Migrating from Electron

Owear deliberately mirrors Electron's main-process API, so most of the port is mechanical. The biggest conceptual difference is in the renderer: there is no preload/IPC hop, and you call native modules directly.

Concept mapping

Renderer: no preload, no IPC

Electron pushes everything through a preload script and IPC. In Owear the kernel injects window.ow, and most capabilities are native modules you call directly:

// Electron: ipcRenderer.invoke('read-file', path) → ipcMain.handle(...)
const text = await window.ow.invoke<string>('fs', 'readText', path)

Only reach for Node when you truly need it:

const rows = await window.ow.invoke('node', 'call', { fn: 'db.query', args: [sql] })

See Renderer API and IPC.

Main process

Main-process code ports almost unchanged:

// Electron and Owear
import { app, BrowserWindow, Menu, Tray, dialog, session, nativeTheme } from '@owear/core'

Differences to watch:

• BrowserWindow construction is async (the window is created by the kernel). Use win.on('ready-to-show') before relying on win.id.
• webContents.send exists, plus app.send.
• Menu.setApplicationMenu is a no-op on Linux; draw your own menubar.
• dialog/printToPDF support depends on the platform's WebView (Linux printToPDF is not available in WebKitGTK v2.52 and returns a clear error).

Packaging

Replace electron-builder/electron-updater:

ow build app --format deb      # instead of electron-builder
ow build installer             # a real installer + uninstaller
ow update --file … --version … # instead of electron-updater's publish

Native addons

Electron binaries must be rebuilt for Node; N-API addons need nothing. See Native addons.

Things that simply do not exist

• require('electron'), ipcRenderer, ipcMain, contextBridge, preload.
• utilityProcess — use app.forkWorker (which shims process.parentPort).
• BrowserView — use embedded webviews (webview).
• Chromium-specific flags and DevTools protocol parity.

A porting recipe

1. Move main/preload code into app/main.ts; keep window/menu/tray there.
2. Replace ipcMain.handle with app.handle.
3. In the renderer, replace ipcRenderer.invoke calls with ow.invoke to the corresponding native module (fs, dialog, clipboard, …).
4. Rebuild native addons for Node if needed.
5. Swap the packager for ow build and, if you used updates, autoUpdater.

Next steps

• Renderer API, Main process, IPC.
• Packaging, Auto-update.