express - Electron as a local API server responding to http requests?

Question

I have a an electron app that renders a visualization. I need to have a different local application send an http request with parameters to my electron app which will then return a png or svg image based on the parameters. Can electron respond to external http API requests out of the box or do I need to integrate an express server within my app that will allow this? Having trouble finding documentation about this.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65892429/electron-as-a-local-api-server-responding-to-http-requests

Answer 1

Electron does not have any built in modules for creating HTTP APIs.

However, both Electron processes (the main process as well as renderer processes) are Node processes, which means you have access to all Node APIs, including http - so you can build servers just as you would with Node. express would certainly make it easier.