I came across this couple days ago. Basically, Ele...
# luceem
Monte Chan
05/02/2025, 4:37 PMI came across this couple days ago. Basically, Electron includes Chromium and Node.js which allows you to develop cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS https://www.electronjs.org/ With CF, it is probably impossible due to the licensing issue. But I wonder if you can include, somehow, a Lucee server in the build, and if you can, you may be able to build desktop apps using Lucee??? For those who may not know, VS Code, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Postman, ...etc. are all developed using Electron
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bdw429s
05/02/2025, 4:44 PMYes, you can do it with Lucee. There were some talks in years past doing it with CommandBox bundled with Electron
bdw429s
05/02/2025, 4:44 PMOur BoxLang admin is actually an electron app running BoxLang miniserver, and we had a talk at ITB about this as well
bdw429s
05/02/2025, 4:45 PMThe nice thing about boxlang/miniserver is the entire runtime AND server is a single 14 Meg jar with no other dependencies. Lucee can be made portable as can CommandBox but it's a lot larger on-disk to distribute
bdw429s
05/02/2025, 4:45 PMBut basically you can start up the server and then just embed the web app in an iframe equiv in your electron app
bdw429s
05/02/2025, 4:46 PMit's also possible to make the CF back end just be an API, write the front end in Electron/JS and have it just call your API. Different approaches are possible
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Monte Chan
05/02/2025, 4:48 PMYes, with CF, the API approach is probably the only way.
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alexpixl8
05/02/2025, 5:27 PMIm pretty sure @domwatson had some wrapper that would allow you to run a java app within the electron app some how and we tested with Lucee so im sure boxlang could also be done
alexpixl8
05/02/2025, 5:28 PMlemme see if i can dig it out
alexpixl8
05/02/2025, 5:28 PMas in shipped in it
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tonyjunkes
05/02/2025, 5:42 PMI gave a talk at ITB2020 on using Electron with Lucee running a ColdBox API and Vue frontend. It leveraged a NPM package that let you make calls to CommandBox, so the Lucee app could run locally alongside the Electron app.
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bdw429s
05/02/2025, 5:44 PMYep, that's the one I remember
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Bill Nourse
05/02/2025, 6:18 PMBrad, quick question on that. You mentioned the miniserver at 14 Megs with no dependencies.
But does the miniserver still require reference to Java somewhere? Trying to understand.
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bdw429s
05/02/2025, 6:39 PMYes, it would require a JRE to run, but the BoxLang runtime and Undertow webserver are around 14 Megs. As opposed to CommandBox + Lucee, CommandBox + Adobe, or Tomcat Standalone + Lucee, etc. None of those other combos would be anywhere in the ballpark as small.
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coldfusioneer
05/02/2025, 8:26 PM@nolanerck is giving a presentation on creating electron apps with BoxLang today at Into the Box so timely.
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Monte Chan
05/02/2025, 8:27 PMGreat minds think alike