native

Build your Desktop application with C++

Native is a C++ framework designed to streamline the development of native applications for C++ developers.

✋ Native is currently available in alpha for macOS and Windows, but it is not production ready!

✨ Features

• 🚀 Modern C++ API: Streamlined API for modern C++.
• 🛠 CMake Integration: Seamless integration with CMake projects.
• 📦 Packaging Ready: Includes code signing for macOS (notarization is comming)
• 🧩 Modular Architecture: Opt-in modules for tailored functionality.

Roadmap

ui

Module	macOS Support	Win32 Support	Notes
Window	✅ Supported	✅ Supported	Basic window creation and management
WebView	✅ Supported	✅ Supported	Embeds web content in a native app
Menu	🚧 Planned	🚧 Planned	Application menus
IPC	🚧 Planned	🚧 Planned	Communication channel between the main process and the Webview.
Tray	🚧 Planned	🚧 Planned	System tray icons and context menus

sysmod

Module	macOS Support	Win32 Support	Notes
Open	🚧 Planned	🚧 Planned	Open URLs, URIs, and files
Storage	🚧 Planned	🚧 Planned	Key-value storage for app data
HTTP Client	🚧 Planned	🚧 Planned	Send HTTP requests, handle responses

Getting Started with Native using CMake

1. Code!

#include <sourcemeta/native/application.h>
#include <sourcemeta/native/webview.h>
#include <sourcemeta/native/window.h>

#include <exception>
#include <iostream>

class App : public sourcemeta::native::Application {
public:
  auto on_start() -> void override { std::cout << "Starting!" << std::endl; }

  auto on_ready() -> void override {
    std::cout << "Ready!" << std::endl;

    window.size(1200, 900);
    window.show();

    // webview.load_html("index.html");
    webview.load_url("https://sourcemeta.com");
    window.add(webview);

    this->exit();
  }

  auto on_error(std::exception_ptr) noexcept -> void override {}

private:
  sourcemeta::native::Window window;
  sourcemeta::native::WebView webview;
};

NATIVE_RUN(App)

2. Configure!

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)

project(my_hello_world)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
set(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)

find_package(Native REQUIRED)

native_add_app(
    TARGET hello_world_app
    PLATFORM desktop
    SOURCES hello_world.cc)

native_add_assets(
    TARGET hello_world_app
    ASSETS index.html style.css)

native_set_profile(
    TARGET hello_world_app
    NAME "example_hello_world"
    IDENTIFIER "com.native.example_hello_world"
    VERSION "1.0.0"
    DESCRIPTION "My app ..."
    CODESIGN_IDENTITY "W4MF6H9XZ6"
    MODULES "ui/window" "ui/webview")

3. Develop!

cd build

cmake .. --config Debug

cmake --build . --config Debug --target native-app-develop

4. Release!

cmake --build . --config Debug --target native-app-package

Contributing

We welcome contributions to this project! To get started, please follow these steps.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following tools installed:

• CMake

Building the Project

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/sourcemeta-research/native.git
   cd native

2. Install dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/sourcemeta-research/native.git
   cd native

3. Configure and build the project: We use a Makefile to handle the build process, which in turn uses CMake. Simply run:

   make

   This will configure the project, build the necessary files, and run the executable.

4. Running the Executable: After building the project, you can run the executable to ensure everything is working as expected:

   make test

   The make command will handle this for you and check the exit status of the executable.

We highly advise you to explore and play with the project inside the /example folder.

Cleaning Up

To clean the build directory, run:

make clean