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CLI

Unreleased​

v11.3.0​

Host projects support​

Developers can launch Neutralinojs from any programming language using child process APIs (i.e., subprocess in Python) and communicate with the framework process using the extension API. The new hostProject configuration object extends the official CLI to help developers easily create, run, and build these host projects. For example, the following host project configuration instructs the CLI to run a Node.js host project:

"hostProject": {
  "projectPath": "/node-src",
  "buildPath": "/node-src/dist/",
  "initCommand": "npm install",  
  "devCommand": "npm start",     
  "buildCommand": "npm run build"
}

Community projects implement bindings and templates to create host projects using Node.js, Python, Go, etc. For example, the node-neutralino NPM package lets you launch Neutralinojs via Node.js environments and execute native APIs via the NeutralinoApp class:

import NeutralinoApp from 'node-neutralino';

const app = new NeutralinoApp({
  url: '/',
  windowOptions: {
    enableInspector: false,
  }
});

app.init();
app.window.setTitle('Node.js');

Executable icon and metadata on Windows​

Now, the neu build command automatically updates the executable file icon and metadata based on the following configuration options:

  • author: gets written into executable's metadata.
  • description: gets written into executable's metadata.
  • copyright: gets written into executable's metadata. Defaults to current date + generic "all rights reserved".
  • applicationName: gets written into executable's metadata. Defaults to cli.binaryName.
  • applicationIcon: a relative path to an icon in .png format. Defaults to modes.window.icon. If it is not set, uses Neutralinojs logo.

Bugfixes/improvements​

Use the zip-lib package to handle ZIP files for better performance and simplicity in the source code.

v11.2.2​

Bugfixes/improvements​

  • Fix initial loading issues with frontend library development file patching.

v11.2.0​

Core: Bundler​

  • Introduce the --clean flag to the neu build command to clean previous build files.
  • Add file excluding feature for the app bundle and extensions directory via cli.resourcesExclude and cli.extensionsExclude configuration properties. For example, now developers can use the "resourcesExclude": ".*\\.scss$|.*\\.d.ts$" configuration to exclude *.scss and *.d.ts files from the final app bundle.
  • Let app developers customize the frontend library development server wait time using the cli.frontendLibrary.waitTimeout configuration property.

Core: Version​

  • The neu version command now compares the installed CLI version and the framework version with the latest released versions and displays a warning messages if the users use an older versions.
  • The neu version command now displays the (latest) tag with CLI, binary, client library version details.

Bugfixes/improvements​

  • Check and validate neutralino.config.json file before executing app-specific commands.
  • Check app template validity before downloading content from a specific GitHub repository using the official GitHub API.
  • Add the app icon to the final app bundle only the specific project uses an app icon.
  • Fix the port waiting timeout issue with frontend library-based development workflow.

v11.1.0​

Core: Bundler​

  • Add cli.distributionPath into the neutralino.config.json file to customize the default dist distribution directory.

v11.0.1​

Bugfixes/improvements​

  • Clean existing app build files before creating another build using the neu build command.
  • Support older Node versions by removing the optional chaining feature usage.
  • Fix the endless port waiting issue with the --frontend-lib-dev option.

v11.0.0​

Core: Runner​

  • Change the WebSocket connection based on the v5 framework APIs.

Bugfixes/improvements​

  • Fixed issues with the frontend library command execution.

v10.1.1​

Bugfixes/improvements​

  • Fixed app development issues with the Vite server.

v10.1.0​

Bugfixes/improvements​

  • Fixed several issues in the frontend-library-based development flow (i.e., removed the hardcoded port number, fixed double devCommand execution, etc.,).

v10.0.0​

Core: frontend-library-based development​

Added new configuration options to the cli.frontendLibrary key of the neutralino.config.json:

  • projectPath: Sets the project path of the frontend-library project. This path will be used as the current directory while executing the frontend-app-related commands.
  • initCommand: A command that gets executed after downloading an app template with the neu create command.
  • devCommand: This command will run with the neu run command to start the frontend development server. The CLI doesn't wait for devCommand completion, instead, it will wait for the frontend development server via the tcp-port-used package.
  • buildCommand: The neu build command will execute this command before generating the app bundle, so you can generate static resources of your frontend app using this command.

