If you are like me, you love JavaScript and its ecosystem, and you have been building amazing web applications using frameworks like React or performant web servers with NodeJS . Now you want to develop a desktop application, and you don’t want to learn a new programming language, or perhaps you want to re-use as much as you can from existing web projects. Here is when Electron enters the picture to save the day.
Electron allows you to build desktop applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There are many arguments on the internet against Electron, one of them being its performance and many times low-quality apps, but don’t blame the framework; Electron is powerful and can be performant. Today, many popular applications run on top of Electron, such as VS Code, Slack, Skype, Discord, and more.
But why is it then that many people argue so poorly against it? The problem starts with the apps and the way people use Electron. For many, porting a web application to an Electron means taking your existing code as-is and embedding it into an Electron container. Is this a terrible thing to do? Maybe not, but you are not taking advantage of the power of Electron to its fullest. You are merely changing a browser tab for an independent application.
What can we improve? In this article, we will explore the basics of Electron, and we will build a sample application to show some of the Electron ways.
Custom APIs: to solve for common issues when dealing with the OS
Each of these components interacts on a different level on the Electron architecture layer, as shown in the architecture diagram.
Electron Architecture
Electron works with two types of processes.
Main Process: responsible for window management and all interactions with the OS. It’s where it all starts, and it can create and manage multiple renderer processes
Renderer Process: There could be one or more, each of which will host a chromium instance and be responsible for the web contents.
It’s important to note that the renderer processes cannot access OS features directly. Instead, they communicate with the Main Process through IPC to achieve these tasks.
Many typical Electron applications would use the main process to create one renderer process and load their web application. Today we are going to take that a step forward.
Must-have section: Hello World!
Next, we are going to build a “hello world!” application. We will not use any framework or libraries that are not necessary to stay focused on the Electron code.
Let’s get started.
Setting up Electron
The first step into building an application is to create a project and install the electron library, so start with the project creation using NPM:
And set up your application details. As the starting point for the application, I like to use main.js, but you can use any file name you want.
Next, install Electron.
Building the screen
For our micro hello world example, we need two files, main.js and hello-world.html. main.js is our main process; we will create the first renderer process that will load our hello-world.html.
Here is the starter code for main.js
The starter kit will handle the minimum operations to run the application, creating the first renderer with new BrowserWindow and loading main.html on it. It will also address some scenarios to exit the application and to re-launch the main window when needed.
As to our main.html we will use the following:
It is just a simple HTML exposing the current versions of node, chrome, and Electron our app uses.
Finally, we need to run our application; first, you need to change the package.json and add the start script.
If everything worked out well, you should see a window like this:
Hello World app made with Electron
Isn’t there an easier way?
The short answer is YES! Though it comes at a cost. Many boilerplates provide a starting point for building Electron applications, some of them using vanilla JS, others directly integrated with some of the most popular frameworks like React and Vue.
I’m not a big fan of these boilerplates as they often come with many libraries and additions I don’t need. But they are a great place to get you started.
Here are some popular ones:
Building smooth applications
We already saw in the architecture of Electron how things work. And if you are like me, you are probably worried about all those instances of Chromium and Node running, and you should be. We all know how Chromium (or Chrome) can devour our memory and affect our performance, so what can we do to avoid our Chromium-based application to do exactly that? How do we keep them performant?
Here are a few tips:
Never, ever, block the main process
The main process is where it all starts. It is the parent process for all the processes of the application. It is the one that primarily communicates with the operating system, handles all the windows and communications between them, and it runs the UI thread.
Blocking this process means that the application will stop responding until the operation finishes. Under no circumstances run code that is CPU intensive here and takes a long time to complete.
Here are some recommendations:
For CPU intensive operations, delegate those functions to either a worker thread, a renderer process, or even spawn a dedicated process to perform that task (though make sure you know what you are doing for this last one).
Avoid the use of the remote module as much as possible. It is far too easy to unknowingly block the UI thread using the remote module.
Avoid using blocking I/O operations on the main thread; if needed, use the asynchronous equivalents provided by NodeJS.
Is it ok to block the renderer process?
Not really. Perhaps the consequences won’t be as harmful as blocking the main process, but blocking the renderers come at a price. Your windows may become sluggish or unresponsive, and the overall user experience will be terrible.
When we use the web, we are used to some web apps suddenly going slow, not being smooth, and we are ok with it; However, when it comes to desktop applications, our standards are higher. Be aware of this, as user expectations matter.
What can I do to make my apps more responsive? Pretty much the same things we could do on our web apps; after all, on the renderer process, we are just talking about Chromium.
requestIdleCallback: API allowing the execution of JavaScript to be queued to run in idle browser time, either at the end of a frame or when the user is inactive.
Web workers: the best tool to run expensive computations on web browsers by assigning them to a new thread.
You don’t need cross-browser compatibility
During web development, it is very typical to use polyfills to support different browsers. When building Electron applications, you don’t need any of that. If it runs on Chromium, it runs on Electron, and there’s no need to support any other browser. Reduce your bundles, and make everything faster by not loading these extra modules.
Bundle all of your code
In web development, we sometimes load scripts or pages from servers, like CDNs, which are served separately from our application, and that’s fine. After all, for the web, we always need to download these assets to run the application.
For desktop applications, this is different. Avoid any unnecessary network requests by bundling all your static assets, scripts, and contents in your application. This will enable your app to do two things, work offline, and speed up the load process as reading the disk is cheaper than going to the internet.
Conclusion
Next time you need to build a cross-platform desktop application, I recommend you to try Electron, especially if you are coming from JavaScript, and you already have some code you may be able to re-use.
Just be aware, Electron can be great if used right. Keep in mind that though it looks like a web, it is not precisely a web, and thus you will need to make some special considerations to make it work.
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The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
