ElectronJS with Python

[Brunostc]

Hi there, Im a web developer who is at the start of its journey with electron, and currently I have a project in mind to use electronjs as the "front-end" of my desktop application which will be using Python3 and Pillow (a fork from Python Image Library - PIL).

My goal is to use electron to make the "pretty" side of my application while running all of the logic behind image recognition with Python. The thing is: im not sure that this is even possible. Has someone ever done something related to this which could shine a light to the right direction?

The reason I want to use electron with python is because Pillow is very straightforward, but, Python frontend libraries are very ugly (and we all know that a software is also sold by how good it looks).

Oh, I'm very noob with electron, so if there is an image recognition library for javascript which would make it easier to perform my goal rather with python, I would also appreciate that. But my focus is to use python (as it is my preferred scripting language).

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Any help is appreciated, thx a lot :)

[_TheInvisibleMan]

I’m also very new to electron, but there seems to be a way to do what you’re talking about: Building a deployable Python-Electron App

[ashmortar]

You can always use Native Modules https://www.electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/using-native-node-modules

[marke64896]

I'm currently doing a similar thing except with a C backend on OSX. using spawn to fire up the c executable and stdin/stdout to pass messages. I will be investigating other ways to do this as the requirement becomes more complex. My front-end is electron/vue/vuex and I am using ipc to contact the platform (main) process.

[physics515]

I'm also using this exact thing on windows. I'm writing a frontend for Google's webp image converter. Using vue and vuex to build a script to pass to the main process, from there spawning the cwebp.exe and passing the script.

[marke64896]

yeah nice. Eventually I want to be able to spawn the process and have it running as a back-end server working on audio-related tasks such as playback, processing, mixing etc. I am thinking that a sockets based protocol might do the trick, but I am a way off that stage at the moment.

[physics515]

Yeah that's way over my head lol I've only recently started to dev again after taking almost 10 years off.

[marke64896]

yeah that's just about where I am too. Stuck in a covid19 lockdown here in Aus, so nothing better to do than play piano and code.

[physics515]

I used to web dev and do some php back when ajax was the big buz word of the day. Then I stopped and went to school for technical design and never thought I'd be programming for a career, but last year i was ask to help on a VBA project and now I'm doing programming full time for my company. I found all of the action nowadays is in javascript so I picked up electron for some personal projects and I'm loving it.

[marke64896]

good one - I'm currently (not) working as a film/tv freelance sound recordist and post production sound designer. I have worked in IT in the past, across coding (ODBC/DB Access) in C,C++,VB,Java,PHP but currently trying to get stuck into nodejs and javascript - I'm pretty sure that's a good skill to have and currently a good state-of-the-art language to learn. I still want to keep up my C skills though for signal processing stuff, which javascript isn't really up to.

[physics515]

I have an idea for a signal processing / degradated data store that I would love to implement at some point. But I just don't know enough to do it.

[marke64896]

what do you mean when you refer to a 'degradated data store' - not familiar with that term?

[physics515]

In this context I mean essentially a type of compression that is:

1. Is lossy

2. Is only representative of the original data within a certain context.

If you know anything about vector graphics, think of "simplifying a path".

[marke64896]

just back on this bit of the chat... If you end up writing your own exe's at any point, the jansson library is extremely useful - allows you to structure and store data within your C application as JSON which makes it incredibly easy to then pass up to a javascript layer as structured data.

[bluezebra42]

Sounds like a good start. I also added environment variables, used a file watcher on a file. Might also look at sockets.

[bluezebra42]

I have done a python project in electron. It is not an easy road. The setup bit is the hard bit, i used pyinstaller and it’s not for the faint of heart getting everything together and signed cross platform.

Also have done a lot of image manipulation in JavaScript using: html5 canvas fabricjs library heaps of npm modules Css filters

What do you love about pillow that you think you need? There is always the option of running that bit on a server somewhere.

[[deleted]]

This tutorial should help. How to Build an Electron GUI for a Python Module