Is there any standlone gui module for node application

I want to build a code editor in nodejs. There is option like using an express server to show editor and to execute code in backend. But that would require a browser. So I am looking for node modules that can provide standalone gui for windows platform.

There are a couple of different options, depending on how you want to proceed.

Option 1:

Use something like QT or GTK bindings to make a more traditional GUI application. These options generally are just Node bindings to the C/C++ API that GTK and QT expose. See node-qt and yue. Although these seem to not be actively developed.

Update:

You can take a look at NodeGUI: https://github.com/nodegui/nodegui

NodeGUI is a javascript library for building cross-platform native desktop applications with JavaScript and CSS like styling. It uses Qt under the hood and works on Mac, Linux and Windows.

It also has a react based renderer called React NodeGUI which is like React Native but for desktop: https://github.com/nodegui/react-nodegui

Option 2:

Use a framework that takes HTML, CSS, and Javascript and bundles it into a standalone HTML5 app. There are a bunch of frame works out there that do this. Examples include node-webkit and AppJS among many others.

I recommend using an HTML/JS/CSS Framework

Option #1: Electron by GitHub.
Website | GitHub Repo | Releases

> It's easier than you think > > If you can build a website, you can build a desktop app. Electron is a > framework for creating native applications with web technologies like > JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It takes care of the hard parts so you can > focus on the core of your application.

Option #2: NW.js (previously known as node-webkit).
Website | GitHub Repo | Releases

> Call all Node.js modules directly from DOM/WebWorker and enable a new > way of writing applications with all Web technologies.

Electron and NWJS Pros:

• AppJS is officially deprecated

• Electron is similar to NW.js but newer, more popular and has a bigger community and updates more frequently. I recommend it.

• NWJS always uses the latest Versions of Chromium and Node while Electron takes more time to catch up.

• NWJS supports [JavaScript Source Protection][1] by compiling it to V8 native code. Electron does not.

• NWJS have a Legacy release for Windows XP and Mac OS X 10.6 support.

• Electron and NWJS both use MIT license.

You can compare the contributions to electron with NW.js

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Electron and NWJS Cons:

• there is no out-of-the-bag run-time solution currently, so you'll have to ship it with your code (~50MB compressed and +100MB uncompressed) or find a way around it.
• depending on your app, Electron/NWJS might considered an overkill especially since its startup time is less than ideal, just something to take into account.
• no native look, you'll have to create your own UI elements using CSS or using some framework.

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Option #3: DeskGap.
Website | GitHub Repo | Releases

> DeskGap is a framework for building cross-platform desktop apps with > web technologies (JavaScript, HTML and CSS). > > To enable native capabilities while keeping the size down, DeskGap > bundles a Node.js runtime and leaves the HTML rendering to the > operating system‘s webview.

• Lightweight since the webview is provided by the operating system.

• The API is still quite limited (pretty much a work in progress).

• Requires new OS versions.

Apart from the other answers here:

You can take a look at NodeGUI: https://github.com/nodegui/nodegui

> NodeGUI is a javascript library for building cross-platform native > desktop applications with JavaScript and CSS like styling. It uses Qt > under the hood and works on Mac, Linux and Windows.

It also has a react based renderer called React NodeGUI which is like React Native but for desktop: https://github.com/nodegui/react-nodegui

Also, its under active development.

Answer specific to your question may be NodeGui (powered by Qt5, NodeGui-React)

There are many other options. I'm listing a few options below,

• electron (Lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS, based on Node.js & Chromium)
• carlo (Requires Node & Google Chrome to be installed on the system to run)
• NW.js (Similar to electron, provides Source code protection)
• DeskGap (bundles a Node.js runtime and leaves the HTML rendering to the operating system‘s webview)
• Proton Native (does the same to desktop that React Native did to mobile, based on https://github.com/parro-it/libui-node)

For more, you can use my github repo electron-alternatives to pick a cross-platform desktop development option.

I recently discovered https://github.com/yue/yue and I'm having nice experience. It's lightweight, has descent packaging support (and even react/JSX support) and is truly native with decent webview, portable and easy to build target platform's.

Although it seems discontinued I found this project unique, it's really native with options to add a descent webview. I retake some PRs and forked it and I'm adding TypeScript types and documentation since it's really clean/straight forward API, easy to build target platform files. this is my fork although I would like/searching for other users adding missing parts: https://github.com/cancerberoSgx/node-gui . The cons is that it implements node.js event loop so you must use yode (node.js fork) in order for promises and asynchronous code to work well with the GUI code.. m

I wonder if others have experience with this library or forks.

Recently also Node-gir may be worth a look: https://github.com/Place1/node-gir

Allows to use Gnome/Glib/Gobject-based libraries from Nodejs. Will allow you to use GTK+.