These applications are called “hybrid apps”. At the end of the process, you run a generator that compiles everything to a native application that then just displays your web application like a browser does. In the simplest case, you’re developing a web application using your normal workflow. If the developer works on bundling & security, NeutralinoJS can become an amazing alternative to Tauri & Electron.NW.js is a framework for creating native applications using web technologies like HTML, JavaScript and CSS. However, the security & reliability provided by Electron is simply unparalleled. Initially, I had plans to migrate Notesnook from Electron to Neutralino because the feature-set of NeutralinoJS is simply amazing. Combine that with this being mostly a hobby project run by a single developer with little financial (or other) support from the community, and you get something that is truly wonderful but not yet there. Having NeutralinoJS in the Native Javascript space provides necessary competition but it falls short of a lot of things required for a native app (even a native Javascript app) - especially security. Your best bet to migrate an Electron app to Neutralino is either rewriting the backend code to a natively compiled language like Go or Rust or you can package the whole NodeJS along as a binary. There's no node, no npm ecosystem, nothing like that. Suffice it to say, there is 0 API compatibility with Electron. This works but there's no desktop integration, no icons, no way to install etc. zip file containing binaries & resources for all 3 platforms. All this makes NeutralinoJS nonviable for any but the most trivial projects. NeutralinoJS has no built-in system for receiving or installing updates nor does it have a proper bundler like electron-builder to make installers for each operating system. are automatically handled by a lot of Websocket client libraries. Since it's all Websockets, stuff like converting data structures, translating function arguments, reading results etc. This opens the possibility to write the backend in NodeJS, Rust or Go while the app is rendered in the native browser. Naturally, this allows the program to be written in any language or framework. ExtensibilityĮxtensions in NeutralinoJS are simply programs that communicate over Websockets. It'd still have been amazing if the client library wasn't exposed as a global variable. Most apps, however, only load local files for which NeutralinoJS is great. I am aware that this is done for Developer experience but if, let's say, you wanted to load untrusted content in a NeutralinoJS app, I'd seriously reconsider. Listing all files in current working directory 3 years later, it has its own Javascript client library, support for extensions, and a very minimal footprint (< 3 MB). Released in 2018 by a Sri Lankan programmer, Shalitha Suranga, NeutralinoJS was one of the first frameworks to properly support 3 different desktop platforms while making it extremely easy for web developers. A fabulous idea in theory but complications like native support for system tray, notifications, file system access, data storage, and security made many hesitate into actually making it a thing. NeutralinoJS was not a new idea - instead of packaging the whole Node + Chromium with every app, why not reuse the already installed browser each OS comes with? Linux & macOS have WebKit while Microsoft Windows has IE, Edge, and now Chromium. Huge companies like Microsoft, Slack, Discord invested into it but there were still many people who did not want to install 9 different versions of Chromium to run 9 different apps. Both choices were not really choices at all - both were huge, full of bloat, memory hogging frameworks but the solution was tempting to many. A few years back, the only way for web developers to enter into the Desktop app space was either Electron or NW.js.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |