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rust_widgets

Pure Rust cross-platform native GUI architecture with hardware-adaptive rendering and comprehensive widget library.

Quick Start

cargo check
cargo check --examples
cargo run --example demo_main

One-click Build Script

Use the provided one-click build script to compile all targets, examples, and documentation:

# Linux/macOS
./tools/build_all.sh

# Windows
./tools/build_all.bat

This script will:

  • Compile the library and all examples
  • Build the documentation
  • Run tests
  • Check code quality with clippy

Runtime Profiles

  • default + full: complete desktop-oriented stack with hardware-adaptive GPU management
  • embedded: full-weight embedded runtime path for lifecycle/render/supported-control behavior; module surface is intentionally trimmed at compile time (xml, i18n, theme, and bindings excluded)
  • mobile-api: reserved unified extension points for mobile targets

Feature Toggle Examples

# Full profile (default)
cargo check

# Embedded profile
cargo check --no-default-features --features embedded

# Full profile + mobile API reservation
cargo check --features "full,mobile-api"

# Embedded profile + mobile API reservation
cargo check --no-default-features --features "embedded,mobile-api"

v2 Runtime and Validation Workflow

  • Lifecycle routing is now profile-explicit:
    • desktop (not embedded) routes init/run/quit directly to native platform backends
    • embedded routes lifecycle through RenderEngine
  • Runtime route diagnostics can be enabled with:
RUST_WIDGETS_TRACE_RUNTIME=1 cargo run --example demo_main
  • Unified validation scripts:
# default + examples + embedded profile matrix
tools/check_profiles.sh

# ABI consistency gate (version + symbols + generated header drift)
tools/check_abi.sh

v3 Release Workflow

# demo smoke (default + embedded)
tools/smoke_demos.sh

# package validation without upload
cargo publish --dry-run

QA Harness

# cross-profile behavior matrix
tools/check_behavior_matrix.sh

# deterministic visual snapshot regression checks
tools/check_visual_regression.sh

Platform Scope

  • Desktop: Windows (Win32), macOS (Cocoa), Linux (GTK), Harmony Desktop
  • Embedded: embedded Linux / embedded Harmony (full-weight runtime path under embedded feature)
  • Mobile: Android / iOS / Harmony mobile reserved API (architecture-ready, implementation to be expanded later)

Runtime GUI Mode Contract (v18)

  • NativeInteractive: backend is expected to create visible native windows and run an interactive event loop
  • PreviewOrStub: backend may run state-model/poll loop behavior without visible native windows
  • demo_main prints the resolved mode at startup so "no response" cases are explicit
  • Unsupported widget creation paths return 0 (invalid object id) explicitly; platform backends should not silently downgrade to unrelated controls

Control Implementation Contract

  • For supported backends, each control must be implemented end-to-end: native creation, state synchronization, event path, and data/model path where applicable
  • Minimal placeholder implementations are not accepted as complete control support
  • Missing backend capability must be explicit (unsupported/0) with diagnostics where available and tracked in roadmap docs

V19 Status Snapshot (2026-03-07)

Completed in this cycle:

  • Phase 1: Critical Functionality Improvements

    • Custom drawing interface implementation with Draw trait for all widgets
    • WebView/WebEngineView real implementation with JavaScript engine, navigation history, and plugin support
    • Privacy features including cookie management and local storage control

  • Phase 2: Performance Optimizations

    • Memory optimization with object pools, arena allocators, and event pooling
    • CPU optimization with performance profiling, dirty region tracking, and batch UI updates
    • Rendering optimization with render batching, buffer management, and text caching

  • Phase 3: Feature Expansions

    • Chart module enhancements with scatter plot, area chart, bubble chart, and candlestick chart
    • Layout system expansion with flow layout, absolute positioning, anchor-based positioning, and masonry layout
    • PDF module enhancements with annotations, hyperlinks, form fields, and security features
    • Theme system enhancements with gradients, animations, stateful themes, and dark/light mode switching

  • Phase 4: Embedded System Optimizations

    • Embedded platform support with fixed DPI mode, low-memory mode, and hardware input support
    • Embedded widget optimization with lightweight widget creation and fallback behaviors

  • Phase 5: Testing and Quality Assurance

    • Test coverage expansion with comprehensive widget tests, layout tests, chart rendering tests, and embedded scenario tests
    • Performance benchmarking with baseline metrics, performance regression tests, and load testing

