>;
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);