NativeScript (Node-API)

An embeddable, engine-agnostic NativeScript runtime based on Node-API and libffi.

This library allows any JavaScript engine or runtime that supports Node-API to access native APIs directly from JavaScript. At present, it supports accessing Objective-C APIs (thus most of the iOS and macOS SDKs). We hope to support other native APIs, such as the Java-based Android SDK, in future.

Initializing the repo

The repo makes use of npm workspaces, so installation is straightforward.

npm install

Generating the metadata

# ① Build the metadata generator.
deno task build-metagen
# Output:
#   metadata/build/Release/MetadataGenerator

# ② Generate metadata for iOS.
deno task metagen ios
# Output:
#   metadata/metadata.ios.arm64.nsmd
#   metadata/metadata.ios.x86_64.nsmd
#   packages/ios/types/*.d.ts

# ③ Generate metadata for macOS.
deno task metagen macos
# Output:
#   metadata/metadata.macos.arm64.nsmd
#   metadata/metadata.macos.x86_64.nsmd
#   packages/macos/types/*.d.ts

Building the runtimes

# Build the runtime for macOS.
deno task build macos
# Output:
#   packages/macos/build/macos/Release/libNativeScript.dylib
#   packages/macos/dist/macos/NativeScript.node

# Build the runtime for iOS as a universal binary.
deno task build ios-universal
# Output:
#   packages/ios/build/ios/Release-iphoneos/NativeScript.framework/NativeScript
#   packages/ios/build/ios-sim/Release-iphonesimulator/NativeScript.framework/NativeScript
#   packages/ios/dist/ios-universal/NativeScript.xcframework

Run examples

These macOS AppKit examples depend upon having run the "Generating metadata" and "Building the runtimes" for macOS already.

node examples/foundation.js
# or
deno run -A examples/foundation.js

# ML Compute example
node examples/mlcompute.js

# AppKit related examples
node examples/appkit.js
node examples/split_view.js
node examples/view_controller.js
node examples/spritekit.js

Copyright notice

Copyright OpenJS Foundation and NativeScript contributors. All rights reserved. The OpenJS Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of the OpenJS Foundation, please see our Trademark Policy and Trademark List. Trademarks and logos not indicated on the list of OpenJS Foundation trademarks are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

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