WebSharper is a Free Software project, and we welcome your contributions!
The core repository contains the F# and C#-to-JavaScript compiler and core libraries. WebSharper consists of this repository as well as a constellation of libraries and extensions, located in the dotnet-websharper
GitHub organization. Don't hesitate to contribute to these too!
We welcome all types of contributions, particularly:
- Bug fixes in the issue tracker
- Standard library improvements (JavaScript APIs, etc.)
- Compiler optimizations and improvements
- Documentation: improvements to the documentation website can be contributed in the "docs" repository
- Feature suggestions are welcome on the Gitter chat and the issue tracker; we suggest that you discuss new features with the rest of the team on these channels before getting started on implementation.
It is possible to work on WebSharper on Windows, Linux and OSX.
To compile WebSharper, you need the following installed:
- The .NET SDK 6.0.10 or newer. You can download it here.
WebSharper can be built using the script build.cmd
on Windows, or build.sh
on Linux andr OSX.
In the following shell snippets, a command line starting with build
means .\build.cmd
on Windows and ./build.sh
on Linux and OSX.
Simply running build
compiles the WebSharper compiler, standard libraries and tests in debug mode. The following targets are available:
-
build ws-builddebug
Equivalent to simple
build
: compiles the compiler, standard libraries and tests in debug mode. -
build ws-buildrelease
Compiles the compiler, standard libraries and tests in release mode.
-
build ws-package
Compiles the compiler, standard libraries and tests in release mode, then creates NuGet packages in the
build
folder. -
build ws-clean
Deletes temporary and output directories.
-
build ci-release
Full build as is used for releases. Update non-fixed dependencies, build everything, run unit tests, package.
The following options are available:
-
build [TARGET] -ef verbose
Makes compilation more verbose. Equivalently, set the
verbose
environment variable totrue
.
We recommend that you use one of the following development environments:
- On Windows: Visual Studio 2022.
- On all platforms: Visual Studio Code with the following extensions:
ionide-fsharp
for F# supportms-vscode.csharp
for C# support
WebSharper defines and uses its own test framework, WebSharper.Testing. It runs on the client side and is backed by qUnit. So running the WebSharper test suite consists in running a web application which looks like this:
The recommended way to run these tests is to run the tests/Web
project. It is an ASP.NET application hosting the test suite, under the "Client-side test suite" on its home page.
-
If you are using Visual Studio, you can simply open
WebSharper.sln
, settests/Web
as the startup project, and Run. Check your build target. Update the build target according to your build flags. Target Debug only if you used ws-builddebug. -
On Linux or OSX, you can browse into the
tests/Web
folder and simply runxsp
.
To find where to add tests for your code, check the project structure.
Did you encounter a WebSharper bug while working on your project, and want to implement a fix and try it locally? The easiest way to do so is to create NuGet packages for WebSharper and use them locally.
- In websharper, write your code fix and run
build ws-package
. - In your project, add WebSharper's build folder as a NuGet source repository and update the packages:
- If you're using Paket (for example if you're working on one of WebSharper's libraries and extensions):
-
Add the following line to your
paket.dependencies
:source /path/to/websharper-repo/build
-
Run
paket update
.
-
- If you're using the standard NuGet package manager:
-
Add the following to
NuGet.config
in your project repository:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <configuration> <packageSources> <add key="local-websharper" value="/path/to/websharper-repo/build" /> </packageSources> </configuration>
-
Update the NuGet packages either from Visual Studio's GUI, or with the command line:
dotnet add package WebSharper dotnet add package WebSharper.FSharp -- if you're using F# dotnet add package WebSharper.CSharp -- if you're using C#
-
- If you're using Paket (for example if you're working on one of WebSharper's libraries and extensions):
Here is the detail of the project structure. The repository contains two solutions:
WebSharper.Compiler.sln
contains the F# and C#-to-JavaScript compilers, the MSBuild task for the C# compiler, and their dependencies. Undersrc/compiler/
:WebSharper.Core.JavaScript
contains facilities for parsing and writing plain JavaScript.WebSharper.Core
contains most everything that is common between the compilers, user libraries and runtime: attributes and core type definitions, JSON serialization, macro API, etc.WebSharper.InterfaceGenerator
contains the type definitions for the Interface Generator.WebSharper.Compiler
contains the compiler code common between the F# and C# compilers.WebSharper.Compiler.CSharp
contains the C# compiler as a library.WebSharper.CSharp
contains the C# compiler executable.WebSharper.Compiler.FSharp
contains the F# compiler as a library.WebSharper.FSharp
contains the F# compiler executable.WebSharper.MSBuild.CSharp
contains the MSBuild task that invokes the C# compiler after csc. The F# compiler entirely replaces fsc, so it does not need a build task.src/compiler/WebSharper.CSharp.Analyzer
contains the Roslyn analyzer, which provides the code service for C#.
WebSharper.sln
contains the standard libraries, tests, and their dependencies.- Under
src/stdlib/
:WebSharper.JavaScript
contains the type definitions for the JavaScript standard libraries: EcmaScript types, DOM, HTML5 APIs, etc.WebSharper.JQuery
contains the type definitions for jQuery.WebSharper.Main
contains the main WebSharper client-side libraries, such as theJS
module,Optional
andUnion
types, remoting client-side types, etc.WebSharper.Main.Proxies
contains the standard library proxies, ie the client-side implementations for the a good part of the .NET standard library and FSharp.Core.
This project is peculiar because it is not compiled directly; instead it is combined withWebSharper.Main
to create theWebSharper.Main
assembly. This assembly contains the .NET code of theWebSharper.Main
project, but the embedded WebSharper files contain everything fromWebSharper.Main.Proxies
.WebSharper.MathJS
contains the type definitions for MathJS.WebSharper.MathJS.Extensions
contains the optional MathJS-based proxies fordecimal
,bigint
andComplex
.WebSharper.Collections
contains proxies for some collection types such as F#'sSet
andMap
, as well as the LINQ methods.WebSharper.Control
contains proxies for .NET events, observables and F#MailboxProcessor
.WebSharper.Testing
contains the WebSharper client-side unit testing framework.
- Under
src/sitelets/
:WebSharper.Web
contains the server-side remoting runtime as well as some client-side HTML types.WebSharper.Sitelets
contains the Sitelets API and runtime.WebSharper.Sitelets.Offline
contains the machinery for static Html project compilation.
- Under
tests/
:WebSharper.Core.JavaScript.Tests
contains tests for JavaScript parsing and writing.WebSharper.Tests
contains tests forstdlib/WebSharper.Main
,Main.Proxies
andControl
.WebSharper.Html5.Tests
contains tests for HTML5 bindings instdlib/WebSharper.JavaScript
.WebSharper.Collections.Tests
contains tests forstdlib/WebSharper.Collections
.WebSharper.InterfaceGenerator.Tests
contains a test interface generator. This interface is then validated inWebSharper.Tests
.WebSharper.Web.Tests
contains remoting, client-side routing and JSON tests.WebSharper.CSharp.Tests
contains C#-specific tests.WebSharper.Sitelets.Tests
contains F# server-side tests.WebSharper.CSharp.Sitelets.Tests
contains C# server-side tests.WebSharper.SPA.Tests
is a single-page application serving a harness for all the above client-side tests.WebSharper.StaticHtml.Tests
is a static HTML application serving a harness for all the above client-side tests.Website
defines a sitelet that includes all the above server-side, client-side and cross-tier tests.Web
is a client-server application serving the sitelet defined inWebsite
. Therefore it is a harness for the whole test suite.
- Under