Electron-packager: Unable to load module that isn't specified in Electron app's package.json

[navxio]

I'm trying to package an electron app which resides in electron-app/ folder in my project folder. The modules are installed in ../node_modules folder.

I have a module that is required in the preload script(electron-app/preload.js) and attached to the window object. After packaging this app, electron throws the said error with module not found, but if I install the module in the electron-app folder, everything works fine.

I've tried to push the ../node_modules to module.paths but to no avail.

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[malept]

In order to debug your problem further, we need a minimal testcase to reproduce your problem. Using the electron-quick-start repository as a base, could you please create a minimal Electron app that illustrates the issue you described, and post a link to it here?

[navxio]

@malept https://github.com/navdeepio/electron-quick-start

Try packaging the app in electron-app folder and running it

[malept]

I have some additional questions:

• What command line arguments are you passing?
• What directory are you running electron-packager from?
• Why are there two package.json files?

[navxio]

electron-packager electron-app/ from electron-quick-start/ folder

• Two package.json files are there for testing, but feel free to remove the one inside electron-app/

[malept]

The problem is that Electron Packager reads the package.json file inside of electron-app, so it prunes away any module that's not specified in electron-app/package.json. If you need to keep instascan, you need to add it to that package.json.

[navxio]

@malept tried that too, still not working. Please open it after verifying

[malept]

I ran (cd electron-app && npm install --save instascan) and it did this:

diff --git a/electron-app/package.json b/electron-app/package.json
index 8392c12..ccffd28 100644
--- a/electron-app/package.json
+++ b/electron-app/package.json
@@ -15,5 +15,8 @@
     "demo"
   ],
   "author": "GitHub",
-  "license": "CC0-1.0"
+  "license": "CC0-1.0",
+  "dependencies": {
+    "instascan": "^1.0.0"
+  }
 }

Then I ran electron-packager electron-app, and then electron-quick-start-linux-x64/electron-quick-start. I didn't get an error about instascan or mykey.

In fact, I verified in the open devtools console that window.mykey contained Instascan.

[navxio]

ok, that's the point - instascan is installed and available in the parent directory(electron-quick-start). So to not have two yarn.lock files(one in parent dir and one in electron-app/) I've removed electron-app/node_modules, which I request you to remove yourself

[malept]

At this point, I think you should make your webapp into a (private) module and add that into dependencies in electron-app/package.json. I suggest looking at yarn workspaces to make sure that there's only one yarn.lock, etc. (Although there is currently a bug with workspaces and pruning at the moment.)

[navxio]

@malept I agree. But out of curiosity, shouldn't electron-packager be able to resolve the module from node_modules that's one dir up? Especially since module.path contains electron-quick-start/node_modules or ../node_modules?

[malept]

How would it know about those folders? You've specified that the app resides in electron-app, not its parent directory. Electron Packager doesn't copy anything in the app's parent directory.