vgtk

A declarative desktop UI framework for Rust built on GTK and Gtk-rs.

At A Glance

• A clean, functional component model inspired by the Elm architecture, Redux and Yew.
• A declarative DSL for composing GTK widgets inspired by React and JSX, using virtual "DOM" diffing for efficient updates.
• Fully cross platform with a native look and feel for Linux, Windows and macOS.
• Built on Rust's Futures using GLib's event loop, giving you async/await superpowers cleanly integrated with the GTK event model.
• Absolutely no need for an embedded browser engine, unless you really want one.

Documentation

• API docs (latest release)
• Tutorial

Show Me!

use vgtk::{ext::*, gtk, run, Component, UpdateAction, VNode};
use vgtk::lib::{gtk::*, gio::ApplicationFlags};

#[derive(Clone, Default, Debug)]
struct Model {
    counter: usize,
}

#[derive(Clone, Debug)]
enum Message {
   Inc,
   Exit,
}

impl Component for Model {
   type Message = Message;
   type Properties = ();

   fn update(&mut self, message: Message) -> UpdateAction<Self> {
       match message {
           Message::Inc => {
               self.counter += 1;
               UpdateAction::Render
           }
           Message::Exit => {
               vgtk::quit();
               UpdateAction::None
           }
       }
   }

   fn view(&self) -> VNode<Model> {
       gtk! {
           <Application::new_unwrap(None, ApplicationFlags::empty())>
               <Window border_width=20 on destroy=|_| Message::Exit>
                   <HeaderBar title="inc!" show_close_button=true />
                   <Box spacing=10 halign=Align::Center>
                       <Label label=self.counter.to_string() />
                       <Button label="inc!" image="add" always_show_image=true
                               on clicked=|_| Message::Inc />
                   </Box>
               </Window>
           </Application>
       }
   }
}

fn main() {
   std::process::exit(run::<Model>());
}

Installation

You'll need to ensure GTK is installed and usable on your system before you can use vgtk. Please consult the Gtk documentation for detailed instructions. It can be especially involved on Windows, but if you follow their instructions carefully, it does eventually work.

Getting Started

You can use cargo generate to start a vgtk project:

cargo generate --git https://github.com/bodil/cargo-template-vgtk

Alternatively, if you don't want to install cargo generate, you can clone the template repo and edit the Cargo.toml file manually to fit your project.

To run your app, enter the project folder and type cargo run, and marvel at the little window which eventually appears and what wonders you could fill it with.

Examples

See the examples folder for a collection of example applications, including a complete TodoMVC implementation. To try out the TodoMVC example, clone the vgtk repo and issue cargo run --bin todomvc from the project root directory.

Licence

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public Licence as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the Licence, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public Licence for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public Licence along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.