How to refer other html file to load in production mode of application that are developed using electron? - vue.js

Question

I have problem in building electron application, which is made using electron.js and vue.js.
The development is almost done, so I need to build it and make production.
Basically, my project has license system, so when the program starts, users should activate it by entering license key. I wrote this part inside activate.html. So, inside public folder, there are two html files, one is default index.html, and the other is activate.html
Inside activate.html, when activation is success, startMain() javascript function is called. Inside this function, the program is navigated to main program, especially to index.html. This html file is Vue application, and then main program is started.
All this process is working fine in the development mode. But when it
comes to production, this is not working anymore. I probably know why this
happens, this is just because index.html is not available in
production mode when all these are built up.
Alternatively, I tried to load localhost:8080 inside
startMain(). But also this works fine in development mode, but unluckily, we don't have localhost server on production mode, so this
doesn't solve the problem.
This is startMain() inside activate.html
function startMain() {
window.__static = "index.html";
// Alternatively, we can use location.href on development mode.
// window.location.href = "http://localhost:8080/";
}
This is background.js ( electron main engine)
function createWindow() {
// Create the browser window.
win = new BrowserWindow({
width: 1400,
height: 900,
titleBarStyle: "hiddenInset"
});
win.setMenuBarVisibility(false);
if (isDevelopment) {
// Load the url of the dev server if in development mode
// win.loadURL(process.env.WEBPACK_DEV_SERVER_URL);
win.loadURL(`file://${process.cwd()}/public/activate.html`);
// if (!process.env.IS_TEST) win.webContents.openDevTools()
} else {
createProtocol("app");
// Load the index.html when not in development
win.loadFile("activate.html");
}
win.on("closed", () => {
win = null;
});
}
What I want is to make it run correctly in production mode.
Specifically, when the user finishes activation flow ( activate.html),
it should start main program ( index.html )
Please help me with this issue. I welcome any comments.
I built this application using vue-cli-plugin-electron-builder package

Answer 1

In Vue usually you use vue-router to switch between views. You set the BrowserWindow.location the first time, in background.js, but after that you are in the Vue app and you make router calls like this:
router.replace({ name: "index" }).catch(() => { });
It's hard to guess what to do in your case, without seeing the rest of your activate.html. You need to define router in your App and probably want to convert your activate.html into an activate.vue component and make it the proper first page of your App.
I think the cli-plugin boilerplate will call main.js where you will define your app and bootstraps it. You add router there:
import router from "./router";
window.$app = new Vue({
router,
In your bootstrap function you can also call something like router.replace({ name: "activate"}) to start your app with your activate vue component.