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50 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
50 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
# Technical Differences Between Electron and NW.js (formerly node-webkit)
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__Note: Electron was previously named Atom Shell.__
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Like NW.js, Electron provides a platform to write desktop applications
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with JavaScript and HTML and has Node integration to grant access to the low
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level system from web pages.
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But there are also fundamental differences between the two projects that make
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Electron a completely separate product from NW.js:
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__1. Entry of Application__
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In NW.js the main entry point of an application is a web page. You specify a
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main page URL in the `package.json` and it is opened in a browser window as
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the application's main window.
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In Electron, the entry point is a JavaScript script. Instead of
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providing a URL directly, you manually create a browser window and load
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an HTML file using the API. You also need to listen to window events
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to decide when to quit the application.
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Electron works more like the Node.js runtime. Electron's APIs are lower level
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so you can use it for browser testing in place of [PhantomJS](http://phantomjs.org/).
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__2. Build System__
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In order to avoid the complexity of building all of Chromium, Electron uses [`libchromiumcontent`](https://github.com/brightray/libchromiumcontent) to access
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Chromium's Content API. `libchromiumcontent` is a single shared library that
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includes the Chromium Content module and all of its dependencies. Users don't
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need a powerful machine to build Electron.
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__3. Node Integration__
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In NW.js, the Node integration in web pages requires patching Chromium to
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work, while in Electron we chose a different way to integrate the libuv loop
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with each platform's message loop to avoid hacking Chromium. See the
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[`node_bindings`][node-bindings] code for how that was done.
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__4. Multi-context__
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If you are an experienced NW.js user, you should be familiar with the
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concept of Node context and web context. These concepts were invented because
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of how NW.js was implemented.
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By using the [multi-context](http://strongloop.com/strongblog/whats-new-node-js-v0-12-multiple-context-execution/)
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feature of Node, Electron doesn't introduce a new JavaScript context in web
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pages.
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[node-bindings]: https://github.com/atom/electron/tree/master/atom/common
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