BrowserWindow

The BrowserWindow class gives you the ability to create a browser window. For example:

// In the main process.
const BrowserWindow = require('electron').BrowserWindow;

// Or in the renderer process.
const BrowserWindow = require('electron').remote.BrowserWindow;

var win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600, show: false });
win.on('closed', function() {
  win = null;
});

win.loadURL('https://github.com');
win.show();

You can also create a window without chrome by using Frameless Window API.

Class: BrowserWindow

BrowserWindow is an EventEmitter.

It creates a new BrowserWindow with native properties as set by the options.

new BrowserWindow([options])

• options Object
  • width Integer - Window's width in pixels. Default is 800.
  • height Integer - Window's height in pixels. Default is 600.
  • x Integer - Window's left offset from screen. Default is to center the window.
  • y Integer - Window's top offset from screen. Default is to center the window.
  • useContentSize Boolean - The width and height would be used as web page's size, which means the actual window's size will include window frame's size and be slightly larger. Default is false.
  • center Boolean - Show window in the center of the screen.
  • minWidth Integer - Window's minimum width. Default is 0.
  • minHeight Integer - Window's minimum height. Default is 0.
  • maxWidth Integer - Window's maximum width. Default is no limit.
  • maxHeight Integer - Window's maximum height. Default is no limit.
  • resizable Boolean - Whether window is resizable. Default is true.
  • movable Boolean - Whether window is movable. This is not implemented on Linux. Default is true.
  • minimizable Boolean - Whether window is minimizable. This is not implemented on Linux. Default is true.
  • maximizable Boolean - Whether window is maximizable. This is not implemented on Linux. Default is true.
  • closable Boolean - Whether window is closable. This is not implemented on Linux. Default is true.
  • alwaysOnTop Boolean - Whether the window should always stay on top of other windows. Default is false.
  • fullscreen Boolean - Whether the window should show in fullscreen. When explicitly set to false the fullscreen button will be hidden or disabled on OS X, or the maximize button will be disabled on Windows. Default is false.
  • fullscreenable Boolean - Whether the maximize/zoom button on OS X should toggle full screen mode or maximize window. Default is true.
  • skipTaskbar Boolean - Whether to show the window in taskbar. Default is false.
  • kiosk Boolean - The kiosk mode. Default is false.
  • title String - Default window title. Default is "Electron".
  • icon NativeImage - The window icon, when omitted on Windows the executable's icon would be used as window icon.
  • show Boolean - Whether window should be shown when created. Default is true.
  • frame Boolean - Specify false to create a Frameless Window. Default is true.
  • acceptFirstMouse Boolean - Whether the web view accepts a single mouse-down event that simultaneously activates the window. Default is false.
  • disableAutoHideCursor Boolean - Whether to hide cursor when typing. Default is false.
  • autoHideMenuBar Boolean - Auto hide the menu bar unless the Alt key is pressed. Default is false.
  • enableLargerThanScreen Boolean - Enable the window to be resized larger than screen. Default is false.
  • backgroundColor String - Window's background color as Hexadecimal value, like #66CD00 or #FFF or #80FFFFFF (alpha is supported). Default is #000 (black) for Linux and Windows, #FFF for Mac (or clear if transparent).
  • hasShadow Boolean - Whether window should have a shadow. This is only implemented on OS X. Default is true.
  • darkTheme Boolean - Forces using dark theme for the window, only works on some GTK+3 desktop environments. Default is false.
  • transparent Boolean - Makes the window transparent. Default is false.
  • type String - The type of window, default is normal window. See more about this below.
  • titleBarStyle String - The style of window title bar. See more about this below.
  • webPreferences Object - Settings of web page's features. See more about this below.

The possible values and behaviors of type option are platform dependent, supported values are:

• On Linux, possible types are desktop, dock, toolbar, splash, notification.
• On OS X, possible types are desktop, textured.
  • The textured type adds metal gradient appearance (NSTexturedBackgroundWindowMask).
  • The desktop type places the window at the desktop background window level (kCGDesktopWindowLevel - 1). Note that desktop window will not receive focus, keyboard or mouse events, but you can use globalShortcut to receive input sparingly.

