PhotinoX.Native 5.0.0-preview.4

PhotinoX.Native

PhotinoX.Native is an independent fork of tryphotino/photino.Native licensed under Apache‑2.0.
This project is not affiliated with the original Photino organization.

The goal of this fork is to maintain and improve the native cross-platform layer for:

• Windows x64 / ARM64
• Linux x64 / ARM64
• macOS x64 / ARM64 (Universal)

PhotinoX.Native provides a lightweight native window host using the OS’s built-in WebView stack, while improving native API structure, interop layout, application lifetime, message-loop ownership, and unified native window state tracking.

• Windows: WebView2 Runtime
  Required component: Microsoft.Web.WebView2 (Edge WebView2)
  https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-edge/webview2/
• macOS: WKWebView (system WebKit)
  https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wkwebview/
• Linux: WebKitGTK 4.1 (runtime + dev packages)
  https://webkitgtk.org/

Runtime support (RID matrix)

Binaries included in this package:

All files follow the standard NuGet runtimes/<rid>/native/ layout.

Core (ecosystem)

These repositories provide the managed .NET surface around the native binaries:

• PhotinoX - .NET wrapper around the native layer.
• PhotinoX.Blazor - Blazor integration for native desktop apps.
• PhotinoX.Server - optional local static-file server for SPA/static assets.
• PhotinoX.Samples - sample projects showcasing common scenarios.

This package is intended for developers building modern desktop apps with web‑based UI frameworks (Blazor, React, Vue, Angular, etc.) on top of native OS windows with minimal dependencies.

If you are looking for the main project, see:
https://github.com/ivanvoyager/PhotinoX

Photino (upstream) vs PhotinoX (fork)

History

Photino succeeded Steve Sanderson’s experimental WebWindow project, which explored native OS windows hosting web UI for .NET applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Photino continued this idea as an Electron-inspired open-source .NET project backed by the CODE Magazine team and the open-source community, while using the OS-provided WebView stack instead of bundling Chromium.

Upstream’s last public Photino.Native release is dated January 23, 2025 (v4.0.22). PhotinoX.Native continues the native-window model with maintained binaries, consistent RID packaging, improved native memory ownership, clearer platform isolation, Windows WebView2 integration fixes, unified native window state tracking, WebView content-loaded callbacks, state-aware application dispatch APIs, and an application-oriented native message-loop model.

Building (Windows / Linux / macOS)

The build system for PhotinoX.Native uses a combination of MSBuild (Windows)
and the included makefile (Linux, macOS).

Toolset note: The project targets MSVC v145 (Visual Studio 2026).
CI also uses v145.

CI: see

• .github/workflows/photinox-native-win.yml (build + pack + upload win-x64/win-ARM64)
• .github/workflows/build-native-unix.yml (build + pack + upload linux-x64/linux-arm64 and osx-x64/osx-arm64)

Windows

Requirements:

• Visual Studio 2026 (includes support for MSVC Toolset v145)
• Workload: Desktop Development with C++
• WebView2 Runtime (required by the Windows backend)
• Build configurations:
  • Release | x64
  • Release | ARM64

To build manually with MSVC Toolset v145:

msbuild .\Photino.Native\Photino.Native.vcxproj ^
  /p:Configuration=Release ^
  /p:Platform=x64 ^
  /p:PlatformToolset=v145

or for ARM64:

msbuild .\Photino.Native\Photino.Native.vcxproj ^
  /p:Configuration=Release ^
  /p:Platform=ARM64 ^
  /p:PlatformToolset=v145

Linux

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
    build-essential \
    libgtk-3-dev \
    libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
    libnotify-dev
make linux-x64       # or make linux-arm64

macOS

Requirements:

• Xcode 15+ (macOS 14/15/16 toolchains)
• clang with Objective‑C++ support
• WKWebView available system-wide

make mac-universal

Known limitations

• Linux Wayland: top-level window position is compositor-controlled. Move notifications and position restore are best-effort; state and size tracking remain supported.
• Linux chromeless drag/resize: native chromeless drag, resize, and titlebar double-click handling use GTK event-driven hit testing over configured drag and resize regions. The generic BeginWindowDrag / BeginWindowResize entry points remain no-ops on Linux because GTK/Wayland require the original trusted native pointer event.

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome. Keep changes minimal and performance-conscious.

License

PhotinoX.Native is licensed under Apache‑2.0.