Electron ipcMain undefined

Question

The following code produces an error

const ipcMain = require('electron').ipcMain;
ipcMain.on('open-file-dialog', function (event) {});

This error is thrown in console:

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'on' of undefined

As mentioned on this question, i also tried using

const ipcMain = require('ipc-main');

but am getting the same error.

Seems that ipcRenderer is defined in the electron package, but not ipcMain. How do i fix this? Already tried reinstalling the latest nodejs and running npm install on a fresh checkout.

Answer 1

In Renderer process you should use the counterpart of ipcMain, which is ipcRenderer. See docs of ipcMain for code examples

Your corrected code would look like

const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
ipcRenderer.on('open-file-dialog', function (event) {});

Answer 2

Problem seems to be that I loaded the module from a renderer process. Moving the ipcMain related code to the main module (unsurprisingly) solved the issue.