First UWP in Rust

My little experiments with the first Universal Windows Platform app written in pure Rust.

The goal was to check/prove UWP-RS job (work) on my Lumia devices. The result: yes, I can sideload UWP-RS app onto L950/L640!

The original words from the author

This project is an early-stage experiment. Code quality is not guaranteed. Crashes or memory leak may occur.

What have been done

Initialize Application during launch activation
Metadata provider to work with Frame navigation
Load XAML (.xbf) contents
Implementation of IComponentConnector to receive XAML x:Names and event handlers
Weak references (translated from C++/WinRT projects)
Implementation of ICustomPropertyProvider for XAML binding support ({Binding} style)
Pass Windows App Cert Kit (WACK) and distribute from Microsoft Store

What yet to be done

Idiomatic and safe Rust implementation (let's wait for microsoft/windows-rs#81)
Generate .xbf file (see microsoft/windows-rs#306 (comment))
{x:Bind}-style binding (too much boilerplate code)
CI pipelines

Build and Run

# Build the project using x86_64-pc-windows-msvc default target
cargo build

# Register the package layout
Add-AppxPackage -Register AppxManifest.xml

# Then launch "First UWP in Rust" in your Start Menu

Cross compilation and Packaging

The default targets *-pc-windows-* has some link options unsuitable for UWP applications. A package that contains executable files generated with such target fails WACK in terms of AppContainerCheck and unsupported APIs used. To pass WACK, *-uwp-windows-* targets should be used.

~~Xargo is recommended for cross-compilation in this project. Using Xargo, it is not necessary to build the whole Rust toolchain in order to consume tier-3 targets.~~ Xargo is not maintained any more. A more recommended way is to use build-std feature in cargo.

Follow the steps below in powershell to build and generate a .appx package:

Set up Rust nightly toolchain for this project

rustup toolchain install nightly-2020-08-15
rustup override set nightly-2020-08-15
rustup component add rust-src

Build with std-aware cargo

cargo build --release -Z build-std=std,panic_abort --target x86_64-uwp-windows-msvc

i686-uwp-windows-msvc, thumbv7a-uwp-windows-msvc and aarch64-uwp-windows-msvc targets can be used for x64, ARM and ARM64. panic_abort needs to be specified explicitly due to rust-lang/wg-cargo-std-aware#29.

Set up environment variables before consuming Windows SDK command line tools

$env:Path+=";${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Windows Kits\10\bin\%SDK_VERSION%\x64"

where %SDK_VERSION% is the version of an installed Windows SDK that will provide the necessary command line tools, such as 10.0.18362.0.

Create a .appx package

makeappx pack /p FirstUwp_0.0.1.0_x64_Test.appx /v /f .\appxmapping.ini

Generate a certificate for self-signing

Start an elevated Powershell prompt, nagivate to the project directory and enter the following:

$cert=New-SelfSignedCertificate -Type Custom -Subject "CN=25C90434-4343-4A2A-BB16-CF3209256BD3" -KeyUsage DigitalSignature -FriendlyName "firstuwpcert" -TextExtension @("2.5.29.37={text}1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.3", "2.5.29.19={text}")
$data=$cert.Export([System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509ContentType]::Pfx)
[io.file]::WriteAllBytes('firstuwp_TemporaryKey.pfx', $data)

Import the generated certificate

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/sideload-apps-in-windows-10#how-do-i-sideload-an-app-on-desktop .

Sign the package

signtool sign /v /fd SHA256 /a /f firstuwp_TemporaryKey.pfx FirstUwp_0.0.1.0_x64_Test.appx

Then the package is ready to deploy through Device Portal or App Installer at your option.

References

..

As-is. No support. RnD only

-- [m][e] 2023

mediaexplorer74/firstuwp-rs