The titleBarStyle option is only supported on OS X 10.10 Yosemite and newer. Possible values are:

• default or not specified, results in the standard gray opaque Mac title bar.
• hidden results in a hidden title bar and a full size content window, yet the title bar still has the standard window controls ("traffic lights") in the top left.
• hidden-inset results in a hidden title bar with an alternative look where the traffic light buttons are slightly more inset from the window edge.

The webPreferences option is an object that can have following properties:

• nodeIntegration Boolean - Whether node integration is enabled. Default is true.
• preload String - Specifies a script that will be loaded before other scripts run in the page. This script will always have access to node APIs no matter whether node integration is turned on or off. The value should be the absolute file path to the script. When node integration is turned off, the preload script can reintroduce Node global symbols back to the global scope. See example here.
• session Session - Sets the session used by the page. Instead of passing the Session object directly, you can also choose to use the partition option instead, which accepts a partition string. When both session and partition are provided, session would be preferred. Default is the default session.
• partition String - Sets the session used by the page according to the session's partition string. If partition starts with persist:, the page will use a persistent session available to all pages in the app with the same partition. if there is no persist: prefix, the page will use an in-memory session. By assigning the same partition, multiple pages can share the same session. Default is the default session.
• zoomFactor Number - The default zoom factor of the page, 3.0 represents 300%. Default is 1.0.
• javascript Boolean - Enables JavaScript support. Default is true.
• webSecurity Boolean - When setting false, it will disable the same-origin policy (Usually using testing websites by people), and set allowDisplayingInsecureContent and allowRunningInsecureContent to true if these two options are not set by user. Default is true.
• allowDisplayingInsecureContent Boolean - Allow an https page to display content like images from http URLs. Default is false.
• allowRunningInsecureContent Boolean - Allow a https page to run JavaScript, CSS or plugins from http URLs. Default is false.
• images Boolean - Enables image support. Default is true.
• textAreasAreResizable Boolean - Make TextArea elements resizable. Default is true.
• webgl Boolean - Enables WebGL support. Default is true.
• webaudio Boolean - Enables WebAudio support. Default is true.
• plugins Boolean - Whether plugins should be enabled. Default is false.
• experimentalFeatures Boolean - Enables Chromium's experimental features. Default is false.
• experimentalCanvasFeatures Boolean - Enables Chromium's experimental canvas features. Default is false.
• directWrite Boolean - Enables DirectWrite font rendering system on Windows. Default is true.
• blinkFeatures String - A list of feature strings separated by ,, like CSSVariables,KeyboardEventKey. The full list of supported feature strings can be found in the setFeatureEnabledFromString function.
• defaultFontFamily Object - Sets the default font for the font-family.
  • standard String - Defaults to Times New Roman.
  • serif String - Defaults to Times New Roman.
  • sansSerif String - Defaults to Arial.
  • monospace String - Defaults to Courier New.
• defaultFontSize Integer - Defaults to 16.
• defaultMonospaceFontSize Integer - Defaults to 13.
• minimumFontSize Integer - Defaults to 0.
• defaultEncoding String - Defaults to ISO-8859-1.

Events

The BrowserWindow object emits the following events:

Note: Some events are only available on specific operating systems and are labeled as such.

Event: 'page-title-updated'

Returns:

• event Event

Emitted when the document changed its title, calling event.preventDefault() would prevent the native window's title to change.

Event: 'close'

Returns:

• event Event

Emitted when the window is going to be closed. It's emitted before the beforeunload and unload event of the DOM. Calling event.preventDefault() will cancel the close.

Usually you would want to use the beforeunload handler to decide whether the window should be closed, which will also be called when the window is reloaded. In Electron, returning an empty string or false would cancel the close. For example:

window.onbeforeunload = function(e) {
  console.log('I do not want to be closed');

  // Unlike usual browsers, in which a string should be returned and the user is
  // prompted to confirm the page unload, Electron gives developers more options.
  // Returning empty string or false would prevent the unloading now.
  // You can also use the dialog API to let the user confirm closing the application.
  e.returnValue = false;
};

Event: 'closed'

Emitted when the window is closed. After you have received this event you should remove the reference to the window and avoid using it anymore.

Event: 'unresponsive'

Emitted when the web page becomes unresponsive.

Event: 'responsive'

Emitted when the unresponsive web page becomes responsive again.

Event: 'blur'

Emitted when the window loses focus.

Event: 'focus'

Emitted when the window gains focus.

Event: 'maximize'

Emitted when window is maximized.

