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

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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 - 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](https://wails.app/project_status.html) 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 1.11 or above - 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 `sudo apt install pkg-config build-essential libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev` #### Arch Linux `sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk gtk3` 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](http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/download). Once this is installed, you are good to go. ## Installation Installation is as simple as running the following command:

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

## Next Steps It is recommended at this stage to read the comprehensive documentation at [https://wails.app](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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales) I am from. So it stuck. ## Shoulders of Giants Without the following people, this project would never have existed: * [Dustin Krysak](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/bashfulrobot) - His support and feedback has been immense. More patience than you can throw a stick at (Not long now Dustin!). * [Serge Zaitsev](https://github.com/zserge) - Creator of [Webview](https://github.com/zserge/webview) which Wails uses for the windowing. And without [these people](CONTRIBUTORS.md), it wouldn't be what it is today. Special Mentions: * [Bill Kennedy](https://twitter.com/goinggodotnet) - Go guru, encourager and all-round nice guy, whose infectious energy and inspiration powered me on when I had none left. * [Mark Bates](https://github.com/markbates) - Creator of [Packr](https://github.com/gobuffalo/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](https://open.spotify.com/album/1R2rsEUqXjIvAbzM0yHrxA) * [Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours](https://open.spotify.com/album/4VzCL9kjhgGQeKCiojK1YN) * [The Midnight - Endless Summer](https://open.spotify.com/album/4Krg8zvprquh7TVn9OxZn8) * [Gary Newman - Savage (Songs from a Broken World)](https://open.spotify.com/album/3kMfsD07Q32HRWKRrpcexr) * [Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare](https://open.spotify.com/album/0oL0OhrE2rYVns4IGj8h2m) * [Ben Howard - Every Kingdom](https://open.spotify.com/album/1nJsbWm3Yy2DW1KIc1OKle) * [Ben Howard - Noonday Dream](https://open.spotify.com/album/6astw05cTiXEc2OvyByaPs) * [Adwaith - Melyn](https://open.spotify.com/album/2vBE40Rp60tl7rNqIZjaXM) * [Gwidaith Hen Fran - Cedors Hen Wrach](https://open.spotify.com/album/3v2hrfNGINPLuDP0YDTOjm) * [Metallica - Metallica](https://open.spotify.com/album/2Kh43m04B1UkVcpcRa1Zug) * [Bloc Party - Silent Alarm](https://open.spotify.com/album/6SsIdN05HQg2GwYLfXuzLB) * [Maxthor - Another World](https://open.spotify.com/album/3tklE2Fgw1hCIUstIwPBJF) * [Alun Tan Lan - Y Distawrwydd](https://open.spotify.com/album/0c32OywcLpdJCWWMC6vB8v)