Apptron

Apptron gives you webview windows and common platform APIs for your simple scripts, homebrew utilities, or full applications. Building cross-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) programs that leverage native functionality (menus, dialogs, notifications, global shortcuts, etc) has never been more accessible.

Apptron currently provides these cross-platform API modules:

• window: create and manage native windows with a native (non-Chromium) webview
• menu: create and manage native menus
• app: manage desktop application properties (lifecycle, default menus, startup mode, icons, etc)
• shell: native desktop shell dialogs, notifications, clipboard, global shortcuts
• system: system resource information (displays, cpu/memory, OS info)

These modules can be used a number of ways:

• API/library: run as a subprocess and use full API over STDIO from any language
• CLI: shell script friendly command line versions of most of the API
• build: build a webview binary with apptron build and use the API from pages in JavaScript
• Go package: use module packages directly in Go (forces CGO, takes up main thread, advanced use only)

Getting Apptron

Download Executable

There are builds you can download. Let me know if you have problems with them or what kinds of warnings they present on your platform. The macOS build is signed and notarized, but the others aren't yet. Homebrew Tap coming soon.

Build Source

I'd love you to build from source so we can iterate quickly. It's pretty painless. This means installing Go. Mac will need XCode Developer Tools installed. Linux has more pre-requisites.

make apptron

This will produce an executable at ./dist/apptron that you can put in your PATH.

Using Apptron CLI

Besides build and a some other top level commands, much of the Apptron API can be used from the command-line, letting you use it in shell scripts. Commands should provide proper usage information via help. Please report anything missing.

$ apptron -h
Usage:
apptron [command]

Apptron is a tool for scriptable native app functionality and webview windows.

Available Commands:
	bridge					 run bridge API service over STDIO
  run              launch a webview window from HTML
  build            compile webview app from HTML
  clean            remove webview app build cache files
  bundle           build platform application bundle
  app              app related API commands
  window           window related API commands
  menu             menu related API commands
  system           system related API commands
  shell            shell related API commands

Flags:
  -debug
        debug mode
  -v
        show version

Use "apptron [command] -help" for more information about a command.

The build subcommand depends on Go, which shouldn't be an issue since we build from source right now.

Using Apptron API

Apptron exposes a qtalk API over STDIO. We currently have a Go client that makes using this API easy. There is a JavaScript wrapper for once you have a channel established (over STDIO or sometimes WebSocket). Any other language will need at the very least a qtalk implementation. Submit or upvote an issue to prioritize support for your language if you can't contribute it yourself.

In the meantime, you can shell out and use the CLI commands, or you can use the API from HTML/JavaScript using apptron build or apptron run, or you can use Go.

Using JavaScript+run

The apptron run command is similar to running apptron build and running the binary, but does not produce a binary. Try it in one of the demos directories and see how the API is used there.

Using Go

Assuming you have an HTML file next to this, here is how you can build a webview app from Go. Notice you have to serve the contents of the webview yourself, but is trivial in Go:

package main

import (
	"context"
	"embed"
	"log"
	"net/http"

	"tractor.dev/apptron"
)

//go:embed *.html
var assets embed.FS

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	native, err := apptron.Run(ctx, apptron.AppOptions{})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	_, err = native.Window.New(ctx, apptron.WindowOptions{
		Visible: true,
		Size:    apptron.Size{Width: 800, Height: 600},
		Center:  true,
		Title:   "Demo Title",
		URL:     "http://localhost:9090",
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	http.Handle("/", http.FileServer(http.FS(assets)))
	go http.ListenAndServe(":9090", nil)

	native.Wait()
}

Getting Help

There is a #apptron channel in the Progrium Discord. Feel free to ask for help.

Contributing

Contribute by submitting issues or especially PRs. Ask for help in Discord.

License

MIT