Excited to share our new app and web dotnet tools which are packed with features around making it easy to create, run, discover, install, update and publish .NET Core Windows Applications.
Basically you can run existing .NET Core Apps within a Windows Desktop Application that renders it within a Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) browser with:
$ app MyApp.dll
For better integration you can create a Desktop Shortcut with:
$ app shortcut MyApp.dll
Whilst it’s useful for all .NET Core Apps, it’s especially suited for ServiceStack Web Apps where it greatly simplifies the development model, discovery and distribution of your published App. E.g. you can install a local Redis Admin UI with:
$ app install redis
and then run it by double-clicking the generated Desktop Shortcut.
It also supports multiple publishing options where you can package your App with the app binaries into a xcopy-able folder with:
$ app publish
Or you can bundle .NET Core with your App by creating a self-contained .NET Core App with:
$ app publish
Please check the Release Notes for tonnes of other features which also includes a step-by-step guide for creating a SVG “Spirals” Desktop App where all development happens whilst the App is running in real-time: