wails

README

A framework for building desktop applications using Go & Web Technologies.

The traditional method of providing web interfaces to Go programs is via a built-in web server. Wails offers a different approach: it provides the ability to wrap both Go code and a web frontend into a single binary. Tools are provided to make this easy for you by handling project creation, compilation and bundling. All you have to do is get creative!

Features

• Use standard Go libraries/frameworks for the backend
• Use any frontend technology to build your UI
• Quickly create Vue, Vuetify or React frontends for your Go programs
• Expose Go methods/functions to the frontend via a single bind command
• Uses native rendering engines - no embedded browser
• Shared events system
• Native file dialogs
• Powerful cli tool
• Multiplatform

Project Status

Wails is currently in Beta. Please make sure you read the Project Status if you are interested in using this project.

Installation

Wails uses cgo to bind to the native rendering engines so a number of platform dependent libraries are needed as well as an installation of Go. The basic requirements are:

• Go 1.12
• npm

MacOS

Make sure you have the xcode command line tools installed. This can be done by running:

xcode-select --install

Linux

Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 9, Zorin 15

sudo apt install pkg-config build-essential libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk gtk3

Red Hat Based Distros

sudo yum install webkit2gtk-devel gtk3-devel

Note: If you have successfully installed these dependencies on a different flavour of Linux, please consider submitting a PR.

Windows

Windows requires gcc and related tooling. The recommended download is from http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/download. Once this is installed, you are good to go.

Installation

Ensure Go modules are enabled: GO111MODULE=on and go/bin is in your PATH variable.

Installation is as simple as running the following command:

go get github.com/wailsapp/wails/cmd/wails

Next Steps

It is recommended at this stage to read the comprehensive documentation at https://wails.app.

FAQ

• Is this an alternative to Electron?

  Depends on your requirements. It's designed to make it easy for Go programmers to make lightweight desktop applications or add a frontend to their existing applications. Whilst Wails does not currently offer hooks into native elements such as menus, this may change in the future.

• Who is this project aimed at?

  Go programmers who want to bundle an HTML/JS/CSS frontend with their applications, without resorting to creating a server and opening a browser to view it.

• What's with the name?

  When I saw WebView, I thought "What I really want is tooling around building a WebView app, a bit like Rails is to Ruby". So initially it was a play on words (Webview on Rails). It just so happened to also be a homophone of the English name for the Country I am from. So it stuck.

Shoulders of Giants

Without the following people, this project would never have existed:

• Dustin Krysak - His support and feedback has been immense. More patience than you can throw a stick at (Not long now Dustin!).
• Serge Zaitsev - Creator of Webview which Wails uses for the windowing.

And without these people, it wouldn't be what it is today. A huge thank you to each and every one of you!

Special Mentions:

• Bill Kennedy - Go guru, encourager and all-round nice guy, whose infectious energy and inspiration powered me on when I had none left.
• Mark Bates - Creator of Packr, inspiration for packing strategies which fed into some of the tooling.

This project was mainly coded to the following albums:

• Manic Street Preachers - Resistance Is Futile
• Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours
• The Midnight - Endless Summer
• Gary Newman - Savage (Songs from a Broken World)
• Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare
• Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
• Ben Howard - Noonday Dream
• Adwaith - Melyn
• Gwidaith Hen Fran - Cedors Hen Wrach
• Metallica - Metallica
• Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
• Maxthor - Another World
• Alun Tan Lan - Y Distawrwydd

Documentation

Index

• Variables
• type App
  • func CreateApp(optionalConfig ...*AppConfig) *App
  • func (a *App) Bind(object interface{})
  • func (a *App) Run() error
• type AppConfig
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetCSS() string
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetColour() string
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetDefaultHTML() string
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetDisableInspector() bool
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetHeight() int
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetJS() string
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetResizable() bool
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetTitle() string
  • func (a *AppConfig) GetWidth() int
• type CustomLogger
• type Runtime
  • func NewRuntime(eventManager interfaces.EventManager, renderer interfaces.Renderer) *Runtime

Variables

var BuildMode = cmd.BuildModeProd

BuildMode indicates what mode we are in

Types

type App

type App struct {
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

App defines the main application struct

func CreateApp

func CreateApp(optionalConfig ...*AppConfig) *App

CreateApp creates the application window with the given configuration If none given, the defaults are used

func (*App) Bind

func (a *App) Bind(object interface{})

Bind allows the user to bind the given object with the application

func (*App) Run

func (a *App) Run() error

Run the app

type AppConfig

type AppConfig struct {
	Width, Height int
	Title         string

	HTML             string
	JS               string
	CSS              string
	Colour           string
	Resizable        bool
	DisableInspector bool
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

AppConfig is the configuration structure used when creating a Wails App object

func (*AppConfig) GetCSS

func (a *AppConfig) GetCSS() string

GetCSS returns the user CSS

func (*AppConfig) GetColour

func (a *AppConfig) GetColour() string

GetColour returns the colour

func (*AppConfig) GetDefaultHTML

func (a *AppConfig) GetDefaultHTML() string

GetDefaultHTML returns the default HTML

func (*AppConfig) GetDisableInspector

func (a *AppConfig) GetDisableInspector() bool

GetDisableInspector returns true if the inspector should be disabled

func (*AppConfig) GetHeight

func (a *AppConfig) GetHeight() int

GetHeight returns the desired height

func (*AppConfig) GetJS

func (a *AppConfig) GetJS() string

GetJS returns the user Javascript

func (*AppConfig) GetResizable

func (a *AppConfig) GetResizable() bool

GetResizable returns true if the window should be resizable

func (*AppConfig) GetTitle

func (a *AppConfig) GetTitle() string

GetTitle returns the desired window title

func (*AppConfig) GetWidth

func (a *AppConfig) GetWidth() int

GetWidth returns the desired width

type CustomLogger

type CustomLogger = logger.CustomLogger

CustomLogger type alias

type Runtime

type Runtime struct {
	Events     *runtime.Events
	Log        *runtime.Log
	Dialog     *runtime.Dialog
	Window     *runtime.Window
	Browser    *runtime.Browser
	FileSystem *runtime.FileSystem
}

Runtime is the Wails Runtime Interface, given to a user who has defined the WailsInit method

func NewRuntime

func NewRuntime(eventManager interfaces.EventManager, renderer interfaces.Renderer) *Runtime

NewRuntime creates a new Runtime struct