Using the 'before-quit' event in electron (atom-shell)

Question

I have a application which needs to make an API call before it quits (something like logout). As I still need access to some app data (redux store) for the API call so I decided to listen to the 'before-quit' event on app.

I tried the following code:

import {remote} from 'electron';
let loggedout = false;

remote.app.on('before-quit', (event) => {
  if (loggedout) return; // if we are logged out just quit.
  console.warn('users tries to quit');

  // prevent the default which should cancel the quit
  event.preventDefault();

  // in the place of the setTimout will be an API call
  setTimeout(() => {
    // if api call was a success
    if (true) {
      loggedout = true;
      remote.app.quit();
    } else {
      // tell the user log-out was not successfull. retry and quit after second try.
    }
  }, 1000);
});

The event never seems to fire or preventing shutdown does not work. When I replace before-quit with browser-window-blur the event does fire and the code seems to work.

For reference I use Electron 1.2.8 (Due to some dependencies I cannot upgrade). I've double checked and before-quit event was already implemented in that version.

Any Ideas why this event does not seem to be fired?

Thanks in advance and happy holidays!

Answer 1

I had the same issue, this was my solution:

In renderer:

const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron')
window._saved = false
window.onbeforeunload = (e) => {
    if (!window.saved) {
        callSaveAPI(() => {
            // success? quit the app
            window._saved = true
            ipcRenderer.send('app_quit')
            window.onbeforeunload = null
        })
    }
    e.returnValue = false
}

In main:

const { ipcMain } = require('electron')
// listen the 'app_quit' event
ipcMain.on('app_quit', (event, info) => {
    app.quit()
})