wails/README.md

Build desktop applications using Go & Web Technologies.

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PLEASE NOTE: As we are approaching the v2 release, we are not accepting any new feature requests or bug reports for v1. If you have a critical issue, please open a ticket and state why it is critical.

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Internationalization

English | 简体中文 | 日本語

Table of Contents

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• 1. Internationalization
• 2. Table of Contents
• 3. Introduction
  • 3.1 Official Website
  • 3.2 Roadmap
• 4. Features
• 5. Sponsors
• 6. Getting Started
• 7. FAQ
• 8. Contributors
• 9. Special Mentions
• 10. Special Thanks
• 11. License

Introduction

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 for the backend
• Use any frontend technology you are already familiar with to build your UI
• Quickly create rich frontends for your Go programs using pre-built templates
• Easily call Go methods from Javascript
• Auto-generated Typescript definitions for your Go structs and methods
• Native Dialogs & Menus
• Supports modern translucency and "frosted window" effects
• Unified eventing system between Go and Javascript
• Powerful cli tool to quickly generate and build your projects
• Multiplatform
• Uses native rendering engines - no embedded browser!

Official Website

Version 2:

Wails v2 has been released in Beta for all 3 platforms. Check out the new website if you are interested in trying it out.

Legacy v1 Website:

The legacy v1 docs can be found at https://wails.app.

Roadmap

The project roadmap may be found here. Please consult this before open up an enhancement request.

Sponsors

This project is supported by these kind people / companies:

Getting Started

The installation instructions are on the official website.

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. Wails v2 does offer native elements such as menus and dialogs, so it is becoming a lightweight electron alternative.

• 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 I am from. So it stuck.

Stargazers over time

Contributors

The contributors list is getting too big for the readme! All the amazing people who have contributed to this project have their own page here.

Special Mentions

Without the following people, this project would never have existed:

• Dustin Krysak - His support and feedback has been immense. More patience than you can throw a stick at (Not long now Dustin!).
• Serge Zaitsev - Creator of Webview which Wails uses for the windowing.
• Byron - At times, Byron has single handedly kept this project alive. Without his incredible input, we never would have got to v1.

This project was mainly coded to the following albums:

• Manic Street Preachers - Resistance Is Futile
• Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours
• The Midnight - Endless Summer
• Gary Newman - Savage (Songs from a Broken World)
• Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare
• Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
• Ben Howard - Noonday Dream
• Adwaith - Melyn
• Gwidaith Hen Fran - Cedors Hen Wrach
• Metallica - Metallica
• Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
• Maxthor - Another World
• Alun Tan Lan - Y Distawrwydd

Special Thanks

A huge thanks to Pace for sponsoring the project and helping the efforts to get Wails ported to Apple Silicon!

If you are looking for a Project Management tool that's powerful but quick and easy to use, check them out!

A special thank you to JetBrains for donating licenses to us!

Please click the logo to let them know your appreciation!

License