Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Electron framework adds encryption API

news
Sep 28, 20212 mins

Electron 15.0.0 also marks a faster release schedule for the project, with a new stable release now due every eight weeks.

Electron icon

Electron 15.0.0, the latest version of the GitHub-developed framework for building cross-platform desktop applications, is now available, featuring a string encryption API and upgrades to underlying software packages.

The Electron 15.0.0 release adds safeStorage string encryption, providing a cookie encryption API to protect data stored on local disk. The API provides methods to encrypt and decrypt strings and check whether encryption is available. The upgrades to Electron’s software stack include Chromium 94, Node.js 16.5.0, and Google V8 9.4.

Also with Electron 15.0.0, the release cadence of the project changes, with a new stable release set to arrive every eight weeks as opposed to every 12 weeks for previous versions. This matches Chromium’s Extended Stable release schedule, the Electron developers said. Also, supported versions will include the latest four versions until May 2022, instead of the latest three versions.

Perhaps best known for its use in Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code editor, Electron allows developers to build desktop apps using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Electron 15.0.0 can be accessed from the Electron project webpage.

Other highlights of Electron 15.0.0 include:

  • nativeWindowOpen: true is now the default system. This option is considered superior, offering fewer bugs, faster new windows, and more flexibility.
  • A “frame-created” event has been added to WebContents, which emits when a frame is created in the page.
  • An imageAnimationPolicy web preference has been added to control how images are animated.
  • The continue-activity event API has been extended to support the webpageURL property from NSUserActivity.
  • Numerous bug fixes have been made, including one in which a crash would occur when selecting and opening files in a native dialog on MacOS.
  • A MenuItem.userAccelerator property has been added to read user-assigned MacOS overrides.

Release notes can be found on GitHub. Electron 15.0.0 was announced on September 21. Electron is an OpenJS Foundation Project.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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