NodeGui

Build performant, native and cross-platform desktop applications with Node.js and CSS like styling.🚀

NodeGUI is powered by Qt5 💚 which makes it CPU and memory efficient as compared to other chromium based solutions like Electron.

If you are looking for React based version, check out: React NodeGUI.

If you are looking for Vue based version, check out: Vue NodeGUI.

If you are looking for Svelte based version, check out: Svelte NodeGUI

Visit https://nodegui.github.io/nodegui for docs.

How does it look?

Code Examples

https://github.com/nodegui/examples

Features

• 🧬 Cross platform. Works on major Linux flavours, Windows, and MacOS.
• 📉 Low CPU and memory footprint. Current CPU stays at 0% on idle and memory usage is under 20MB for a Hello World program.
• 💅 Styling with CSS (includes actual cascading). Also has full support for Flexbox layout (thanks to Yoga).
• ✅ Complete Nodejs API support (Currently runs on Node v16.x - and is easily upgradable). Hence has access to all Nodejs compatible NPM modules.
• 🎪 Native widget event listener support. Supports all events available from Qt / NodeJs.
• 💸 Can be used for Commercial applications.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Good Devtools support.
• 📚 Good documentation and website.
• 🧙‍♂️ Good documentation for contributors.
• 🦹🏻‍♀️ Good support for dark mode (Thanks to Qt).
• 🏅First class Typescript support. (Works on regular JS projects too 😉).

Getting Started

• Check out nodegui-starter to get up and running with your own React NodeGUI app!
• Read through the docs.
• Checkout the examples: https://github.com/nodegui/examples .
• Tutorial: Build a native Meme Search Desktop app with Javascript (NodeGui) and Giphy API

Installation

NodeGui requires CMake and Compilation Tools as it is a wrapper for a native C++ widget toolkit QT. Detailed instructions here: https://www.sitepoint.com/build-native-desktop-gif-searcher-app-using-nodegui/

TL;DR: MacOS

brew install cmake
brew install make

Windows https://cmake.org/download/

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install pkg-config build-essential
sudo apt-get install cmake make
sudo apt-get install mesa-common-dev libglu1-mesa-dev

Linux (Fedora/RHEL/CentOS)

sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" "Development Libraries"
sudo dnf groupinstall "C Development Tools and Libraries"
sudo dnf install mesa-libGL mesa-libGL-devel

Then install NodeGui from your command line:

To install latest stable release:

npm install @nodegui/nodegui

To install the latest version available on master branch:

npm install https://github.com/nodegui/nodegui/releases/download/v0.0.0-latest-master/nodegui-master.tgz

or a shorter version:

npm i http://master-release.nodegui.org

If the installation fails to download the Qt binaries, a mirror can be used by setting the following environment variable and running the install command again:

QT_LINK_MIRROR= # eg. QT_LINK_MIRROR=https://qt-mirror.dannhauer.de

npm install @nodegui/nodegui

See FAQs for more details.

Using your own custom Qt installation (Optional)

Compiling Qt from source

You will need to download and install Qt from source since there are no binaries from Qt for M1 yet.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/QtFramework/comments/ll58wg/howtobuildqtcreatorformacosarm64a_guide/)

git clone git://code.qt.io/qt/qt5.git
cd qt5
git checkout 5.15

./init-repository --module-subset=essential -f
git submodule init qtsvg
git submodule update qtsvg
cd ..
mkdir qt5-5.15-macOS-release
cd qt5-5.15-macOS-release
../qt5/configure -release QMAKE_APPLE_DEVICE_ARCHS=arm64 -opensource -confirm-license -nomake examples -nomake tests -skip qt3d -skip webengine -skip qtactiveqt -skip qtcanvas3d  -skip qtdeclarative -skip qtdatavis3d -skip qtdoc -skip qtgamepad -skip qtcharts -skip qtgraphicaleffects -skip qtlocation  -skip qtpurchasing -skip qtquickcontrols -skip qtquickcontrols2 -skip qtremoteobjects -skip qtscxml -skip qtsensors -skip qtserialbus -skip qtserialport -skip qtspeech -skip qtvirtualkeyboard -skip qtscript
make -j15
make install

This should install Qt into something like this

/usr/local/Qt-5.15.3

Pointing nodegui to use your custom Qt installation

Now just set

export QT_INSTALL_DIR=

export QT_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/Qt-5.15.3

Now just

rm -rf node_modules

npm install

The logs should say something like

CustomQt detected at . Hence, skipping Mini Qt installation

Running example programs

A number of small programs to show different parts of the Qt API are in

src/examples

npm run qode dist/examples/modelview_1_readonly.js

Community guides

• Tutorial: Build a native Meme Search Desktop app with Javascript (NodeGui) and Giphy API
• https://blog.logrocket.com/electron-alternatives-exploring-nodegui-and-react-nodegui/ - Electron alternatives: Exploring NodeGUI and React NodeGUI by Siegfried Grimbeek.
• https://hibbard.eu/node-gui/ - Excellent guide from James Hibbard.

Talks/Podcasts

• NodeGui and React NodeGui at KarmaJS Nov 2019 meetup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jH5gaEEDv4

• JS Party 96: Performant Node desktop apps with NodeGUI – Listen on Changelog.com

Docs for contributing

It is easier than you think, try it

Looking to contribute? If you wish to implement a new widget/add more features and need help understanding the codebase, you can start here: Contributing developer docs.

Please read https://github.com/nodegui/.github/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Building

npm run build

Optionally set

QT_INSTALL_DIR='/path/to/qt'

Updating docs

npm run docs

then followed by:

cd website && GIT_USER= yarn deploy

Funding

NodeGui is an open source project and requires your support. If you like this project, please consider supporting my work by clicking on the Sponsor button on this Github repository or via Ko-Fi. Alternatively, Issues on NodeGui can be funded by anyone via Issuehunt and the amount will be distributed to respective contributors.

Special Thanks

• Logo: Thanks to Vishwas Shetty from the Noun Project.

Code of Conduct

https://github.com/nodegui/.github/blob/master/CODEOFCONDUCT.md

License

MIT

Backers 🚀

Thanks goes to these wonderful people.

Yuriy Yazlovytskyy

John Susek

Marc Dijoux

Stephen Belanger

Rustam

Maintainers ✨

People maintaining this project.

Atul R

Simon Edwards

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Lucas Ramage 📖	Denis Sikuler 📖	Nahuel José 💬	Kakul Gupta 💻	Rahul Gaba 💻	Paweł Borecki 💻	Marcus S. Abildskov ⚠️
Átila Camurça Alves 📖	James Hibbard 💻	Soonwoo Hong 💻	Roy Sommer 💻	Paulo Coghi 🤔	Balthild Ires 💻	Dimitar Nestorov 💻
Mikko Sairio 💻	Pepijn 💻	slidinghotdog 💻	Bundyo (Kamen Bundev) 💻	feng8848 💻	Maksim Karelov 💻	mspencer92 💻
blncd2020 📖	gluaxspeed 💻	Solant 💻	Shubham Zanwar 💻	Singha360 💻	Mihkel 💻	Stephen A 💻
流君酱 💻	Adam Gastineau 💻	swittk 💻	craftingmod 💻	Doug Barbieri 💻	HENRIQUE DE SOUZA NERY 💻	Ruslan Garifullin 💻
Ranieri 💻 📖	Nathanael Anderson 💻	Ross 💻 📖	4h7l 💻	Maks 💻	zhb124404 📖	Wyatt Kirby 💻
Steven Koch 💻	Simon Edwards 💻

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!