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Making Desktop apps with Electron, React Native, and Expo

Evan Bacon on November 26, 2019

TL;DR: Example. Expo + Electron is in alpha (Nov 2019). docs = most recent info. This tutorial will show you how to use React Native, Electron, We...

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Wern Ancheta • Dec 18 '19 • Edited

Thanks for writing this guide!
I tried creating a demo app with it and it works in development mode.

The only problem is that the build doesn't seem to work.
I'm getting this error when compiling in mac:

I used the following command to compile: yarn electron-webpack && yarn electron-builder --dir -c.compression=store -c.mac.identity=null

There were no errors in the compilation process. My babel.config.js looks like:

module.exports = function(api) {
  api.cache(true);
  return {
    presets: ['babel-preset-expo', 'module:metro-react-native-babel-preset', 'module:react-native-dotenv'], 
  };
};

any ideas why this is? does babel-preset-expo support global module imports?

again, thank you for this. I'll continue trying to figure out what's wrong.

Alberto Robles • Jan 14 '20

Hi, there.

I'm getting a similar error. I've been trying to fix it by changing the syntax for that line from 'import from ...' to 'require('....')'.

It "worked" in the way that the error moved to the next "import" statement.
Is ES6 not working on the build?

Tried using other babel presets (babel/env, babel-react, etc...). With these ones, not even the building finishes.

Can't find any solution

Leonardo Silva • Nov 26 '20

Any answer on the subject, I have the same problem, a build example would be welcome.

Varma Bhupatiraju • Dec 21 '19

@Wern, I have same issue. Did you find any solutions?

tsayyed • Dec 14 '22

Any luck to create build for electron?

Evan Bacon • Nov 26 '19

Wow that looks awesome! When you use Expo to make Electron apps you also get an iOS and Android app as well though.

Michael Lefkowitz • Dec 11 '19

Great post - I featured this on React Native Now newsletter #56

Evan Bacon • Dec 11 '19

Awesome, thanks so much!

Nick Taylor • Nov 27 '19

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing Evan. I've done a lot of React, but still haven't touched any of the native stuff, including Expo. Maybe I should start. 😎