Using electron-vite without renderer & issue with fsevents.node

[hackal]

Hi, I'm trying to upgrade our existing electron codebase (frontend codebase is separate) to use electron-vite/vite.

Can I use electron-vite just for main and preload files? Frontend is in separate repo and while development electron just loads localhost:3000. That is where the frontend development is running and handled by webpack. During build frontend files are copied as part of electron-builder config.

I have already started experimenting with electron-vite and I'm stuck on having issue with fsevents.

yarn run v1.22.19
$ electron-vite dev
renderer config is missing
vite v4.4.9 building for development...
✓ 1197 modules transformed.
✓ built in 1.67s
[vite:node-asset] Could not load /Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node?commonjs-proxy (imported by node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.js): The argument 'path' must be a string or Uint8Array without null bytes. Received '\x00/Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node'
node:internal/errors:490
    ErrorCaptureStackTrace(err);
    ^

TypeError [PLUGIN_ERROR]: Could not load /Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node?commonjs-proxy (imported by node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.js): The argument 'path' must be a string or Uint8Array without null bytes. Received '\x00/Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node'
    at open (node:internal/fs/promises:538:10)
    at Object.readFile (node:internal/fs/promises:909:20)
    at Object.load (/Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/electron-vite/dist/chunks/lib-a7bfaa24.js:550:47)
    at file:///Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:25419:40
    at async PluginDriver.hookFirstAndGetPlugin (file:///Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:25319:28)
    at async file:///Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:24487:75
    at async Queue.work (file:///Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:25529:32) {
  code: 'PLUGIN_ERROR',
  pluginCode: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_VALUE',
  plugin: 'vite:node-asset',
  hook: 'load',

Seems like vite can not handle binary files (.node) properly.

This is my electron.vite.config.js

export default {
  main: {
    build: {
      lib: {
        entry: './main.ts'
      }
    }
  },
}

Thanks for help

[alex8088]

• https://electron-vite.org/guide/cli.html --ignoreConfigWarning
• https://electron-vite.org/guide/dev.html#dependencies-vs-devdependencies

[hackal]

Thanks, that helped with the warnings and the issue with fsevents.

However now, when I start the script it says that it can not find electron module

This error originated either by throwing inside of an async function without a catch block, or by rejecting a promise which was not handled with .catch(). The promise rejected with the reason:
Error: Cannot find module '/Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/out/node_modules/electron'
Require stack:
- /Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/out/main/main.js
- /Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/node_modules/electron/dist/Electron.app/Contents/Resources/default_app.asar/main.js
- 
    at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1082:15)
    at n._resolveFilename (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:117457)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:927:27)
    at f._load (node:electron/js2c/asar_bundle:2:13330)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1148:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/cjs/helpers:110:18)
    at createMainWindow (/Users/hackal/WebstormProjects/acreom/electron/out/main/main.js:458:17)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
[8684:0810/151913.361760:ERROR:CONSOLE(2)] "Electron sandboxed_renderer.bundle.js script failed to run", source: node:electron/js2c/sandbox_bundle (2)
[8684:0810/151913.361786:ERROR:CONSOLE(2)] "TypeError: object null is not iterable (cannot read property Symbol(Symbol.iterator))", source: node:electron/js2c/sandbox_bundle (2)

Any idea what could be causing the issue?

My config:

import { defineConfig, externalizeDepsPlugin } from 'electron-vite'

export default defineConfig({
  main: {
    plugins: [externalizeDepsPlugin()],
    build: {
      rollupOptions: {
        input: './main.ts'
      },
    }
  },
  preload: {
    plugins: [externalizeDepsPlugin()],
    build: {
      rollupOptions: {
        input: './preload.ts'
      },
    }
  }
})

Thanks a lot for you help

[hackal]

Fixed the issue. It was trying to include electron from node_modules in electron/out folder, however they are in electron. Fixed it by specifying --outDir.

Thank you again for helping.