Event: 'unmaximize'

Emitted when the window exits from maximized state.

Event: 'minimize'

Emitted when the window is minimized.

Event: 'restore'

Emitted when the window is restored from minimized state.

Event: 'resize'

Emitted when the window is getting resized.

Event: 'move'

Emitted when the window is getting moved to a new position.

Note: On OS X this event is just an alias of moved.

Event: 'moved' OS X

Emitted once when the window is moved to a new position.

Event: 'enter-full-screen'

Emitted when the window enters full screen state.

Event: 'leave-full-screen'

Emitted when the window leaves full screen state.

Event: 'enter-html-full-screen'

Emitted when the window enters full screen state triggered by html api.

Event: 'leave-html-full-screen'

Emitted when the window leaves full screen state triggered by html api.

Event: 'app-command' Windows

Emitted when an App Command.aspx) is invoked. These are typically related to keyboard media keys or browser commands, as well as the "Back" button built into some mice on Windows.

someWindow.on('app-command', function(e, cmd) {
  // Navigate the window back when the user hits their mouse back button
  if (cmd === 'browser-backward' && someWindow.webContents.canGoBack()) {
    someWindow.webContents.goBack();
  }
});

Event: 'scroll-touch-begin' OS X

Emitted when scroll wheel event phase has begun.

Event: 'scroll-touch-end' OS X

Emitted when scroll wheel event phase has ended.

Methods

The BrowserWindow object has the following methods:

BrowserWindow.getAllWindows()

Returns an array of all opened browser windows.

BrowserWindow.getFocusedWindow()

Returns the window that is focused in this application, otherwise returns null.

BrowserWindow.fromWebContents(webContents)

• webContents WebContents

Find a window according to the webContents it owns.

BrowserWindow.fromId(id)

• id Integer

Find a window according to its ID.

BrowserWindow.addDevToolsExtension(path)

• path String

Adds DevTools extension located at path, and returns extension's name.

The extension will be remembered so you only need to call this API once, this API is not for programming use.

BrowserWindow.removeDevToolsExtension(name)

• name String

Remove the DevTools extension whose name is name.

Instance Properties

Objects created with new BrowserWindow have the following properties:

// In this example `win` is our instance
var win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600 });

win.webContents

The WebContents object this window owns, all web page related events and operations will be done via it.

See the webContents documentation for its methods and events.

win.id

The unique ID of this window.

Instance Methods

Objects created with new BrowserWindow have the following instance methods:

Note: Some methods are only available on specific operating systems and are labeled as such.

win.destroy()

Force closing the window, the unload and beforeunload event won't be emitted for the web page, and close event will also not be emitted for this window, but it guarantees the closed event will be emitted.

win.close()

Try to close the window, this has the same effect with user manually clicking the close button of the window. The web page may cancel the close though, see the close event.

win.focus()

Focus on the window.

win.isFocused()

Returns a boolean, whether the window is focused.

win.show()

Shows and gives focus to the window.

win.showInactive()

Shows the window but doesn't focus on it.

win.hide()

Hides the window.

win.isVisible()

Returns a boolean, whether the window is visible to the user.

win.maximize()

Maximizes the window.

win.unmaximize()

Unmaximizes the window.

win.isMaximized()

Returns a boolean, whether the window is maximized.

win.minimize()

Minimizes the window. On some platforms the minimized window will be shown in the Dock.

win.restore()

Restores the window from minimized state to its previous state.

win.isMinimized()

Returns a boolean, whether the window is minimized.

win.setFullScreen(flag)

• flag Boolean

Sets whether the window should be in fullscreen mode.

win.isFullScreen()

Returns a boolean, whether the window is in fullscreen mode.

win.setAspectRatio(aspectRatio[, extraSize]) OS X

• aspectRatio The aspect ratio we want to maintain for some portion of the content view.
• extraSize Object (optional) - The extra size not to be included while maintaining the aspect ratio.
  • width Integer
  • height Integer

This will have a window maintain an aspect ratio. The extra size allows a developer to have space, specified in pixels, not included within the aspect ratio calculations. This API already takes into account the difference between a window's size and its content size.

