Unable to build using app specific package.json

[LucasMontero]

I have a NX file structure that looks like the following:

workspace-name/
├── apps/
│ ├── electron-app-1/
│ │ ├── ...
│ │ ├── package.json # Package manifest for Electron app 1
│ ├── electron-app-1-front/
│ │ ├── ...
│ ├── electron-app-2/
│ │ ├── ...
│ │ ├── package.json # Package manifest for Electron app 2
│ ├── electron-app-2-front/
│ │ ├── ...
│ ├── ...
│ └── package.json # Main package json (Dependencies, scripts...)

All works with normality but when I build each app, info like name, description... comes from the main package.json instead of the specific ones that I set for every app.

This means that, for example, when I try to access the UserData path on Electron, the folder that will be created is one with the name specified in the main package.json but I would need them to be called as the name that I specify on the package.json inside each app.

How could I set them to be build using the correct data from each package.json?

Related #228

[mohasarc]

I'm facing a similar issue. Although I've generated a separate package.json into dist/apps/electron-app, and it is infact eventually bundled with the app. Yet, while packaging or making the app the root's package.json is being used for description, version or author fields.

[samthompsonkennedy]

We're having the same issue as well, nx v17.x

[samthompsonkennedy]

Also on nx v19.x

[conor-mac-aoidh]

I see the same behaviour with NX/nx-electron v20.x

[shhdharmen]

same issue

[amrit-moomie]

this is a problem for us as well

especially where root package has type="module"

[TheDelta]

I just stumbled over this issue as well and it seems like electron-builder picks some meta data from the root package.json despite the correct package.json is set in the dist/apps/%electron-app%/package.json.

At first I tried to mess around with the projectDir option for electron-builder but that was too painful to deal with all sort of issues, but I probably came up with another good workaround, by using a script which runs before package and make.
I simply read the dist package.json and write the keys into a config as part of extraMetadata which I then load in the maker.options.json via the extends key. (I already do something similar to have a dynamic copyright year 👍)

My issue is that I want another version, name and description for my app, but it picks the data of the root package.json
Here is the solution:

This script will copy all defined PKG_KEYS from the app package.json into a json config, which is later picked up by maker.options.json
tools/generate-extra-metadata-package.js

const fs = require('node:fs/promises');
const path = require('node:path');

const PKG_KEYS = ['version', 'name', 'displayName', 'description', 'author'];

async function generateElectronBuilderConfig() {
  const projectName = process.argv[2];
  console.log(`Generate extraMetadata config for ${projectName}`);

  const appDir = path.join(process.cwd(), '/apps/', process.argv[2]);
  const projectPkgPath = path.join(appDir, '/package.json');
  const outputPath = path.join(appDir, '/src/app/options/extra-metadata-package.json');

  const projectPkg = JSON.parse(await fs.readFile(projectPkgPath, 'utf-8'));

  const config = {
    extraMetadata: Object.fromEntries(
      PKG_KEYS.filter((key) => Boolean(projectPkg[key])).map((key) => [key, projectPkg[key]]),
    ),
  };
  await fs.writeFile(outputPath, JSON.stringify(config, null, 2), 'utf-8');
}

generateElectronBuilderConfig().catch((err) => {
  console.error(err);
  process.exit(1);
});

apps/%electron-app%/package.json (your basic package.json with version, etc.)

Configure project to execute the script before make & package
apps/%electron-app%/project.json

{
  "targets": {
    "generate-extra-metadata-package": {
      "executor": "nx:run-commands",
      "options": {
        "commands": [
          "node tools/generate-extra-metadata-package.js {projectName}"
        ],
        "parallel": false
      }
    },
    "package" {
        "dependsOn": [
           "generate-extra-metadata-package"
         ],
     },
    "make" {
        "dependsOn": [
           "generate-extra-metadata-package"
         ],
     }
  }
}

Last step, let apps/%electron-app%/src/app/options/maker.options.json know about this config file:

{
  "extends": {
    "apps/%electron-app%/src/app/options/extra-metadata-package.json"
  }
}

And then it should pick up the correct version, etc. ;)
Hope that helps (hopefully without major typos, it's preeety late - this issue took way too long)

@bennymeg eventully this limitation should be made more visible or fixed

[LucasMontero]

@TheDelta Great work :D

This issue also affects users running multiple applications on the same machine, since the installation path uses the project name instead of the application name, causing files to be overwritten during subsequent installations. This problem is also resolved by @TheDelta’s workaround.