Adding Dependencies

Add modules to the project

You will need to add other modules to this boilerplate, depending on the requirements of your project. For example, you may want to add node-postgres to communicate with PostgreSQL database, or material-ui to reuse React UI components.

tip

Please read the following section before installing any dependencies

Module Structure

This boilerplate uses a two package.json structure. This means you will have two package.json files.

1. ./package.json in the root of your project
2. ./build/app/package.json relative to the project root

Which package.json file to use

Rule of thumb is: all modules go into ./package.json except for native modules, or modules with native dependencies or peer dependencies. Native modules, or packages with native dependencies should go into ./build/app/package.json.

1. If the module is native to a platform (like node-postgres), it should be listed under dependencies in ./build/app/package.json
2. If a module is imported by another module, include it in dependencies in ./package.json. See this ESLint rule. Examples of such modules are material-ui, redux-form, and moment.
3. Otherwise, modules used for building, testing, and debugging should be included in devDependencies in ./package.json.

Further Readings

• See Electron Documentation - Using Native Node Modules to see how Electron uses native Node modules.
• See Node.js Documentation - Addons to see what are native Node modules.

For an example app that uses this boilerplate and packages native dependencies, see erb-sqlite-example.