romgrk / Node Gtk
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node-gtk
GNOME Gtk+ bindings for NodeJS
Node-Gtk is a gobject-introspection library for nodejs. It makes it possible to use any introspected library, such as Gtk+, usable. It is similar in essence to GJS or PyGObject. Please note this project is currently in a beta state and is being developed. Any contributors willing to help will be welcomed.
Supported Node.js versions: 12, 14, 15 (other versions should work but are untested)
Pre-built binaries available for: Linux, macOS
Table of contents
Usage
You can use the Gtk+ API directly, or you can use react-gtk if your prefer to use React.
const gi = require('node-gtk')
const Gtk = gi.require('Gtk', '3.0')
gi.startLoop()
Gtk.init()
const win = new Gtk.Window()
win.on('destroy', () => Gtk.mainQuit())
win.on('delete-event', () => false)
win.setDefaultSize(200, 80)
win.add(new Gtk.Label({ label: 'Hello Gtk+' }))
win.showAll()
Gtk.main()
See our examples folder for more examples, and in particular the browser demo source for a more complex application.
Documentation
Installing and building
Note that prebuilt binaries are available for common systems, in those cases building is not necessary.
Target Platforms
- Linux: prebuilt binaries available
- macOS: prebuilt binaries available
- Windows: unsupported for now (#241)
Requirements
git-
[email protected]or higher -
python2(fornode-gyp) - C compiler (
[email protected]or higher, orclang)
In the not-working-yet Windows platform, all dependencies must be available under MSYS2 shell.
How to build on Ubuntu
Install basic dependencies.
sudo apt-get install \
build-essential git \
gobject-introspection \
libgirepository1.0-dev \
libcairo2 \
libcairo2-dev
At this point npm install node-gtk should already install, fallback and build node-gtk without problems.
How to build on Fedora
Install basic dependencies:
sudo dnf install \
@development-tools \
nodejs \
gobject-introspection \
gtk3 \
cairo
After installing of packages, run npm install node-gtk.
How to build on ArchLinux
The following should be the bare minimum to be able to build the project.
pacman -S --needed \
base-devel git \
nodejs npm \
gtk3 gobject-introspection \
cairo
Feel free to install all base-devel utilities.
After installing those packages, npm install node-gtk would do.
How to build on macOS
Assuming you have brew installed, the following has been successfully tested on El Captain.
brew install git node gobject-introspection gtk+3 cairo
At this point npm install node-gtk should already install, fallback and build node-gtk without problems.
Testing the project
If you'd like to test everything builds and work properly, after installing and building you can run any of the examples:
node ./examples/hello-gtk.js
If you'll see a little window saying hello that's it: it works!
Please note in macOS the window doesn't automatically open above other windows. Try Cmd + Tab if you don't see it.
Browser demo
If you'd like to test ./examples/browser.js you'll need WebKit2 GTK+ libary.
- in Ubuntu, you can
apt-get install libwebkit2gtk-3.0(4.0works too) and try it out. - in Fedora, you should run
sudo dnf install webkit2gtk3 - in ArchLinux, you can
pacman -S --needed webkitgtkand try it out. - in macOS, there is no way to run it right now because
webkitgtkwas removed from homebrew
Once installed, you can ./examples/browser.js google.com or any other page, and you might try the dark theme out too:
# macOS needs to have the Adwaita theme installed
# brew install adwaita-icon-theme
# Usage: ./examples/browser.js <url> [theme]
./examples/browser.js google.com dark
Experimental platforms
Following how to setup the configuration to at least try building this project.
How to build on Windows (experimental)
Mandatory dependency is Visual Studio Community or Express with a C++ compiler (open a new C++ project and install it via IDE if necessary).
The easiest/tested way to at least try building this repository is within a MinGW shell provided by the MSYS2 installer.
Once VS and its C++ compiler is available and MSYS2 installed, launch the MinGW shell.
# update the system
# in case of errors, wait for the update to complete
# then close and open again MingW shell
pacman -Syyu --noconfirm
# install git, gtk3 and extra dependencie
pacman -S --needed --noconfirm git mingw-w64-$(uname -m)-{gtk3,gobject-introspection,pkg-config,cairo}
# where to put the repository clone?
# pick your flder or use ~/oss (Open Source Software)
mkdir -p ~/oss/
cd ~/oss
# clone node-gtk there
git clone https://github.com/romgrk/node-gtk
cd node-gtk
# first run might take a while
GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2015 npm install
The GYP_MSVS_VERSION could be 2010, 2012, 2013 or 2015.
Please verify which version you should use
Possible issue on MinGW shell
In case you are launching the general executable without knowing the correct platform, the binary path might not be available.
In such case python won't be available either, and you can check via which python command.
If not found, you need to export the platform related binary path:
# example for the 32bit version
export PATH="/mingw32/bin:$PATH"
npm run install
This should do the trick. You can also check if there is any python at all via pacman -Qs python.
Please remember python2 is the one needed.
Known issues building on Windows
Right now there are few gotchas and the build will most likely fail. Please help with a PR if you know how to solve the issue, thank you!
Contributing
If you'd like to help, we'd be more than happy to have support. To setup your development environment, you can
run npm run configure. You can then build the project with npm run build.
- https://developer.gnome.org/gi/stable/index.html
- https://v8docs.nodesource.com/
- https://github.com/nodejs/nan#api
Don't hesitate to join our Discord channel.