Desktop-CGI is a desktop executable app that can be created from any CGI files or CGI web apps that can be served from an file, an embedded web server using proxy, or an remote proxy web server. It supports embedding and managing embeddable databases and executables. It supports all major Operating systems supported by electron like Windows, Linux, and MacOS supported by Electron.

[Funding Invited]

[Team and Community Managers Invited]

Desktop-CGI can serve any CGI files, OR CGI / Scripted / Interpreted languages like PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl, JSP, ASPX, Other Interpreted Languages through embedded webservers (along with embedded databases or embedded executables), OR any remote proxy (any protocol / webserver) apps using the cgifiles, processes, and the proxy modules respectively.

Desktop-CGI runs an Electron - Node - Express based application under the hood and supports major Operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac or any operating systems supported by Electron.

• Generate the executable using shell scripts
  • Download and Install Dependencies using shell scripts
  • Run the setup.bat or setup.ps1 in Windows or setup.sh in linux/ mac to download dependencies and set up the repository
    • Following steps are run when the setup shell command is run
      • Install node.js from https://www.nodejs.org.
      • (A) Golang for wails based, (B) Rust for tauri based, and (C) nodejs and electron for electron based
      • Other dependencies
        • For base-electron: Install dependencies
        • For base-wails: Install GoLang and dependencies
        • For base-tauri: Install dependencies
      • Clone the Git repository (Alternatively, download the git repository)
      • Change to the git repository directory / folder cd path/to/desktop-cgi from command line / shell / powershell
      • Setup the repository for creation of executables with all needed dependencies
  • Run the genexe.bat (win) or genexe.sh (linux/ mac) with its arguments as needed for www, config folder and other arguments to generate the executable as needed
• Generate the executable using docker command
  • Run the docker run command with its arguments as needed for www, config folder and other arguments to generate the executable as needed

The Desktop-CGI based executable can be created using electron, wails (todo), and tauri (todo) and your own web application made from any web scripting language of your choice.

• [P] Multiple Executable Build/ Generation formats
  • [P] Electron
  • [T] Wails
  • [T] Tauri
• [P] Multiple Languages Support for Hybrid Apps
  • [D] PHP
  • [D] Nodejs
  • [D] JSP
  • [D] ASPX
  • [D] Ruby
  • [D] Perl
  • [P] Binary Executable based web apps
    • [P] Java
    • [P] GoLang
• [P] Multiple Modes
  • [D] File Access/ Execution
  • [D] Proxy for Web App
  • [P] Web Server
    • [P] Direct Access
    • [P] Proxy Access
• [P] Multiple Bases
  • [P] Nodejs - Express
  • [T] Nodejs - Extendible Other frameworks
• [P] Multiple (Embedded: E) Server Options
  • [D] Remote Server (using proxy)
  • [P] (E) Nginx
  • [P] (E) Apache
  • [P] (E) Mongoose
  • [P] (E) Putty
  • [P] (E) Tomcat
  • [T] (E) Nodejs Server
  • [T] (E) Loadbalanced Nodejs Server
• [P] Multiple (Embedded: E) Database Options
  • [P] (E) SQLite
  • [P] (E) MySQL
  • [P] (E) Maria DB
  • [P] (E) Postgres
  • [P] (E) MongoDB
  • [P] (E) Redis
  • [P] (E) Others (Extendable)
• [P] Multiple Embedding Options
  • [P] Any (E) executable
  • [P] Binary Executable based web apps
    • [P] Java
    • [P] GoLang

The functionality details are as follows:

• You should be able to run all files created from php, aspx, jsp, nodejs, python, ruby, perl or other scripting languages of your choice using the cgifiles definition section of the config file.
• You should also be able to run and manage other executable binaries like web server, message queues or databases for any of your requirements using the processes definition section of the config file.
• It pipes web applications created from php, aspx, jsp, nodejs, python, ruby, perl or other scripting languages of your choice using a embedded web server of your choice using the processes definition section of the config file.
• If your web application is a binary executable that serves an entire web application and web server on its own like golang, c++/ c, or a java based executable the Desktop-CGI can manage this as an embedded binary using the processes and the proxies definition sections of the config file.
• Creation of an electron or wails based executable can be as simple as creating your config.json file, specifying the www, binaries resources folder, and running the genexe script or docker command.

• Desktop-CGI uses any nodejs framework along with cgijs to serve any CGI file, web apps, local/ remote proxies to create a native-like desktop executable.
• cgijs is Nodejs package which is framework independent / agnostic for serving CGI or interpreted scripting apps via files, or server based web apps via proxies.
  • Express Recommended and used for demo.
  • Any other Nodejs framework like koa, fastify, etc can be used to create similar cgijs based applications. cgijs is framework independent and agnostic.
• Allows running any interpreted script files that supports CGI based file script serving - using cgijs file module
• Allows running any host that serves a web app - using cgijs proxy module
  • In App / Local / Remote proxy support
• Allows embedding servers like httpd, nginx, etc to serve web applications - using cgijs process module
• Allows embedding database servers (in development) - using cgijs process module
• Allows embedding executables (in development) - using cgijs process module
• Allows
  • running multiple language interpreters in one app
  • running multiple proxies (currently http, websockets. Other protocols like tcp, udp, grpc, sockets planned) in one app
  • managing multiple embedded (http) servers in one app
  • managing multiple embedded executables in one app

• Python (2.x, 3.x)
• Perl (Version Independent)
• PHP (Version Independent)
• Ruby (Version Independent)

• Jsp (With Tomcat embedded)
• Aspx (Version Independent - With local IIS proxy, Apache embedded)
• Any app using local / remote proxy (currently http, websockets. tcp, udp, grpc, socket planned)

• Apache HTTPD (Allows Embed & Proxy)
• Apache TomCat (Allows Embed & Proxy)
• Nginx (Allows Embed & Proxy)
• Mongoose http server (Allows Embed & Proxy)

The script can proxy to any File, most embeddable web servers, and/ or Proxy-able local / remote servers; even IIS Server (Allows Proxy)

• Library dependencies:

  • Nodejs: (> 8.x)

• Application Dependencies:

  • cgi-js: (>=1.1.0)
  • electron": (>=18.1.0)
  • relevant compiling packages

• Application Demo Dependencies:

  • body-parser: (>=1.20.0)
  • ejs: (>=3.1.7)
  • express: (>=4.18.0)
  • fsevents: (>=2.3.2)
  • socket.io: (>=4.5.0)
  • ws: (>=8.5.0)

... * Technical specifications to be added

... * Wiki link to be added

In active development

You can track development status here desktop-cgi/projects

Facebook, Quora, Github Discussion

Raise an Issue or Contribute. Active Contributors are invited.

Check file - .todo

Electron Application Distribution

Wails Application Distribution

Tauri Application Distribution

The MIT License (MIT) - See LICENSE for further details

Copyright © 2019 - till library works: Ganesh B desktopcgi@gmail.com

The project is intended to be maintained seriously.