Build a Feathers UI project as a Windows app
Feathers UI may be used to build desktop applications targeting Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Prerequisites
In addition to the dependencies specified in the Feathers UI installation instructions, building a Windows application with Feathers UI has some additional requirements.
- A computer running Microsoft Windows. Windows apps cannot be built on other operating systems, such as macOS or Linux.
- Install Visual Studio. The Community edition is free.
Build
To build for the windows target, run the following command.
openfl build windows
Use the -debug flag to create a build to include extra debugging information, including full stack traces when there's an exception or crash.
openfl build windows -debug
The build's output will be written to the bin/windows/bin folder.
Your project.xml file may optionally specify an output folder different from bin.
<app path="Export"/>In the example above, the output would be generated in Export/windows/bin instead.
Run / Debug
OpenFL provides the test command to compile and launch your project executable on Windows.
openfl test windows
Troubleshooting
App executable crashes without exception, and a try/catch around the line where it happens has no effect when targeting C++ for Windows, macOS, or Linux
Haxe's cpp target is stricter than other Haxe targets when you try to access a field or method on a null value. Instead of throwing an exception, a Haxe C++ app immediately crashes — with no way to recover, not even with try/catch. However, it is possible to enable a flag to force Haxe's C++ target to behave more like other targets. Add the following define to your OpenFL project.xml file, and then create a new build with the -clean command line option (or delete your output directory before building).
<haxedef name="HXCPP_CHECK_POINTER" />
Using HXCPP_CHECK_POINTER may add some overhead that could negatively affect performance. It may be a good idea to enable it temporarily for debugging purposes, fix the issue, and then disable it again.
Did you get some other error message that you don't understand?
Configuring OpenFL to build for native targets, like Windows or macOS, can be a little tricky! Head over to either the Feathers UI community forum or the Feathers UI Discord. Explain which command you tried to run, be sure to mention that you are targeting windows, and post the error message (and any additional relevant output). Ideally, we can help you figure out a solution, and then we'll also add it to this troubleshooting section, so that everyone can benefit.