Cross-Platform Desktop Applications: With Node, Electron, and NW.js

It's tedious and time-consuming to create OS-specific versions of every desktop application, especially with different set of tools for each platform. NW.js radically simplifies desktop development, providing a true cross-platform development stack built on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, Node.js modules, and the Chrome Blink engine. NW.js applications interact with the host operating system just like any other platform-native project, so developers have full access to all local files and resources. The performance is great, and best of all, it saves developers time because they only have to write one version of their application.

Cross-Platform Desktop Applications guides readers step-by-step as they learn to develop NW.js desktop applications that run on Windows, OSX and Linux. They begin by getting the big picture of what NW.js can (and can't) do. Readers test drive NW.js as they build their first desktop application. Next, they find out how to take advantage of OS- specific features like menus, system-tray apps, clipboards, and the file system. Along the way, this book teaches how to debug errors and diagnose performance bottlenecks with NW.j's browser developer tools, package an application as a standalone executable for each OS, and even distribute it to various app stores. The book gives developers the inspiration and skills they need to code pro quality desktop applications using the web languages they already know.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.