Consider a normal window with an HD video player and associated controls. Perhaps there are 15 pixels of controls on the left edge, 25 pixels of controls on the right edge and 50 pixels of controls below the player. In order to maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio (standard aspect ratio for HD @1920x1080) within the player itself we would call this function with arguments of 16/9 and [ 40, 50 ]. The second argument doesn't care where the extra width and height are within the content view--only that they exist. Just sum any extra width and height areas you have within the overall content view.

win.setBounds(options[, animate])

• options Object
  • x Integer
  • y Integer
  • width Integer
  • height Integer
• animate Boolean (optional) OS X

Resizes and moves the window to width, height, x, y.

win.getBounds()

Returns an object that contains window's width, height, x and y values.

win.setSize(width, height[, animate])

• width Integer
• height Integer
• animate Boolean (optional) OS X

Resizes the window to width and height.

win.getSize()

Returns an array that contains window's width and height.

win.setContentSize(width, height[, animate])

• width Integer
• height Integer
• animate Boolean (optional) OS X

Resizes the window's client area (e.g. the web page) to width and height.

win.getContentSize()

Returns an array that contains window's client area's width and height.

win.setMinimumSize(width, height)

• width Integer
• height Integer

Sets the minimum size of window to width and height.

win.getMinimumSize()

Returns an array that contains window's minimum width and height.

win.setMaximumSize(width, height)

• width Integer
• height Integer

Sets the maximum size of window to width and height.

win.getMaximumSize()

Returns an array that contains window's maximum width and height.

win.setResizable(resizable)

• resizable Boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually resized by user.

win.isResizable()

Returns whether the window can be manually resized by user.

win.setMovable(movable) OS X Windows

• movable Boolean

Sets whether the window can be moved by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isMovable() OS X Windows

Returns whether the window can be moved by user. On Linux always returns true.

win.setMinimizable(minimizable) OS X Windows

• minimizable Boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually minimized by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isMinimizable() OS X Windows

Returns whether the window can be manually minimized by user. On Linux always returns true.

win.setMaximizable(maximizable) OS X Windows

• maximizable Boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually maximized by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isMaximizable() OS X Windows

Returns whether the window can be manually maximized by user. On Linux always returns true.

win.setFullScreenable(fullscreenable) OS X

• fullscreenable Boolean

Sets whether the maximize/zoom window button toggles fullscreen mode or maximizes the window. On Windows and Linux does nothing.

win.isFullScreenable() OS X

Returns whether the maximize/zoom window button toggles fullscreen mode or maximizes the window. On Windows and Linux always returns true.

win.setClosable(closable) OS X Windows

• closable Boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually closed by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isClosable() OS X Windows

Returns whether the window can be manually closed by user. On Linux always returns true.

win.setAlwaysOnTop(flag)

• flag Boolean

Sets whether the window should show always on top of other windows. After setting this, the window is still a normal window, not a toolbox window which can not be focused on.

win.isAlwaysOnTop()

Returns whether the window is always on top of other windows.

win.center()

Moves window to the center of the screen.

win.setPosition(x, y[, animate])

• x Integer
• y Integer
• animate Boolean (optional) OS X

Moves window to x and y.

win.getPosition()

Returns an array that contains window's current position.

win.setTitle(title)

• title String

Changes the title of native window to title.

win.getTitle()

Returns the title of the native window.

Note: The title of web page can be different from the title of the native window.

win.flashFrame(flag)

• flag Boolean

Starts or stops flashing the window to attract user's attention.

win.setSkipTaskbar(skip)

• skip Boolean

Makes the window not show in the taskbar.

win.setKiosk(flag)

• flag Boolean

Enters or leaves the kiosk mode.

win.isKiosk()

Returns whether the window is in kiosk mode.

win.getNativeWindowHandle()

Returns the platform-specific handle of the window as Buffer.

The native type of the handle is HWND on Windows, NSView* on OS X, and Window (unsigned long) on Linux.

win.hookWindowMessage(message, callback) Windows

• message Integer
• callback Function

Hooks a windows message. The callback is called when the message is received in the WndProc.

win.isWindowMessageHooked(message) Windows

• message Integer

Returns true or false depending on whether the message is hooked.

win.unhookWindowMessage(message) Windows

• message Integer

Unhook the window message.

win.unhookAllWindowMessages() Windows

Unhooks all of the window messages.

win.setRepresentedFilename(filename) OS X

• filename String

Sets the pathname of the file the window represents, and the icon of the file will show in window's title bar.

win.getRepresentedFilename() OS X

Returns the pathname of the file the window represents.

