Inter‑process Communication (IPC)

Inter‑process Communication (IPC)

Electron ships two IPC modules:

• ipcMain – used in the main process.
• ipcRenderer – used in a renderer (via the preload bridge).

Basic request/response pattern

preload/bridge.js

const { contextBridge, ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld('api', {
  getAppVersion: () => ipcRenderer.invoke('app:getVersion')
});

main.js

const { ipcMain, app } = require('electron');
ipcMain.handle('app:getVersion', () => app.getVersion());

renderer.js (runs in the page)

document.getElementById('ver').innerText = window.api.getAppVersion();

Sending a fire‑and‑forget message

// renderer
window.api.send('log', 'User clicked button');
// main
ipcMain.on('log', (e, msg) => console.log('[Renderer]', msg));

Use invoke/handle for request‑response (Promise‑based) and send/on for one‑way messages.