v9.8.0​

Core: Downloader​

  • Download the latest Neutralinojs framework resources with the --latest option in the neu update command.
  • If framework versions are not present in the app/template configuration, download the latest framework resources automatically. The CLI will download nightly releases if it can't fetch the latest release tag because of an GitHub API-related issue (i.e., Exceeded rate limits).

v9.7.0​

Core: Downloader/bundler​

  • Download the TypeScript definition file for standalone client library mode. This won't include the TypeScript definition file to the final application bundle.

v9.6.1​

Bugfixes/Improvements​

  • Fix the hot-reloading issue that occurs with newer Node runtime versions.

v9.6.0​

Core: Bundler​

  • Avoid copying the WebView2Loader.dll file to the final app package since it was removed from the Neutralinojs framework.

v9.5.1​

Bugfixes/Improvements​

  • Use the decompress library instead of unzipper to fix issues with latest Node.js runtime versions.
  • Generate the Mac universal binary with the neu build command.

v9.5.0​

DevOps​

  • Implement a way to test plugins locally.

v9.4.0​

DevOps: new test suite​

  • Initiate a new Node.js-based test suite.

Bugfixes/Improvements​

  • Clean project files if the neu create command wan't successful.
  • Display an error message if the neu build --copy-storage fails due to missing .storage directory.
  • Support Darwin arm64 binaries natively without binary translation (x64 -> arm64).
  • Make the client library downloading process optional and support importing the client library via @neutralinojs/lib.
  • Download the module version of the client library based on the app configuration.

v9.3.1​

Core: Plugins​

  • Automatically re-install plugins when the neu CLI version is upgraded/downgraded via package managers.

Core: downloader/builder​

  • Support ARM (armhf/arm64) binaries.

v9.3.0​

General​

  • Add short descriptions for each command.
  • Support to download nightly build versions.

Bugfixes/improvements​

  • Fix plugin listing issue.

DevOps​

  • Add a simple test-suite for testing CLI commands with a Bash script.

v9.2.0​

General​

  • Improve log messages and styles

Core: Runner​

  • Display Neutralinojs process's STDIN and STDERR streams directly on the console.
  • Remove --verbose option from the run command.

v9.1.2​

Core: Runner​

  • Fix client library path issue with hot-reload workaround on Windows.

v9.1.1​

Bugfixes​

  • Fix browser mode exit issue with neu run.

v9.1.0​

Core: Runner​

  • Add a workaround to use hot module reloading from the app developer's existing frontend library/framework.

v9.0.0​

Core: Creator​

  • Allow downloading any community template via neu create myapp --template <template>. <template> accepts valid GitHub repo identifiers. The default value is neutralinojs/neutralinojs-minimal.

Core: Runner​

  • Add --verbose option to identify framework initialization crashes. It will show STDERR and STDOUT of the framework once the process was terminated.
  • Support sending any internal CLI argument to the Neutralinojs process via neu run -- <additional_args>.
  • Remove --mode=<mode> option from run since the same work can be done with neu run -- --mode=<mode>.

Bugfixes and improvements​

  • Fix the infinite retry issue with the neu run command.
  • Show an error message for download failures.

v8.1.0​

Core: File watcher​

  • Exclude auto-reload files via cli.autoReloadExclude.
  • Watch only the cli.resourcesDir to avoid many unwanted reloads.

Core: Bundler​

  • Add new --copy-storage flag to automatically copy storage data to the app bundle.

v8.0.1​

Core: Bundler​

  • Make cli.extensionsDir optional for bundling process.

Bugfixes​

  • Fix an issue in websocket error log.

v8.0.0​

Core: Bundler​

  • Copy extensions to the app bundle.
  • Rename res.neu to resources.neu.

Core: Runner​

  • Use websocket connection to auto reload app.

v7.1.0​

Core: Downloader​

  • Use server/client versions from config

neu version​

  • Removed global Neutralino version details