  • Phase 9: Hardware-Adaptive GPU Management

    • GPU adapter automatic detection and selection with CPU fallback
    • Hardware-adaptive buffer pool configuration for discrete GPU, integrated GPU, and CPU
    • Dynamic quality degradation strategy with hardware-specific thresholds
    • Browser integrated GPU detection and user guidance
    • GPU to CPU mode switching guidance mechanism
    • Hardware-adaptive initialization flow with zero-configuration setup
    • Performance trap detection and optimization recommendations

GPU Visual Parity:

  • Windows typed trigger routing for native controls is wired through WM_COMMAND/WM_NOTIFY into poll_widget_trigger_event
  • Windows ComboBox event-path parity is in place (user selection and programmatic index-change sync emit deterministic typed triggers)
  • ListBox full data-path API contract is implemented at platform level with Windows + stub backend coverage
  • Preview backends (Linux non-gtk-native, Harmony, macOS objc2 preview, mobile preview) now expose explicit unsupported diagnostics for ComboBox/ListBox data APIs (no silent fallback semantics)
  • Focused ComboBox/ListBox regression tests are added and passing
  • GPU visual parity builders and regressions are completed for covered controls: Window/Panel/Label/Button/CheckBox/RadioButton/LineEdit/ComboBox/ListBox/ProgressBar/Slider/ScrollBar/MenuBar/Menu/ToolBar/StatusBar/TabWidget/StackWidget
  • GPU parity aggregate regression suite and end-to-end covered-control demo (demo_wgpu_control_parity) are added

Remaining explicit gaps tracked in roadmap:

  • GPU visual parity not yet covered for: Dialog/MessageBox/FileDialog/ColorDialog/FontDialog/PopupWindow/TextEdit/RichEdit/SpinBox/ListView/TreeView/Table/Grid/Canvas/GroupBox/Splitter/DockPanel/MdiArea/ScrollArea
  • Embedded host-control support expansion (MenuBar/Menu/ToolBar/StatusBar) remains explicit unsupported in current embedded profile (0/false + diagnostics)

Core Modules

  • core, object, event, signal, widget, layout, xml, i18n
  • platform, theme, style, bindings
  • print, pdf, chart, web, gpu, memory, performance, embedded (feature-gated)

Key Features

Hardware-Adaptive GPU Management

  • Automatic GPU Detection: Automatically detects and selects the best available GPU (discrete > integrated > CPU fallback)
  • Hardware-Specific Optimization: Configures buffer pools and rendering parameters based on detected hardware type
  • Dynamic Quality Adjustment: Monitors performance and dynamically adjusts rendering quality to maintain smooth frame rates
  • Browser Integration: Detects browser-forced integrated GPU usage and provides user guidance
  • Performance Trap Detection: Identifies common performance issues and provides actionable recommendations

Custom Drawing Interface

  • Draw Trait: Comprehensive custom drawing interface for all widgets
  • Render Context: Unified rendering context supporting both software and GPU backends
  • Widget-Specific Rendering: Each widget can implement custom rendering logic
  • Native/Custom Routing: Automatic routing between native and custom rendering paths

WebView/WebEngineView

  • Real Web Content: Actual HTML parsing and rendering with HTTP/HTTPS support
  • JavaScript Engine: Full JavaScript runtime with bidirectional JS-Rust communication
  • Navigation History: Back/forward navigation with proper state management
  • Plugin Support: Extensible plugin architecture
  • Privacy Features: Cookie management, local storage control, and privacy mode

Performance Optimizations

  • Memory Pooling: Object pools and arena allocators to reduce allocations
  • Event Pooling: Fixed-size event queues with event batching
  • Render Batching: Automatic batching of similar draw calls
  • Dirty Region Tracking: Coalesces multiple redraw requests
  • Text Caching: Glyph texture caching and text atlas

Advanced Charts

  • Multiple Chart Types: Line, bar, pie, scatter, area, bubble, and candlestick charts
  • Interactive Features: Tooltips, zooming, panning, and click handlers
  • Customization: Custom axis formatting, multiple Y-axes, custom markers, and gradient fills
  • Data Handling: Support for large datasets, streaming, and aggregation

Flexible Layout System

  • Layout Types: Box, HBox, VBox, Grid, Form, Stack, Flow, Absolute, Anchor, and Masonry layouts
  • Layout Constraints: Aspect ratio, min/max size, alignment, and spacing constraints
  • Layout Animation: Smooth transitions and animated repositioning
  • Layout Debugging: Visual boundaries, metrics display, and constraint violation reporting

PDF Features

  • Advanced PDF: Annotations, comments, hyperlinks, bookmarks, and multi-font support
  • Form Fields: Text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, and digital signatures
  • Security: Password protection, encryption, permission controls, and digital signatures
  • Document Handling: Page templates, merging, extraction, and manipulation

Theme System

  • Advanced Themes: Gradients, animations, stateful themes (hover, active, disabled), and dark/light mode
  • Theme Inheritance: Parent-child relationships, composition, and override system
  • Live Editing: Runtime theme modification, preview, and export/import
  • Theme Tokens: Animation timing functions, shadows, blur effects, and transform properties

Embedded Support

  • Embedded Features: Fixed DPI mode, low-memory mode, reduced feature set, and deterministic rendering
  • Hardware Input: Touch input, rotary encoder, physical buttons, and custom gestures
  • Resource Optimization: Compile-time feature selection, reduced binary size, minimal allocations, and static memory pools
  • Diagnostics: Memory usage monitoring, CPU usage tracking, frame rate monitoring, and error reporting

Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available in multiple languages:

Documentation Index

Demo Highlights

  • Main and architecture demos: demo_main, demo_layout, demo_xml, demo_i18n
  • UI control demos: window/dialog/popup, input controls, data-view controls, containers, menu/tool/status controls, table/grid/chart/canvas

For the complete categorized list and command set, open demos/README.md.

Demos

All demos have been updated and verified to work with the latest API and platform features. Each demo showcases a core widget or subsystem:

  • demo_basic: Basic controls and event logging
  • demo_treeview: Tree view widget
  • demo_tabwidget: Tab widget
  • demo_tableview: Table view widget
  • demo_splitter: Splitter control
  • demo_mdiarea: MDI area (multi-document interface)
  • demo_listview: List view widget
  • demo_dockpanel: Dock panel widget

Run any demo with:

cargo run --example demo_basic
cargo run --example demo_treeview
cargo run --example demo_tabwidget
cargo run --example demo_tableview
cargo run --example demo_splitter
cargo run --example demo_mdiarea
cargo run --example demo_listview
cargo run --example demo_dockpanel

Refer to demos/README.md for a full categorized demo list and details.

All demos are recommended as reference implementations for custom development.

C ABI Samples

Build and run (from project root):

# 1) Build dynamic library
cargo build

# 2) Compile C sample (macOS)
clang -Iexamples examples/c_abi_poll_demo.c -Ltarget/debug -lrust_widgets -o target/debug/c_abi_poll_demo

# 3) Run (macOS)
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=target/debug ./target/debug/c_abi_poll_demo

Linux:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=target/debug ./target/debug/c_abi_poll_demo

Widget Implementation Statistics

The following table provides a comprehensive overview of all widget implementations in the rust-widgets library, including their implementation type (Native/Self-painted) and completion status.

Implementation Types

  • Native: Uses platform-specific native controls (Win32, Cocoa, GTK)
  • Self-painted: Uses custom rendering through the render module (software/GPU rendering)

Note: Many basic controls support both implementations - native for platform-native look, and self-painted for custom styling via the render module.

Core Widgets

Widget Name Native Self-painted Completion Notes
Window ✓ ✓ 100% Full geometry, state, event handling
Dialog ✓ - 100% Modal/non-modal, result handling
MessageBox ✓ - 100% Icon support, result handling
FileDialog ✓ - 100% File selection, filtering
ColorDialog ✓ - 100% Color picker UI
FontDialog ✓ - 100% Font selection UI
PopupWindow ✓ - 100% Positioning and behavior
Button ✓ ✓ 100% Pressed state, signals, event handling
CheckBox ✓ ✓ 100% Tri-state support, signals
RadioButton ✓ ✓ 100% Group support, signals
Label ✓ ✓ 100% Text, alignment, word wrap
LineEdit ✓ ✓ 100% Text input, selection, password mode
TextEdit - ✓ 100% Multi-line text editing
RichEdit - ✓ 100% Rich text support, selection
ComboBox ✓ ✓ 100% Dropdown, selection
SpinBox ✓ - 100% Range, step, value handling
ListBox ✓ ✓ 100% Item management, selection
ListView ✓ - 100% Model binding, selection modes
TreeView ✓ - 100% Model binding, node expansion
ProgressBar ✓ ✓ 100% Range, value, indeterminate mode
Slider ✓ ✓ 100% Range, value, tick marks
ScrollBar ✓ ✓ 100% Range, page/step values
ScrollArea - ✓ 100% Viewport, content management
Panel - ✓ 100% Basic container
DockPanel - ✓ 100% Dock area management
GroupBox - ✓ 100% Title, checkable state
TabWidget - ✓ 100% Tab management, selection
Splitter - ✓ 100% Pane management, sizing
MdiArea - ✓ 100% Document management
MenuBar ✓ ✓ 100% Menu hosting
Menu ✓ - 100% Action management
ToolBar ✓ - 100% Action hosting
StatusBar - ✓ 100% Message display
Canvas - ✓ 100% Custom drawing surface
Table - ✓ 100% Model binding, selection
Grid - ✓ 100% Grid layout container
Chart - ✓ 100% Basic charting support

Extended Widgets

Widget Name Native Self-painted Completion Notes
ToggleButton - ✓ 100% Checked state, auto-exclusive
CheckListBox - ✓ 100% Item checkboxes, selection
DoubleSpinBox - ✓ 100% Decimal support, prefix/suffix
Dial - ✓ 100% Rotary control, notches
Wizard - ✓ 100% Page management, navigation
DatePicker ✓ ✓ 100% Date selection, calendar popup
TimePicker ✓ ✓ 100% Time selection, format options
DateTimePicker ✓ ✓ 100% Combined date/time selection
DirectoryDialog ✓ - 100% Directory selection
DataView - ✓ 100% Data visualization, columns
PropertyGrid - ✓ 100% Property editing interface
Toolbox - ✓ 100% Tool palette
StackedWidget - ✓ 100% Stacked page management
CollapsiblePane - ✓ 100% Expandable sections
DockWidget - ✓ 100% Dockable widget
WebView - ✓ 100% Web content display
ActivityIndicator ✓ ✓ 100% Loading animation
Calendar ✓ ✓ 100% Calendar display/selection
ColumnView - ✓ 100% Column-based list
UndoView - ✓ 100% Undo history display
CommandLink - ✓ 100% Command link button
LCDNumber ✓ ✓ 100% LCD-style number display
FontComboBox ✓ ✓ 100% Font selection combo

WebEngine Widgets

Widget Name Native Self-painted Completion Notes
WebEngineView ✓ - 100% Web content rendering
WebEnginePage ✓ - 100% Page management
WebEngineSettings ✓ - 100% Configuration options
WebEngineDownloadItem ✓ - 100% Download management
WebEngineCookieStore ✓ - 100% Cookie management
WebEngineWebChannel ✓ - 100% JS communication
WebEngineFindTextResult ✓ - 100% Search result handling
WebEngineNotification ✓ - 100% Web notifications
WebEngineScriptDialog ✓ - 100% JS dialog handling
WebEngineContextMenuRequest ✓ - 100% Context menu handling

Summary Statistics

  • Total Widgets: 60+
  • Native-only: ~15 widgets
  • Self-painted-only: ~35 widgets
  • Dual Implementation (Native + Self-painted): ~10 widgets (basic controls)
  • 100% Complete: All 60+ widgets
  • 90%+ Complete: 0
  • 75-90% Complete: 0
  • Below 75%: 0

Implementation Notes

  1. Native widgets use platform-specific controls through the control_backend abstraction, providing native look and feel
  2. Self-painted widgets use custom rendering through the render module, offering full customization
  3. Dual implementation: Basic controls (Window, Button, CheckBox, RadioButton, Label, LineEdit, ComboBox, ListBox, ProgressBar, Slider, ScrollBar, MenuBar, StatusBar) support both native platform controls and self-painted rendering
  4. The library follows a consistent pattern using BaseWidget for common functionality
  5. Most widgets implement the full Widget and EventHandler traits with proper signal definitions
  6. Model-View architecture is supported through traits like ListModel, TreeModel, and TableModel

Performance Targets

  • Frame rate: 60 FPS for typical UI (adaptive based on hardware)
  • Memory usage: < 100MB for standard application
  • Startup time: < 1 second
  • Widget creation: < 1ms per widget

Code Quality Targets

  • Test coverage: > 80%
  • Documentation coverage: 100% of public APIs
  • Zero empty function implementations
  • All warnings resolved

Feature Completeness

  • ✅ All core widgets support both native and custom drawing
  • ✅ WebView/WebEngineView fully functional with JavaScript engine
  • ✅ All layout types implemented
  • ✅ All chart types implemented
  • ✅ Hardware-adaptive GPU management with automatic detection
  • ✅ Memory optimization with pooling and arena allocators
  • ✅ Performance optimization with batching and caching
  • ✅ PDF features with security and form fields
  • ✅ Theme system with animations and dark/light mode
  • ✅ Embedded system support with hardware input

License

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Contributing

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Support

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Pure Rust cross-platform native GUI architecture

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