I'm working on an app (with electron) and I would like users to be able to exit fullscreen mode when pressing "esc". I tried different methods, in vain. Here is the code who launch the app in a new browser window in fullscreen mode and display and HTML/CSS content :

    'use strict';

const electron = require('electron');
// Module to control application life.
const app = electron.app;
// Module to create native browser window.
const BrowserWindow = electron.BrowserWindow;

// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
// be closed automatically when the JavaScript object is garbage collected.
let mainWindow;

function createWindow () {
  // Create the browser window.
  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({fullscreen:true});

  // and load the index.html of the app.
  mainWindow.loadURL('file://' + __dirname + '/index.html');

  // Emitted when the window is closed.
  mainWindow.on('closed', function() {
    // Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
    // in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
    // when you should delete the corresponding element.
    mainWindow = null;
  });
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
app.on('ready', createWindow);

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
  // On OS X it is common for applications and their menu bar
  // to stay active until the user quits explicitly with Cmd + Q
  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') {
    app.quit();
  }
});

app.on('activate', function () {
  // On OS X it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
  // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
  if (mainWindow === null) {
    createWindow();
  }
});

And here is what I'm trying to add to this code to be able to exit full screen but it doesn't work :

app.on('keydown', function(e){
    if(e.keyCode === 27){
      app.exitFullscreen();
    }
});

I also tried with "cancelFullscreen". And "fullscreen:false". Not working.

Thanks a lot for your attention!

I'm working on an app (with electron) and I would like users to be able to exit fullscreen mode when pressing "esc". I tried different methods, in vain. Here is the code who launch the app in a new browser window in fullscreen mode and display and HTML/CSS content :

    'use strict';

const electron = require('electron');
// Module to control application life.
const app = electron.app;
// Module to create native browser window.
const BrowserWindow = electron.BrowserWindow;

// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
// be closed automatically when the JavaScript object is garbage collected.
let mainWindow;

function createWindow () {
  // Create the browser window.
  mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({fullscreen:true});

  // and load the index.html of the app.
  mainWindow.loadURL('file://' + __dirname + '/index.html');

  // Emitted when the window is closed.
  mainWindow.on('closed', function() {
    // Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
    // in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
    // when you should delete the corresponding element.
    mainWindow = null;
  });
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
app.on('ready', createWindow);

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
  // On OS X it is common for applications and their menu bar
  // to stay active until the user quits explicitly with Cmd + Q
  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') {
    app.quit();
  }
});

app.on('activate', function () {
  // On OS X it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
  // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
  if (mainWindow === null) {
    createWindow();
  }
});

And here is what I'm trying to add to this code to be able to exit full screen but it doesn't work :

app.on('keydown', function(e){
    if(e.keyCode === 27){
      app.exitFullscreen();
    }
});

I also tried with "cancelFullscreen". And "fullscreen:false". Not working.

Thanks a lot for your attention!

• javascript
• escaping
• fullscreen
• electron

4 Answers 4

It's quite easy. Add a keyboard listener in render process, and then manipulate the window through the remote module.

    const remote = require("electron").remote;

    document.addEventListener("keydown", event => {

        switch (event.key) {
            case "Escape":
                if (remote.getCurrentWindow().isFullScreen()) {
                    remote.getCurrentWindow().setFullScreen(false);
                }
                break;
             }
    });

Here is the solution that worked for me:

function minimizeWindow () {
    mainWindow.setFullScreen(false);
    console.log(mainWindow);
}

app.on('ready', function() {

  const ret = electron.globalShortcut.register('Escape', function(){
    console.log('Escape is pressed');

        minimizeWindow();
  });

console.log(electron.globalShortcut.isRegistered('Escape'));
});

app.on('will-quit', function(){

  electron.globalShortcut.unregister('Escape');

  electron.globalShortcut.unregisterAll();
});

• Doc for the properties and methods of the window: http://electron.atom.io/docs/api/browser-window/#winsetmaximizablemaximizable-macos-windows
• Doc for the keyboard event: http://electron.atom.io/docs/api/global-shortcut/

Global shortcuts catch all events, it's better to use hidden menu button. For example you can add a menu with this menu item:

{
    label: "Exit full screen",
    visible: false,
    accelerator: "Esc",
    click(item, focusedWindow) {
        if (focusedWindow.isFullScreen()) {
            focusedWindow.setFullScreen(false);
        }
    },
},

You can apply the new menu item with electron's setApplicationMenu command: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/api/menu#menusetapplicationmenumenu

Had some problems with this aswell, just create a listener for the escape key and place this inside, i recommend not putting it into the main or renderer files of electron.

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

document.addEventListener("keydown", event => {

        switch (event.key) {
            case "Escape":
                var window = BrowserWindow.getFocusedWindow();
            if(window.isMaximized()){
             window.unmaximize();
           }else{
             window.maximize();
           };
                break;
             }
    });