How to enable the use of es6 imports when compiling Expo app with Electron

How to / Third Party Tooling
1

Hello! I’m new to using Expo for desktop (using Electron).

The problem that I have is that it doesn’t seem to support es6 imports. I’m compiling the app with the following command:

yarn electron-webpack && yarn electron-builder --dir -c.compression=store -c.mac.identity=null

But when I launch the compiled app here’s what I get:

Screen Shot 2019-12-17 at 4.12.39 PM
Screen Shot 2019-12-17 at 4.12.39 PM409×532 49.5 KB

I have set up Expo for desktop using the instructions here: https://github.com/expo/expo/blob/master/docs/pages/versions/unversioned/guides/using-electron.md

My babel.config.js includes babel-preset-expo which I assume enables me to use the es6 import keyword:

module.exports = function(api) {
  api.cache(true);
  return {
    presets: ['babel-preset-expo', 'module:metro-react-native-babel-preset', 'module:react-native-dotenv'], // update this to make dot-env work
  };
};

I tried using require() in the node_modules/expo/AppEntry.js file instead:

const registerRootComponent = require('expo').registerRootComponent;
const activateKeepAwake = require('expo-keep-awake').activateKeepAwake;

const App = require('../../App');

if (__DEV__) {
  activateKeepAwake();
}

registerRootComponent(App);

But this just returned the same error on a different file.

I’ll continue trying to figure this out, but any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!

2

Did you ever get anywhere with this error? I’m having the same issue and have tried a number of fixes but none seem to work (javascript - SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module - Stack Overflow)

3

i was also experiencing this error. it seems there is an open issue here [electron] Can't run built application · Issue #8 · expo/expo-electron-adapter · GitHub

i tried adding the following build config and it fixed the issue for me [electron] Can't run built application · Issue #8 · expo/expo-electron-adapter · GitHub

have a nice day!

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