import-existing-project.md

description
Import an existing Electron project to use Electron Forge.

Importing an Existing Project

If you already have an Electron project and want to try out Electron Forge, you can either use Forge's import script or manually install Forge yourself.

These steps will get you set up with a basic build pipeline that can create squirrel.windows.md (Windows), zip.md (macOS), and deb.md (Linux) installers when running electron-forge make.

Using the import script

Importing an existing Electron app into the Electron Forge workflow can be done automatically using Forge's import command.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Yarn 1" %}

cd my-app
yarn add --dev @electron-forge/cli
yarn electron-forge import

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="npm 6" %}

cd my-app
npm install --save-dev @electron-forge/cli
npx electron-forge import

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="npm 7" %}

cd my-app
npm install --save-dev @electron-forge/cli
npm exec --package=@electron-forge/cli -c "electron-forge import"

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

This script will set up Forge to package and

{% hint style="info" %} If you're already using other Electron tooling, it will try to automatically migrate the settings as much as possible, but some of it may need to be migrated manually. {% endhint %}

Setting up Forge manually

If the import script does not work for some reason, you can also install Forge manually. To get identical behavior to the script, follow the steps below.

Installing dependencies

First, install Forge's CLI and the target Makers as devDependencies in your project.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Yarn 1" %}

cd my-app
yarn add --dev @electron-forge/cli @electron-forge/maker-squirrel @electron-forge/maker-deb @electron-forge/maker-zip

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="npm" %}

cd my-app
npm install --save-dev @electron-forge/cli @electron-forge/maker-squirrel @electron-forge/maker-deb @electron-forge/maker-zip

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Configuring package.json

To start using Forge, add a few command scripts to your package.json file:

{% code title="package.json" %}

{
  // ...
  "scripts": {
    "start": "electron-forge start",
    "package": "electron-forge package",
    "make": "electron-forge make"
  }
  // ... 
}

{% endcode %}

Then, set up your Forge configuration.md in the config.forge field in package.json.

{% code title="package.json" %}

{
  // ...
  "config": {
    "forge": {
      "packagerConfig": {},
      "makers": [
        {
          "name": "@electron-forge/maker-squirrel",
          "config": {
            "name": "electron_quick_start"
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "@electron-forge/maker-zip",
          "platforms": [
            "darwin"
          ]
        },
        {
          "name": "@electron-forge/maker-deb",
          "config": {}
        },
        {
          "name": "@electron-forge/maker-rpm",
          "config": {}
        }
      ]
    }
  }
  // ...
}

{% endcode %}

In the above object, we configure each Maker that we installed into the makers array. We also create an empty packagerConfig object that you should edit to your app's needs.

Adding Squirrel.Windows boilerplate

When distributing a Squirrel.Windows app, we recommend installing electron-squirrel-startup as a runtime dependency to handle Squirrel events.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Yarn" %}

cd my-app
yarn add electron-squirrel-startup

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="npm" %}

cd my-app
npm install electron-squirrel-startup

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Then, add the following snippet as early as possible in the main process execution (before the app.ready event).

{% code title="main.js" %}

if (require('electron-squirrel-startup')) app.quit();

{% endcode %}