Electron app with dotnet dynamic

[dashkan]

Great project. Keep up the great work!!

I got native aot working w/ electron without much fuss. Now I am trying to get dynamic dotnet working. I first hit the asar issue which makes sense as dotnet is not equipped to read files inside asar. I turned off asar in my electron-build config and now met with the following error:

> NativeHost.InitializeModule(13C000F00E0, 13C007506F0)
< NativeHost.InitializeModule()
> NativeHost.InitializeManagedHost(net8.0, /Users/ashkan/Projects/my-app/release/2.2.0/mac-arm64/my-app.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/node-api-dotnet/net8.0/Microsoft.JavaScript.NodeApi.DotNetHost.dll)
    Initializing .NET 8.0
> NativeHost.InitializeManagedRuntime(/Users/ashkan/Projects/my-app/release/2.2.0/mac-arm64/my-app.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/node-api-dotnet/net8.0/Microsoft.JavaScript.NodeApi.runtimeconfig.json)
> HostFxr.Initialize()
    .NET root: ./release/2.2.0/mac-arm64/my-app.app/Contents/Frameworks/dotnet.framework/
    HostFxr path: ./release/2.2.0/mac-arm64/my-app.app/Contents/Frameworks/dotnet.framework/host/fxr/8.0.11/libhostfxr.dylib
< HostFxr.Initialize()
    Initializing runtime...
< NativeHost.InitializeManagedRuntime()
    Getting runtime load-assembly delegate...
    Loading managed host type: Microsoft.JavaScript.NodeApi.DotNetHost.ManagedHost, Microsoft.JavaScript.NodeApi.DotNetHost, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null
Failed to initialize managed host: System.Exception: Failed to load managed host assembly. HRESULT: 0x80131509
   at Microsoft.JavaScript.NodeApi.DotNetHost.NativeHost.CheckStatus(HostFxr.hostfxr_status, String) + 0x278
   at Microsoft.JavaScript.NodeApi.DotNetHost.NativeHost.InitializeDotNetHost(Version, String, JSValue, JSValue) + 0x320
   at Microsoft.JavaScript.NodeApi.DotNetHost.NativeHost.InitializeManagedHost(JSCallbackArgs args) + 0x608
< NativeHost.InitializeManagedHost()

AOT typescript code that works

import { Example } from "aot-npm-package"

const result = Example.hello(".NET AOT")
// console.log(process.env)
console.log(result)

dotnet dynamic code that fails

import dotnet from "node-api-dotnet";
const Console = dotnet.System.Console;
Console.WriteLine('Hello from DYNAMIC .NET!');

A couple of notes:

• Works fine w/ vite dev mode
• I have tried using with and without setting DOTNET_ROOT. Same error except the path to .NET root is different.

Any help is greatly appreciated

[dashkan]

Never mind.

I was able to solve my issue by using the following settings in electron-builder.json

  "asar": true,
  "extraResources": [
    {
      "from": "node_modules/node-api-dotnet",
      "to": "node_modules/node-api-dotnet",
      "filter": ["**/*"]
    }
  ],
  "files": [
    "dist-electron",
    "dist",
    {
      "filter": "!node_modules/node-api-dotnet/**/*"
    }
  ]

I explicitly exclude node_modules/node-api-dotnet and copy it to the resource directory using extraResources. I am also able to continue using asar.

I am also copying dotnet 8 framework into the output if anybody is interested in that:

  "mac": {
    "artifactName": "${productName}_${version}.${ext}",
    "extraFiles": [
      {
        "from": "dotnet/dotnet-sdk-8.0.404-osx-${arch}",
        "to": "Frameworks/dotnet.framework/dotnet-sdk-8.0.404-osx-${arch}",
        "filter": ["**/*"]
      }
    ],
    "target": [
      "dmg",
      "zip"
    ]
  },