Is there a way to package an Electron app in order to have an .exe file and just a folder with HTML/JS/CSS files next to it?

Question

I'm using Electron to generate a kind of "website container" for Windows because the users of my app needs to run it locally (they don't always have internet access) but they don't have the possibility to have a web-server on their computer and there are CORS issues if they just open the index.html file directly through the browser.

The Electron generated application is used as container, users are getting their specific files (folder with HTML/CSS/JS files) on github and they put it on the indicated folder in the Electron App. The main.js script in electron only run a Browser window and load the HTML file. As web application are loading a configuration file modified by the users, they must have access to application files, i can't send them a packaged application.

Currently i'm using Electron-builder with this configuration with "container" folder contains all the website file

"build": {
    "appId": "container.app",
    "win":{
      "target": "portable",
      "icon": "favicon.ico",
      "asarUnpack": [
        "container/**"
      ]
    }
  }

This is working fine but there are lots of files in the Electron folder besides the website files:

So it's not really intuitive for users, they have to go to "resources/app.asar.unpacked/container/" folder to update their files.

Isn't their a way to have an ouput like this ?

Garmien Garmien · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-06T09:13:18

Have you considered using extraResources in the package.json instead of the unpacked asar? https://www.electron.build/configuration/contents

    "build": {
       "extraResources": ["./extraResources/**"]
    }

That will put your files in the "resources" folder instead, and you can fetch them from your code.

Is there a way to package an Electron app in order to have an .exe file and just a folder with HTML/JS/CSS files next to it?

1 Answers