ACTUAL SCITER VERSION: 3.3.0.7

OctodeskDesk app made with this lib: https://github.com/midiway/OctoDeskdex

For quick starting, download a Sciter Bootstrap package for the D language, which comes with this library already configured.

Status: after I started writing the C# bindings for Sciter, I realized how a 100% object-orient wrapper around Sciter API is the best way to go for creating a user friendly abstraction. When I started this D-port, in my mind I would be making the equivalent of the C++ classes found in Sciter SDK which is OO btw but the naming of things is very confusing. So the next step for this D-port is to convert it to equivalent classes and names found in the C# port, however I am prioritizing the C# version which is getting Mono cross-platform support. This port will eventually get more attention for improvements and for having GTK support, but right now I am focusing the C# version.

About

This library is a port of Sciter headers to the D language. Sciter is a multi-platform HTML engine. So with this library you can create D desktop application using not just HTML, but all the features of Sciter: CSS3, SVG, scripintg, AJAX, ...

The code is very well tested, and constantly used in real world applications, so be assured that it will save you hours and hours of debugging time, AVs and data corruptions (all which I had to face myself =D). Has unittest coverage so, in DMD, compile it with the -unittest flag to run them.

For more Sciter related content visit my site at: http://misoftware.rs/

Platforms supported until now: Windows 32bits only (Linux GTX support is on the way)

License: MIT License

Structs and classes

This is a table of the available D classes/structs and their mapping over the types of the official SDK C++ headers:

D type	C++ equivalent type
module sciter.sciter_dom; struct node struct element	#include "sciter-x-dom.hpp" class sciter::dom::node class sciter::dom::element
module sciter.sciter_value; struct json_value	#include "value.hpp" sciter::value or VALUE
module sciter.dbg; abstract class debug_output	#include "sciter-x-debug.h" class sciter::debug_output
module sciter.host; class SciterArchive abstract class SciterWindowHost	#include "sciter-x-host-callback.h" class sciter::archive class sciter::host<BASE>
module sciter.behavior; abstract class EventHandler	#include "sciter-x-behavior.h" class sciter::event_handler

Package content

dub.json					-> DUB package manifest
sciter32-import-lib.lib		-> **win32** only: DLL import lib
/samples					-> contains sample of complete GUI aplications making use of this library; samples starting with 'u' are universal ones and the same source code should compile in all supported platforms
/source						-> source code of this library, you should add this path to the compiler 'include path'
/source/sciter				-> D definitions of classes wraping the Sciter API
/source/sciter/interop		-> D types for Sciter ABI
/source/winkit				-> **win32** only: this are helper classes forming a basic WIN32 user GUI toolkit wrapping common things, like creating and manipulating HWND, message loops, and so on..

Features

host <-> UI communication idioms support

As can be read here, there are 3 commons idioms for information flow between the host application and TIScript UI code, all of which are supported in this D port. Here is how you would implement each one:

1. get-requests

To handle UI-to-logic calls you first define/extend a EventHandler class in the native side and attaches it to your SciterWindowHost native implementation.

The Setup() function below first creates the SciterWindowHost instance and calls host.setup_callback() to identify the native HWINDOW attached to it. Then it simply instantiates the EventHandler and uses host.attach_evh() to attach it to the host in order to start receiving events.

import sciter.host;

class MyHost : SciterWindowHost { ... }

void Setup(HWINDOW wnd)
{
	auto host = new MyHost();
	host.setup_callback(wnd);

	auto evh = new MyHostEvh();
	host.attach_evh(evh);
}

Each time script executes code like this:

var ret = view.Host_DoSomething(param1, param2);

it will invoke the on_script_call() method of your native EventHandler:

import std.conv;
import sciter.behavior;
import sciter.behavior;

class MyHostEvh : EventHandler
{
	override bool on_script_call(HELEMENT he, SCRIPTING_METHOD_PARAMS* prms)
	{
		switch(to!string(prms.name))
		{
		case "Host_DoSomething":
			// TIScript values passed by UI side
			json_value param1 = json_value(prms.argv[0]);
			json_value param2 = json_value(prms.argv[1]);
			 
			prms.result = json_value("Meow!");// TIScript return value for UI side
			return true;
		}
	}
}

2. application events

Application can generate some events by itself to the UI script layer. With your native SciterWindowHost in place, you simply call it's call_function() method:

MyHost host = ...;
json_value ret = host.call_function("View_DoSomething", json_value(true), json_value(1234), json_value("from native side"));// call_function() is a variadic function

3. post-requests

UI-to-logic post/asynchronous request allows script to call native side method and receive the result in a later time, asynchronously, preventing the UI thread from blocking. Call to native code includes reference to script function that will be executed when the requested data is available.

Your script side:

view.Host_AsyncProcess(function(meow) {
		$(body).text = "Host processing done: " + meow;
});

Your native EventHandler shaw be something like:

class PostEvh : EventHandler
{
	override bool on_script_call(HELEMENT he, SCRIPTING_METHOD_PARAMS* prms)
	{
		json_value jv_callback = prms.argv[0];

		// TODO:
		// do expensive work in another thread
		// or you can save the jv_callback in a global variable and call it in a later time

		jv_callback.call(
			json_value("Meow! from host")
		);
		return true;
	}
}

json_value supports construction through associative arrays, for example:

void Foo()
{
	json_value jassoc1 = [
		"key1" : 1,
		"key2" : 2,
	];
	
	json_value jassoc2 = [
		"key1" : json_value(1),
		"key2" : json_value(2),
	];
}

json_value multi-threading guidelines:

Be aware that json_value is a struct type, and it's destructor clears the associated Sciter VALUE. So if you need a json_value to survive when it goes out of scope (mainly in multi-threading scenarios), you must put it in the heap, not it the stack, so instead of:

json_value jv = json_value(1234);

..you must:

json_value* jv = new json_value(1234);

That's D my friend.

Library usage - Win32

1. Configuring linker: sciter32-import-lib.lib import lib

You need to add the file 'sciter32-import-lib.lib' to the linker input in order to it find the functions definitions of the Sciter DLL. This is the import lib that you pass to the linker for making your executable statically link to the sciter32.dll exports.

This file was generated using 'coffimplib' app (ftp://ftp.digitalmars.com/coffimplib.zip and http://www.digitalmars.com/ctg/coffimplib.html).

2. Compiling your code

Requirements:

add every .d files under /source/sciter directory to the compiler input, that is, compile them together with your app others .d files
add /source to the compiler include path
add needed import statements like: import sciter.api

Minimal code for creating a Sciter based HWND and loading a external .html file:

import sciter.interop.sciter_x_types;
import sciter.api;

void main()
{
	RECT frame;
	frame.right = 800;
	frame.bottom = 600;

	HWINDOW wnd = SciterCreateWindow(
		SCITER_CREATE_WINDOW_FLAGS.SW_TITLEBAR |
		SCITER_CREATE_WINDOW_FLAGS.SW_RESIZEABLE |
		SCITER_CREATE_WINDOW_FLAGS.SW_MAIN |
		SCITER_CREATE_WINDOW_FLAGS.SW_CONTROLS,
		&frame, null, null, null);
		
	SciterLoadFile(wnd, "minimal.html");
	
	
	version(Windows)
	{
		import core.sys.windows.windows;
		
		ShowWindow(wnd, 1);
		
		MSG msg;
		while( GetMessageA(&msg, null, 0, 0) )
		{
			TranslateMessage(&msg);
			DispatchMessageA(&msg);
		}
	}
}

Library usage - Linux