electron/docs/api/app.md
2015-06-25 21:29:21 +05:30

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app

The app module is responsible for controlling the application's life time.

The example of quitting the whole application when the last window is closed:

var app = require('app');
app.on('window-all-closed', function() {
  app.quit();
});

Event: will-finish-launching

Emitted when application has done basic startup. On Windows and Linux it is the same with ready event, on OS X this event represents the applicationWillFinishLaunching message of NSApplication, usually you would setup listeners to open-file and open-url events here, and start the crash reporter and auto updater.

Under most cases you should just do everything in ready event.

Event: ready

Emitted when Electron has done everything initialization.

Event: window-all-closed

Emitted when all windows have been closed.

This event is only emitted when the application is not going to quit. If a user pressed Cmd + Q, or the developer called app.quit(), Electron would first try to close all windows and then emit the will-quit event, and in this case the window-all-closed would not be emitted.

Event: before-quit

  • event Event

Emitted before the application starts closing its windows. Calling event.preventDefault() will prevent the default behaviour, which is terminating the application.

Event: will-quit

  • event Event

Emitted when all windows have been closed and the application will quit. Calling event.preventDefault() will prevent the default behaviour, which is terminating the application.

See description of window-all-closed for the differences between will-quit and it.

Event: quit

Emitted when application is quitting.

Event: open-file

  • event Event
  • path String

Emitted when user wants to open a file with the application, it usually happens when the application is already opened and then OS wants to reuse the application to open file. But it is also emitted when a file is dropped onto the dock and the application is not yet running. Make sure to listen to open-file very early in your application startup to handle this case (even before the ready event is emitted).

You should call event.preventDefault() if you want to handle this event.

Event: open-url

  • event Event
  • url String

Emitted when user wants to open a URL with the application, this URL scheme must be registered to be opened by your application.

You should call event.preventDefault() if you want to handle this event.

Event: activate-with-no-open-windows

Emitted when the application is activated while there is no opened windows. It usually happens when user has closed all of application's windows and then click on the application's dock icon.

Event: browser-window-blur

  • event Event
  • window BrowserWindow

Emitted when a browserWindow gets blurred.

Event: browser-window-focus

  • event Event
  • window BrowserWindow

Emitted when a browserWindow gets focused.

Event: 'select-certificate'

Emitted when client certificate is requested.

  • event Event
  • webContents WebContents
  • url String
  • certificateList [Objects]
    • data PEM encoded data
    • issuerName Issuer's Common Name
  • callback Function
app.on('select-certificate', function(event, host, url, list, callback) {
  event.preventDefault();
  callback(list[0]);
})

url corresponds to the navigation entry requesting the client certificate, callback needs to be called with an entry filtered from the list. event.preventDefault() prevents from using the first certificate from the store.

app.quit()

Try to close all windows. The before-quit event will first be emitted. If all windows are successfully closed, the will-quit event will be emitted and by default the application would be terminated.

This method guarantees all beforeunload and unload handlers are correctly executed. It is possible that a window cancels the quitting by returning false in beforeunload handler.

app.getPath(name)

  • name String

Retrieves a path to a special directory or file associated with name. On failure an Error would throw.

You can request following paths by the names:

  • home: User's home directory
  • appData: Per-user application data directory, by default it is pointed to:
    • %APPDATA% on Windows
    • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or ~/.config on Linux
    • ~/Library/Application Support on OS X
  • userData: The directory for storing your app's configuration files, by default it is the appData directory appended with your app's name
  • cache: Per-user application cache directory, by default it is pointed to:
    • %APPDATA% on Window, which doesn't has a universal place for cache
    • $XDG_CACHE_HOME or ~/.cache on Linux
    • ~/Library/Caches on OS X
  • userCache: The directory for placing your app's caches, by default it is the cache directory appended with your app's name
  • temp: Temporary directory
  • userDesktop: The current user's Desktop directory
  • exe: The current executable file
  • module: The libchromiumcontent library

app.setPath(name, path)

  • name String
  • path String

Overrides the path to a special directory or file associated with name. if the path specifies a directory that does not exist, the directory will be created by this method. On failure an Error would throw.

You can only override paths of names defined in app.getPath.

By default web pages' cookies and caches will be stored under userData directory, if you want to change this location, you have to override the userData path before the ready event of app module gets emitted.

app.getVersion()

Returns the version of loaded application, if no version is found in application's package.json, the version of current bundle or executable would be returned.

app.getName()

Returns current application's name, the name in package.json would be used.

Usually the name field of package.json is a short lowercased name, according to the spec of npm modules. So usually you should also specify a productName field, which is your application's full capitalized name, and it will be preferred over name by Electron.

app.resolveProxy(url, callback)

  • url URL
  • callback Function

Resolves the proxy information for url, the callback would be called with callback(proxy) when the request is done.

app.addRecentDocument(path)

  • path String

Adds path to recent documents list.

This list is managed by the system, on Windows you can visit the list from task bar, and on Mac you can visit it from dock menu.

app.clearRecentDocuments()

Clears the recent documents list.

app.setUserTasks(tasks)

  • tasks Array - Array of Task objects

Adds tasks to the Tasks category of JumpList on Windows.

The tasks is an array of Task objects in following format:

  • Task Object
    • program String - Path of the program to execute, usually you should specify process.execPath which opens current program
    • arguments String - The arguments of command line when program is executed
    • title String - The string to be displayed in a JumpList
    • description String - Description of this task
    • iconPath String - The absolute path to an icon to be displayed in a JumpList, it can be arbitrary resource file that contains an icon, usually you can specify process.execPath to show the icon of the program
    • iconIndex Integer - The icon index in the icon file. If an icon file consists of two or more icons, set this value to identify the icon. If an icon file consists of one icon, this value is 0

Note: This API is only available on Windows.

app.commandLine.appendSwitch(switch, [value])

Append a switch [with optional value] to Chromium's command line.

Note: This will not affect process.argv, and is mainly used by developers to control some low-level Chromium behaviors.

app.commandLine.appendArgument(value)

Append an argument to Chromium's command line. The argument will quoted properly.

Note: This will not affect process.argv.

app.dock.bounce([type])

  • type String - Can be critical or informational, the default is informational

When critical is passed, the dock icon will bounce until either the application becomes active or the request is canceled.

When informational is passed, the dock icon will bounce for one second. The request, though, remains active until either the application becomes active or the request is canceled.

An ID representing the request would be returned.

Note: This API is only available on Mac.

app.dock.cancelBounce(id)

  • id Integer

Cancel the bounce of id.

Note: This API is only available on Mac.

app.dock.setBadge(text)

  • text String

Sets the string to be displayed in the docks badging area.

Note: This API is only available on Mac.

app.dock.getBadge()

Returns the badge string of the dock.

Note: This API is only available on Mac.

app.dock.hide()

Hides the dock icon.

Note: This API is only available on Mac.

app.dock.show()

Shows the dock icon.

Note: This API is only available on Mac.

app.dock.setMenu(menu)

  • menu Menu

Sets the application dock menu.

Note: This API is only available on Mac.