shell module in Electron allows you to access certain
native elements like the file manager and default web browser.
This module works in both the main and renderer process.
Open the full API documentation (opens in new window) in your browser.
This demonstrates using the shell module to open the
system file manager at a particular location.
Clicking the demo button will open your file manager at the root.
If you do not want your app to open website links
within the app, you can use the shell module
to open them externally. When clicked, the links will open outside
of your app and in the user's default web browser.
When the demo button is clicked, the electron website will open in your browser.
You may want to open all http and
https links outside of your app. To do this, query
the document and loop through each link and add a listener. This
app uses the code below which is located in
assets/ex-links.js.
const shell = require('electron').shell
const links = document.querySelectorAll('a[href]')
for (const link of links) {
const url = link.getAttribute('href')
if (url.indexOf('http') === 0) {
link.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
e.preventDefault()
shell.openExternal(url)
})
}
}