7/18/2020 Two package.

json Structure - electron-builder

Two package.json Structure

 Info

Since version 8 electron-builder rebuilds only production dependencies, so, you are not forced to
use two package.json structure.

1. For development ( ./package.json )

The package.json resides in the root of your project. Here you declare the
dependencies for your development environment and build scripts
( devDependencies ).

2. For your application ( ./app/package.json )

The package.json resides in the app directory. Declare your application

dependencies ( dependencies ) here. Only this directory is distributed with the
final, packaged application.

Why?

1. Native npm modules (those written in C, not JavaScript) need to be

compiled and here we have two different compilation targets for them.
Those used within the application need to be compiled against the electron
runtime and all devDependencies need to be compiled against your local
node.js environment. Thanks to the two package.json structure, this is
trivial (see #39 [https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-
builder/issues/39]).

2. No need to specify which files [/configuration/configuration#Configuration-

files] to include in the app (because development files reside outside the
app directory).

Please see Loading App Dependencies Manually [/tutorials/loading-app-

dependencies-manually] and #379 [https://github.com/electron-
userland/electron-builder/issues/379#issuecomment-218503881].

https://www.electron.build/tutorials/two-package-structure 1/2
7/18/2020 Two package.json Structure - electron-builder

If you use the two-package.json project structure, you’ll only have your
devDependencies in your development package.json and your dependencies
in your app package.json . To ensure your dependencies are always updated
based on both files, simply add "postinstall": "electron-builder install-
app-deps" to your development package.json . This will basically automatically
trigger an npm install within your app directory so you don’t have to do this
work every time you install/update your dependencies.

 Metadata

All the meta fields should be in the app/package.json ( version , name and so on).

https://www.electron.build/tutorials/two-package-structure 2/2