Goal for this part
Read and write UTF-8 files from the main process.
Treat 04-Data-Layer as the source of truth for this checkpoint. If your local tree drifted, re-clone that folder rather than mixing files from neighbors.
What you should already know
You do not need prior Electron experience for part 1. Later parts assume you finished the earlier snapshots on the same machine.
- Node.js is installed so you can run
npm install - You are comfortable editing JavaScript and HTML files
Why Electron fits Inkline
Electron is how many shipping editors wrap Chromium and Node. You get a desktop window with web UI and file-system access from the main process.
A textarea, tab strip, and menu bar map cleanly to HTML. Keep file I/O in main/preload—never trust the renderer with raw paths unchecked.
After you run the snapshot, you should recognize the behavior described in the goal—before you move on. If the window (or server) never appears, stop and fix the run steps.
Code shape
Snapshots stay small on purpose. Look for this kind of core call as you read the folder:
fs.writeFileSync(filePath, contents, "utf8");How to run it
Clone the teaching repo, open 04-Data-Layer, install what the README asks for, then run npx electron ..
git clone https://github.com/michaeldunga1/fcc-electron-editor.git
cd fcc-electron-editor/04-Data-Layer
npm install
npx electron .Common mistakes
- Ignoring platform-specific install notes in the snapshot README
- Creating tables twice with conflicting schemas
- Forgetting to commit/close the database connection in long sessions
- Looking for seed data in part 3 before the data layer exists