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Getting Started

This guide walks you through installing InfiniFrame and creating your first native desktop window

Contents​

Prerequisites​

  • .NET 8 SDK or later (.NET 8, 9, and 10 are all supported)
  • A console or class library project targeting net8.0, net9.0, or net10.0

Platform-specific requirements​

PlatformRequirement
WindowsWebView2 Runtime — pre-installed on Windows 11; available as a redistributable for Windows 10
Linuxwebkit2gtk-4.0 and libgtk-3-dev installed via your package manager
macOSmacOS 10.15 Catalina or later (WKWebView is built into the OS)

Choose Your Integration​

InfiniFrame supports three integration models depending on your use case:

Use CasePackage
Load a URL or HTML string in a windowInfiniLore.InfiniFrame
Run a Blazor app inside a native window (no server)InfiniLore.InfiniFrame.BlazorWebView
Run an ASP.NET Core web app with a native windowInfiniLore.InfiniFrame.WebServer

Option 1 — Core Window​

Install​

dotnet add package InfiniLore.InfiniFrame

Create a window​

using InfiniFrame;

// Create and configure the window
var window = InfiniFrameWindowBuilder.Create()
    .SetTitle("Hello, InfiniFrame")
    .SetSize(1280, 720)
    .Center()
    .SetStartUrl("https://example.com")
    .Build();

// Block until the user closes the window
window.WaitForClose();

The window opens immediately when Build() is called and runs on the current thread WaitForClose() blocks until the native window is destroyed

Windows: WebView2 requires the calling thread to be STA (single-threaded apartment). Add [STAThread] to your Main method. Top-level statements do not support [STAThread] directly — use an explicit static void Main() instead. Calling Build() on a non-STA thread will throw an InvalidOperationException

Single-file/native packaging bootstrap​

If you package your app with embedded native binaries (for example via InfiniLore.InfiniFrame.Tools.Pack), initialize the single-file bootstrap before building your first window:

using InfiniFrame;

public static class Program {
    [STAThread]
    public static void Main(string[] args) {
        InfiniFrameSingleFileBootstrap.Initialize();

        var window = InfiniFrameWindowBuilder.Create()
            .SetTitle("Hello, InfiniFrame")
            .SetSize(1280, 720)
            .Center()
            .SetStartUrl("https://example.com")
            .Build();

        window.WaitForClose();
    }
}

You only need this for packaged outputs that embed native runtime files as resources. Standard development runs (dotnet run) do not require it.

Option 2 — Blazor WebView​

This integration runs a Blazor application entirely in-process — no server, no HTTP port

Install​

dotnet add package InfiniLore.InfiniFrame.BlazorWebView

Project setup​

Your project must use Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Razor and have a wwwroot/ folder with index.html

A minimal index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <base href="/" />
</head>
<body>
    <div id="app">Loading...</div>
    <div id="blazor-error-ui">An error has occurred.</div>
    <script src="_framework/blazor.webview.js" autostart="false"></script>
</body>
</html>

Program.cs​

using InfiniFrame.BlazorWebView;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

var builder = InfiniFrameBlazorAppBuilder.CreateDefault(args, w => w
    .SetTitle("My Blazor App")
    .SetSize(1280, 720)
    .Center()
);

// Register your services
builder.Services.AddSingleton<MyService>();

// Register root Blazor components
builder.RootComponents.Add<App>("#app");
builder.RootComponents.Add<HeadOutlet>("head::after");

builder.Build().Run();

Service access in components​

IInfiniFrameWindow is automatically registered in the DI container so you can inject it directly into any Blazor component or service:

@inject IInfiniFrameWindow Window

<button @onclick="() => Window.Close()">Exit</button>

Option 3 — Web Server​

This integration starts an ASP.NET Core web server in a background thread and opens a native window pointing at it — ideal when you want the full ASP.NET Core pipeline (middleware, controllers, SignalR, etc.)

Install​

dotnet add package InfiniLore.InfiniFrame.WebServer

Program.cs​

using InfiniFrame.WebServer;

var app = InfiniFrameWebApplication.CreateBuilder(args)
    .Build()
    .UseAutoServerClose();

// Configure the ASP.NET Core pipeline on app.WebApp
app.WebApp.UseRouting();
app.WebApp.MapGet("/", () => "Hello from InfiniFrame");

app.Run();

The start URL is automatically read from ASPNETCORE_URLS or the urls configuration key UseAutoServerClose() ensures the server shuts down gracefully when the window is closed

Next Steps​