Calling Node Native Addons (C++) in Electron

Question

I'm completely new to Node JS and Electron. I'm trying to integrate C++ with HTML using Electron and Node JS. I have went through some examples given by: GIT

What i'm trying to do is calling the native function (hello()) from my web page's javascript which is loaded by electron. I have used node-gyp configure to generate my Visual Studio Solution File. (.sln). And later i compiled my code with Visual Studio 2013 Express which successfully generate my .node file in build\Release Folder.

This is my index.js file:

var addon = require('./build/Release/hello.node');
console.log(addon.hello());

when I simply run this with node index.js, it is giving me the desired output:

world

But the problem comes with when i Use Electron. I'm using electron binary (32 bit) to run my webpage.

The following is my main.js file:

var app = require('app');  // Module to control application life.
var BrowserWindow = require('browser-window');  // Module to create native browser window.


require('crash-reporter').start();

var mainWindow = null;

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on('window-all-closed', function() {
  if (process.platform != 'darwin') {
    app.quit();
  }
});

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
app.on('ready', function() {
    mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({width: 1366, height: 768});
    mainWindow.loadUrl("file://" + __dirname + "/HtmlFile/index.html");
    mainWindow.on('closed', function() {
    mainWindow = null;
  });
});

Now this is my javascript where i'm calling the native addon:

//************* My Functional logic **************
 //************************************************

var addon = require('../build/Release/hello');
alert(addon.hello());

When i run this or load this page, I'm getting the following error:

Uncaught Error: %1 is not a valid Win32 application. ATOM_SHELL_ASAR.js:137
C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\MyAPP\build\Release\hello.node

Following is my package.json:

{
  "name": "MyAPP",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Desc",
  "main": "main.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "nan": "^2.0.9"
  },
  "gypfile": true
}

This is my binding.gyp:

{
  "targets": [
    {
      "target_name": "hello",
      "sources": [ "hello.cc" ],
      "include_dirs": [
        "<!(node -e \"require('nan')\")"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Answer 1

It looks like you may not have the correct binary configured. Sorry not sure if this will work for the native module, but you could try rebuilding...

Note: Please insure you have the correct arguments for your node-gyp command (if that is how you will rebuild).

• --target=<your electron version>
• --target_platform=win32 (Not in the example link, but you seem to be using windows)
• --arch=<your architecture> (x64 = 64bit, x86 = 32bit)

Answer 2

As I mentioned in the comments I was running into this same issue. To resolve it you need to add a couple additional flags:

node-gyp rebuild --target=<your electron version> --arch=<insert your arch> --dist-url=https://atom.io/download/atom-shell

This will get the proper requirements from the atom.io site and build the add-on correctly. For more information you can checkout electron's specific docs on using native modules.