'Electron Forge - Can't use ipcRenderer in the renderer file

I just created a new application using the following command:

npx create-electron-app my-new-app --template=typescript-webpack

Inside the renderer.ts I added the following code

import "./index.css";
import { ipcRenderer } from "electron";

But when I run npm run start I have the following error in Browser Console

Uncaught ReferenceError: require is not defined

Update What I've tried:

webpack.plugins.js

const ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin = require("fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin");
const webpack = require("webpack");
module.exports = [
  new ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin(),
  new webpack.ExternalsPlugin("commonjs", ["electron"]),
];

But it still doesn't work.

node.jselectronelectron-forge


Solution 1:[1]

The solution is using the ContextBridge API from electron for electron-forge react+webpack template

preload.js

import { ipcRenderer, contextBridge } from "electron";

contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld("electron", {
  notificationApi: {
    sendNotification(message) {
      ipcRenderer.send("notify", message);
    },
  },
  batteryApi: {},
  fileApi: {},
});

main.js

const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    width: 800,
    height: 600,
    webPreferences: {
      nodeIntegration: false,
      contextIsolation: true,
      worldSafeExecuteJavaScript: true,
      preload: MAIN_WINDOW_PRELOAD_WEBPACK_ENTRY,
    },
 });

ipcMain.on("notify", (_, message) => {
   new Notification({ title: "Notification", body: message }).show();
});

package.json

 "plugins": [
    [
      "@electron-forge/plugin-webpack",
      {
        "mainConfig": "./webpack.main.config.js",
        "renderer": {
          "config": "./webpack.renderer.config.js",
          "entryPoints": [
            {
              "html": "./src/index.html",
              "js": "./src/renderer.js",
              "name": "main_window",
              "preload": {
                "js": "./src/preload.js"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  ]

app.jsx

import * as React from "react";
import * as ReactDOM from "react-dom";

class App extends React.Component {
  componentDidMount() {
    electron.notificationApi.sendNotification("Finally!");
  }
  render() {
    return <h1>contextBridge</h1>;
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);

Solution 2:[2]

If you are using typescript, you need to add this to your renderer.ts file:

declare global {
  interface Window {
    electron: {
      funcName: () => void;
    };
  }
}

Then you can use window.electron.funcName().

Solution 3:[3]

In index.js when creating new window use

win = new BrowserWindow({
        webPreferences: {
            preload: path.join(__dirname, 'app', 'assets', 'js', 'preloader.js'),
            nodeIntegration: true,
            contextIsolation: false
        },
    })

Simply add nodeIntegration: true to webPreferences.Then you would be able to use require

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1
Solution 2 ouflak
Solution 3 dommilosz

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