erb-better-sqlite3-example

An example of erb with native dependencies (better-sqlite3 in this case)

Setup

git clone https://github.com/amilajack/erb-better-sqlite3-example.git
cd erb-better-sqlite3-example
npm i
npm start

How it works

better-sqlite3 is a native dependency that needs to be compiled before it is used (therefore it is consiered 'native dependency'). better-sqlite3 and any other depencencies in ./build/app/package.json are imported as an externals, which means that webpack doesn't process them. The dependency will be imported with normal require() calls.

Some native dependencies have issues with how webpack bundles code. One solution to these kinds of issues is to add those native dependencies to your ./build/app/package.json. These dependencies are automatically rebuilt against electron's node version after installing (see the postinstall script in ./build/app/package.json). electron-builder will also rebuild dependencies just before packaging your app.

You must install the dependencies as dependencies and not devDepencencies. Make sure to install like so for npm: npm install my-cool-depencency and like so for npm: npm i my-cool-dependency.

Notes

These changes that were made to ERB:

cd build/app
npm i better-sqlite3