Integration with Electron.js

This tutorial describes how to integrate Flexmonster Pivot with Electron.js – a JavaScript framework that allows creating cross-platform desktop applications.

Prerequisites

To work with Electron.js, you need Node.js and npm. Get it here if it’s not already installed on your machine.

One more tool needed is Flexmonster CLI, which is the most convenient way to work with Flexmonster. Install the CLI globally using npm:

npm install -g flexmonster-cli

Now a new flexmonster command is available in the console. Learn more about Flexmonster CLI and its commands in our documentation.

After that, choose one of the following options:

Run the sample project from GitHub
Integrate Flexmonster into an Electron application

Run the sample project from GitHub

Create the sample project with the following CLI command:

flexmonster create electron -r

The flexmonster create electron command will do the following:

Download the .zip archive with the sample Electron project from GitHub.
Automatically unpack the files in the current folder — as a result, the flexmonster-electron-project/ folder will appear in your working directory.

The -r option, which stands for --run, completes these tasks:

Installs all the npm dependencies described in package.json.
Compiles the application and runs it.

As a result, a desktop application with the pivot table embedded will be launched.

Integrate Flexmonster into an Electron application

This guide is based on the first Electron app tutorial. Follow the steps below to integrate Flexmonster Pivot into a new Electron.js application. If you already have the Electron project, jump to Step 6. Install Flexmonster.

Step 1. Initialize package.json file

Create an empty folder for the new Electron application (e.g., pivot-electron) and run the following command from that folder:

npm init

npm will start creating a basic package.json file. When initializing package.json, notice the "main" field – a script specified in this field is the application’s entry point. In this tutorial, main.js is the entry point.

As a result, the package.json file should look similar to the following:

{
   "name": "pivot-electron",
   "version": "1.0.0",
   "main": "main.js"
}

If there is no "main" field specified in package.json, the default entry point is index.js.

Step 2. Add a script to run the Electron app

By default, the npm start command runs the application with Node.js. To run the application with Electron, add the following start script to package.json:

"scripts": {
    "start": "electron .",
},

Step 3. Install Electron.js

Install Electron.js in the project by running the following command in the console:

npm install electron

Step 4. Create the HTML file

HTML files define the Electron application’s user interface. Create the HTML file (e.g., index.html) with a simple markup:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Pivot table for Desktop</title>
    </head>
    <body>
    </body>
</html>

Step 5. Create the main.js file

In this tutorial, the entry point for the application is main.js. Create a simple main.js file that waits for the application to be ready and then opens the window:

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

function createWindow () {
    // create the browser window
    let win = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 800,
        height: 600,
        webPreferences: {
            nodeIntegration: true
        }
    })
    
    // load the previously created index.html file
    win.loadFile('index.html')
}

// open the window when the application is ready
app.whenReady().then(createWindow)

Step 6. Install Flexmonster

Install Flexmonster by running this CLI command from the folder containing package.json:

flexmonster add flexmonster

The add command will install the flexmonster npm package to node_modules/ and add it as an npm dependency to package.json.

Step 7. Add a container for Flexmonster

In the index.html file, add a container for Flexmonster:

<body>
    <div id="pivotContainer"></div>
</body>

Step 8. Create a file for a Flexmonster instance

Create a new .js file (e.g., pivot.js) for Flexmonster and include the Flexmonster npm module into it:

require('flexmonster');

Step 9. Add a Flexmonster instance

Add a new Flexmonster instance to the pivot.js file:

const pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "pivotContainer",
    toolbar: true,
    report: "https://cdn.flexmonster.com/reports/report.json"
});

Step 10. Add Flexmonster to the index.html file

Include the script embedding Flexmonster to the index.html file:

<div id="pivotContainer"></div>
<script src="./pivot.js"></script>

Step 11. Include Flexmonster styles

Include Flexmonster styles into the index.html file. It should be done as follows:

<head>
    <title>Pivot table for Desktop</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" 
     href="https://cdn.flexmonster.com/flexmonster.min.css"
    />
</head>

Step 12. Run the project

Run the project from the console with the following command:

npm start

A desktop application with the pivot table embedded will be launched.

The application can be shut down manually with Ctrl+C.

What’s next?

You may be interested in the following articles: