(mis)Using Electron

on your server

Client - Server Network

P2P Network

Servers can crash

Peer networks

don't crash

Hello WebFlight

WebTorrent

P2P in the browser!

What we know

We can share files between browsers
Those files need to be torrent-able
We need a browser to start initial seeding

How to put a browser on our server?

Hello Electron

Node.js

+ Chromium

Electron App Architecture

Browser

Renderer

Modules

Basic App Structure

test-app/
├── package.json
├── main.js
├── mystyles.css
└── index.html

main.js

const electron = require('electron')
const app = electron.app
const fs = require('fs')
const myFile = require('./myFile.txt')

const BrowserWindow = electron.BrowserWindow



function createWindow () {
  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 800, 
        height: 600, 
        webPreferences: { nodeenabled: false }
    })

  mainWindow.loadURL('file://' + __dirname + '/index.html') 
}



app.on('ready', createWindow)

Execute

$ electron myapp/

Main Process

Render process 1

Render process 2

Some downsides :-(

V8 compatibility between Node & Electron
Memory management
Security

Many projects

use Electron!

How WebFlight

uses Electron

(Electron Shell)

Original HTML

<!---original tag --->
<img id='large-image' src='/assets/media/img/bird1.jpg'>

<!---torrented tag --->
<img id='large-image' class='23897389asdfjkl9845'>

WebFlight's HTML

Electron's main.js seed script

  client.seed('/assets/media/img/bird1.jpg', function(torrent) {
      console.log('now seeding ', torrent.files[0].name)
    })


  client.seed('/assets/media/mov/birds-flying.mp4', function(torrent) {
      console.log('now seeding ', torrent.files[0].name)
    })

Electron as Child Process

const electron = require('electron-spawn')
const spawn = electron('/path/to/seedScript', {detached: true})

spawn.sdterr.on('error', (err) => {
  console.err('error spawning ', err.toString())
})

spawn.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
  console.log('seeding files ', data.toString())
})

Electron is a browser

with no sandbox!

Jared Fowler

@jared_fowler

@10000highfives

webflight.io

Thank you