Blank screen when navigating Angular routes within Electron app

Question

I'm currently writing a desktop hybrid app with Electron with AngularJS integration for routing etc, please see following angular config:

app.config(function($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {

$routeProvider

    .when('/', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/dashboard.html',
        controller: 'dashboardController'
    })

    .when('/sites', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/sites.html',
        controller: 'sitesController'
    })

    .when('/sites/:site', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/site.html',
        controller: 'siteController'
    })

    .when('/sites/:site/content', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/site_content.html',
        controller: 'contentController'
    })

    .when('/sites/:site/content/create', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/site_content_create.html',
        controller: 'createController'
    })

    .when('/sites/:site/content/:contentId/edit', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/site_content_edit.html',
        controller: 'editController'
    })

    .when('/user', {
        templateUrl: 'patials/user.html',
        controller: 'userController'
    })

    .when('/user/edit', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/user_edit.html',
        controller: 'userEditController'
    })

    .when('/login', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/login.html',
        controller: 'loginController'
    })

    .when('/register', {
        templateUrl: 'partials/register.html',
        controller: 'registerController'
    });

$routeProvider.otherwise({
    redirectTo: '/'
});

});

The app loads up fine, and the initial 'dashboard.html' is injected into ng-view perfectly fine.

The problem comes when I click on an tag to load in another view, such as sites.html, for example. I get a full white screen with no errors output into the console, nor any errors coming from node.js itself.

I'm wondering whether this is a known problem, or whether I've done something wrong in my config.

I see nothing at all in the debug console, no output of any sort, simply a white screen with no network info/markup. — Adam Thomason
@IndraUprade it certainly is! I'm pulling my hair out with this, I can't work out the problem. I'm starting to think it's perhaps something to do with electron not acting as a web server? — Adam Thomason

Adam Thomason Adam Thomason · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-23T14:10:51

I've managed to overcome this issue, finally.

In the end it certainly seemed to be caused by AngularJS being a bit 'funny' about working correctly only when served by a webserver.

With that in mind, I've implemented an express server on a specific port during the 'create window' phase of my electron app. I then point the window at the localhost URL, which is now technically an express app running inside an electron app, running AngularJS.

It confused me for a while getting the setup in line, but now it seems to be working perfectly and very speedy, too.

EDIT: Here's the code for that!

main.js:

const electron = require('electron');
const server = require("./server");
const sqlite3 = require('sqlite3');
// Module to control application life.
const app = electron.app;
// Module to create native browser window.
const BrowserWindow = electron.BrowserWindow;

// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
// be closed automatically when the JavaScript object is garbage collected.
let mainWindow;

function createWindow () {
  // Create the browser window.
  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({width: 1000, height: 700});

  // and load the index.html of the app.
  //mainWindow.loadURL(`file://${__dirname}/index.html`);
  mainWindow.loadURL(`http://localhost:3333`);

  // Open the DevTools.
  mainWindow.webContents.openDevTools();

  // Emitted when the window is closed.
  mainWindow.on('closed', function () {
    // Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
    // in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
    // when you should delete the corresponding element.
    mainWindow = null
  })
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
// Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
app.on('ready', createWindow);

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
  // On OS X it is common for applications and their menu bar
  // to stay active until the user quits explicitly with Cmd + Q
  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') {
    app.quit()
  }
});

app.on('activate', function () {
  // On OS X it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
  // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
  if (mainWindow === null) {
    createWindow()
  }
});

process.on('uncaughtException', function (err) {
  console.log(err);
});

// In this file you can include the rest of your app's specific main process
// code. You can also put them in separate files and require them here.

server.js:

var path = require('path');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();

app.use(express.static(__dirname));

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.sendfile(__dirname + 'index.html');
});

app.listen(3333);

Blank screen when navigating Angular routes within Electron app

2 Answers