Electron, React & Python Template

Multi-platform Electron template, using React & Redux Toolkit with Python/Flask microservices.

🛠️ Setup

These setup steps are for developers building on top of the template. End users who install your packaged app (MSI / DMG / DEB) need none of this — the installer ships everything.

Prerequisites

Tool	Recommended	Notes
Node.js	20.x LTS	Required ≥ 16. CRA 5 / webpack 5 do not need the older --openssl-legacy-provider workaround.
Yarn 1	1.22.x	npm install works too, but lockfile + scripts are tested against Yarn 1.
Python	3.10 – 3.12	Used for the Flask service in dev and bundled by PyInstaller for production.
pip	bundled with Python	Use pip, pip3, or py -m pip — whichever your install exposes.

Platform-specific (only when packaging installers):

• Windows MSI: WiX Toolset 3.x on PATH (e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.14.1\bin).
• Linux DEB: fakeroot and dpkg on PATH (sudo apt install fakeroot dpkg).
• macOS DMG: no extra tools needed for an unsigned build. Code signing requires an Apple Developer ID.

Install dependencies

Clone the repo and from the project root:

Python deps (Flask, flask-cors, PyInstaller, pytest):

pip install -r requirements.txt
Copy

Node deps:

yarn install
Copy

⚙️ Config

Electron: Electron's main.ts and preload.ts files can be found in the project's root directory. They compile to dist-electron/ via tsc -p tsconfig.electron.json (run automatically by yarn start and yarn build).

React: React files can be found in the ./src/ folder, the custom toolbar is in ./src/components/toolbar.

Python: Python scripts can be created in the ./app.py file and used on events via REST calls.

📜 Scripts

Below are the scripts you'll need to run and package your application, as well as build out JSDoc documentation, if you choose to do so. An exhaustive list of scripts that are available can be found in the package.json file of the project's root directory, in the scripts section.

⚠️  PyInstaller is included in requirements.txt, so a separate install is no longer required. Installer metadata (name, version, manufacturer, description) is pulled from the matching fields in package.json automatically.

Start Developer Mode:

yarn run start
Copy

Package Windows: ¹

yarn run build:package:windows
Copy

Package macOS:

yarn run build:package:mac
Copy

Package Linux:

yarn run build:package:linux
Copy

Build Documentation:

yarn run build:docs
Copy

¹Windows uses electron-wix-msi, you must install and add its path to your environment variables.

🐱‍👓 Docs

Code documentation for this template, created with JSDoc, can be found here:
Electron, React, & Python Template

🦟 Bugs

Bugs reported on the project's issues page will be exterminated as quickly as possible, be sure to include steps to reproduce so they can be spotted easily.

🏷️ License

MIT © iPzard