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# Ember-Electron 2: Building Desktop Apps with Ember and Electron
- URL: https://felixrieseberg.com/ember-electron-2/
- Published: 2017-04-10T22:23:00.000Z
- Updated: 2017-04-10T23:04:12.000Z
- Author: Felix Rieseberg
- Tags: JavaScript, Ember.js, Ember-Cli, cyan, Electron

Building desktop apps with Electron is powerful: It enables developers to use web technologies to target all major operating systems. However, writing the app itself is only half the battle - one also has to compile binaries and create installers, packages, and bundles for the variety of distribution methods. To assist developers with that, the Electron community is currently converging on a single developer tool: [electron-forge](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge?ref=felixrieseberg.com).

Today, I'm releasing a full rewrite of [ember-electron](http://ember-electron.js.org/?ref=felixrieseberg.com), integrating forge with the Ember Cli. Ember-Electron still handles build-test-release cycle for Ember developers, but it does using the same tools as React, Angular, and Non-Framework developers. This allows us, as a community, to worker closer together, regardless what our favorite framework and command line tool is. In doing so, ember-electron even gained some features that I previously considered out of scope.

#### Live-Reload and Testing

Running `ember electron` checks your app's dependencies for native code, recompiles if necessary, and starts the application in Electron. Whenever you update renderer code, the app will live-reload. Likewise, `ember electron:test` runs unit tests in Electron - if run with a `--server` parameter, it even does so with live-reload enabled.

#### Binaries and Installers

Previously, ember-electron required users to worry about native dependencies. The creation of installers was also only partially supported. Version 2 brings tons of changes: `ember electron:package` creates fitting binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

`ember electron:make` is brand new ✨ and creates installers and distribution bundles. For Windows, that means a Squirrel Installer and a Windows Store Package; for macOS, `zip`/`dmg` files and a Mac App Store Package, while Linux users enjoy the creation of `deb`, `rpm`, and `flatpak` files.

#### Hug These People

The rewrite and subsequent release of ember-electron 2 was mostly done by its new contributors, Aidan Nulman ([@anulman](https://github.com/anulman?ref=felixrieseberg.com)), Florian Pichler ([@pichfl](https://github.com/pichfl?ref=felixrieseberg.com)), and Ben Demboski ([@bendemboski](https://github.com/bendemboski?ref=felixrieseberg.com)). Huge thanks to them and [everyone else](https://github.com/felixrieseberg/ember-electron/graphs/contributors?ref=felixrieseberg.com) who contributed!