Are there events for when an Electron app is shown and hidden?

Electron provides various mechanisms to listen for and handle display and hide events in an application, which are commonly associated with the BrowserWindow object. BrowserWindow is the module in Electron used for creating and managing application windows.

Listening for Display Events

In Electron, listening for window display events can be achieved by using the show event. When the window transitions from a hidden state to a visible state, this event is triggered. You can add an event listener to the BrowserWindow instance using the on method. Here is an example of how to listen for display events:

javascript
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron');

// Create a new BrowserWindow instance
let win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600 });

// Listen for the window's 'show' event
win.on('show', () => {
  console.log('Window shown');
});

// Show the window
win.show();

In this example, when win.show() is called, the window becomes visible and triggers the show event, causing the listener to output "Window shown" to the console.

Listening for Hide Events

Similarly, for hide events, you can listen using the hide event. When the window transitions from a visible state to a hidden state, this event is triggered. Again, add the listener using the on method to the BrowserWindow instance. Here is an example:

javascript
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron');

// Create a new BrowserWindow instance
let win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600 });

// Listen for the window's 'hide' event
win.on('hide', () => {
  console.log('Window hidden');
});

// Hide the window
win.hide();

In this example, when win.hide() is called, the window becomes hidden and triggers the hide event, causing the listener to output "Window hidden" to the console.

Important Notes

• Ensure that event listeners are added after the window instance is created; otherwise, you might miss the events.
• For some applications, you may need to listen for these events immediately upon application startup to handle initialization logic.

This is how to listen for window display and hide events in Electron. Such event listeners are highly useful for implementing specific logic when the window state changes.