win.setDocumentEdited(edited) OS X

• edited Boolean

Specifies whether the window’s document has been edited, and the icon in title bar will become gray when set to true.

win.isDocumentEdited() OS X

Whether the window's document has been edited.

win.focusOnWebView()

win.blurWebView()

win.capturePage([rect, ]callback)

• rect Object (optional) - The area of page to be captured
  • x Integer
  • y Integer
  • width Integer
  • height Integer
• callback Function

Captures a snapshot of the page within rect. Upon completion callback will be called with callback(image). The image is an instance of NativeImage that stores data of the snapshot. Omitting rect will capture the whole visible page.

win.print([options])

Same as webContents.print([options])

win.printToPDF(options, callback)

Same as webContents.printToPDF(options, callback)

win.loadURL(url[, options])

Same as webContents.loadURL(url[, options]).

win.reload()

Same as webContents.reload.

win.setMenu(menu) Linux Windows

• menu Menu

Sets the menu as the window's menu bar, setting it to null will remove the menu bar.

win.setProgressBar(progress)

• progress Double

Sets progress value in progress bar. Valid range is [0, 1.0].

Remove progress bar when progress < 0; Change to indeterminate mode when progress > 1.

On Linux platform, only supports Unity desktop environment, you need to specify the *.desktop file name to desktopName field in package.json. By default, it will assume app.getName().desktop.

win.setOverlayIcon(overlay, description) Windows 7+

• overlay NativeImage - the icon to display on the bottom right corner of the taskbar icon. If this parameter is null, the overlay is cleared
• description String - a description that will be provided to Accessibility screen readers

Sets a 16 x 16 pixel overlay onto the current taskbar icon, usually used to convey some sort of application status or to passively notify the user.

win.setHasShadow(hasShadow) OS X

• hasShadow (Boolean)

Sets whether the window should have a shadow. On Windows and Linux does nothing.

win.hasShadow() OS X

Returns whether the window has a shadow. On Windows and Linux always returns true.

win.setThumbarButtons(buttons) Windows 7+

• buttons Array

Add a thumbnail toolbar with a specified set of buttons to the thumbnail image of a window in a taskbar button layout. Returns a Boolean object indicates whether the thumbnail has been added successfully.

The number of buttons in thumbnail toolbar should be no greater than 7 due to the limited room. Once you setup the thumbnail toolbar, the toolbar cannot be removed due to the platform's limitation. But you can call the API with an empty array to clean the buttons.

The buttons is an array of Button objects:

• Button Object
  • icon NativeImage - The icon showing in thumbnail toolbar.
  • click Function
  • tooltip String (optional) - The text of the button's tooltip.
  • flags Array (optional) - Control specific states and behaviors of the button. By default, it is ['enabled'].

The flags is an array that can include following Strings:

• enabled - The button is active and available to the user.
• disabled - The button is disabled. It is present, but has a visual state indicating it will not respond to user action.
• dismissonclick - When the button is clicked, the thumbnail window closes immediately.
• nobackground - Do not draw a button border, use only the image.
• hidden - The button is not shown to the user.
• noninteractive - The button is enabled but not interactive; no pressed button state is drawn. This value is intended for instances where the button is used in a notification.

win.showDefinitionForSelection() OS X

Shows pop-up dictionary that searches the selected word on the page.

win.setAutoHideMenuBar(hide)

• hide Boolean

Sets whether the window menu bar should hide itself automatically. Once set the menu bar will only show when users press the single Alt key.

If the menu bar is already visible, calling setAutoHideMenuBar(true) won't hide it immediately.

win.isMenuBarAutoHide()

Returns whether menu bar automatically hides itself.

win.setMenuBarVisibility(visible)

• visible Boolean

Sets whether the menu bar should be visible. If the menu bar is auto-hide, users can still bring up the menu bar by pressing the single Alt key.

win.isMenuBarVisible()

Returns whether the menu bar is visible.

win.setVisibleOnAllWorkspaces(visible)

• visible Boolean

Sets whether the window should be visible on all workspaces.

Note: This API does nothing on Windows.

win.isVisibleOnAllWorkspaces()

Returns whether the window is visible on all workspaces.

Note: This API always returns false on Windows.

win.setIgnoreMouseEvents(ignore) OS X

• ignore Boolean

Ignore all moused events that happened in the window.