topics

Topics Demo (Electron + rclnodejs)

A minimal Electron app for ROS 2 topic communication: publish and subscribe to std_msgs/String messages on ts_demo. A good starting point for rclnodejs with Electron.

Features

• Text input to publish string messages on ts_demo
• Live display of received messages
• Published / received message counters
• ROS 2 node electron_demo_node

Prerequisites

• ROS 2 (Humble, Jazzy, Kilted, Lyrical, or Rolling), sourced
• Node.js >= 20.20.2
• Linux (prebuilt rclnodejs binaries are provided for Ubuntu)

Install & Run

cd demo/electron/topics
source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash   # required before launch
npm install
npm start

rclnodejs ships prebuilt Electron binaries and picks the matching one at runtime from ROS_DISTRO + Linux codename + architecture, so no compilation is needed. Do not run electron-rebuild against rclnodejs — it rebuilds from source and bypasses the prebuilt binary (the Forge rebuildConfig in package.json already excludes rclnodejs).

The window provides a text field, a Send button (publishes to ts_demo), a message display, and published / received counters.

Packaging

npm run package   # standalone app in out/
npm run make      # zip / deb / rpm installers (needs zip, dpkg, fakeroot)

ASAR is enabled but rclnodejs is unpacked (asar.unpack in package.json) because it needs filesystem access to its generated code and native bindings. The target machine must still have ROS 2 installed and sourced:

source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash
./out/rclnodejs-electron-demo-linux-x64/rclnodejs-electron-demo

Files

• main.js — Electron main process + rclnodejs integration
• renderer.js — UI and ROS 2 communication
• index.html — interface layout

License

Apache License 2.0, same as rclnodejs.