How to Set Up Hot Reload in Electron

Hot Reloading is a beloved feature of developers. It allows changes in source code to be instantly reflected in the output/browser without restarting the application. Electron does not provide any built-in hot reloading module.

However, Electron can still use this hot reloading feature via using 3rd-party libraries. In this post, we will implement Hot Reload in an Electron app using electron-reloader package.

Install

npm install electron-reload --save-dev

Add the package to dependencies in package.json.

"dependencies": {
    "electron-reload": "^1.5.0"
 }

We can force the whole app to reload by adding these lines to main.js.

require('electron-reload')(__dirname, {  
  electron: require(`${__dirname}/node_modules/electron`)
});

main.js file with other codes

// Modules to control application life and create native browser window
const {app, BrowserWindow} = require('electron')
const electron = require('electron')
const path = require('path')


require('electron-reload')(__dirname, {  
  electron: require(`${__dirname}/node_modules/electron`)
});


function createWindow () {
  // Create the browser window.
  const {width, height} = electron.screen.getPrimaryDisplay().workAreaSize
  const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    width: width,
    height: height,
    webPreferences: {
      preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload.js'),
      nodeIntegration: true
    }
  })

  // and load the index.html of the app.
  mainWindow.loadFile('index.html')

  // Open the DevTools.
   mainWindow.webContents.openDevTools()
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
// Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
app.whenReady().then(() => {
  createWindow()
  
  app.on('activate', function () {
    // On macOS it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
    // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
    if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow()
    
  })
})

// Quit when all windows are closed, except on macOS. There, it's common
// for applications and their menu bar to stay active until the user quits
// explicitly with Cmd + Q.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') app.quit()
})