JX emits native Windows window apps from PHP page declarations.

Overview

JX native window C emission is a direct static generation workflow. PHP is used as a declaration source, not as a browser page and not as a WebView wrapper. The emitted C file contains the native window renderer, embedded page data, optional embedded CSS, optional bundled assets, and a small localhost API surface.

The resulting executable opens a native Win32/GDI window. It does not require Edge WebView2, Chromium, Electron, a browser, or a PHP runtime for the static jx_* page emission path.

Requirements

• JX built from src/native/jx.c.
• GCC or MinGW-w64.
• On Windows/MSYS2: C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin\gcc.exe.
• Windows libraries: ws2_32, gdi32, and user32.

Basic Workflow

Emit C from a PHP declaration page:

jx -o out.c in.php

After successful emission, JX prints the follow-up GCC command. Use that command as the canonical next step, especially when the generated file or output executable names differ from the examples below.

Compile Command

gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -mwindows -I . -o out.exe out.c -lws2_32 -lgdi32 -luser32

PowerShell Example

Windows PowerShell using MSYS2 UCRT64 GCC:

$gcc = "C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin\gcc.exe"

# Build JX from native source.
& $gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -I . -o jx.exe src/native/jx.c

# Emit generated C from the PHP page declaration file.
.\jx.exe -o out.c examples\native_window_input.php

# Compile the native Win32/GDI executable.
& $gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -mwindows -I . -o out.exe out.c -lws2_32 -lgdi32 -luser32

# Run it.
.\out.exe

Linux/WSL Cross-Compile Example

From Linux or WSL, use MinGW-w64 to build a Windows executable:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y gcc mingw-w64

# Build the local JX emitter.
gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -I . -o jx src/native/jx.c

# Emit generated C.
./jx -o out.c examples/native_window_input.php

# Cross-compile a Windows executable.
x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -mwindows -I . -o out.exe out.c -lws2_32 -lgdi32 -luser32

jx_* Page Declarations

Localhost API

When local API support is enabled, the native executable exposes localhost endpoints for inspecting and updating the compiled window state.

curl http://127.0.0.1:7878/json

Example Input

The main example is expected at:

examples/native_window_input.php

A short annotated shape:

<?php
// Native window text.
jx_page_title("JX Native Window Demo");
jx_page_badge("native-win32");
jx_page_body("Generated C rendered by a native Win32/GDI executable.");

// Modal content.
jx_modal_title("About this executable");
jx_modal_body("This is not a WebView and does not open a browser.");

// Iframe/island payload metadata.
jx_iframe_title("Embedded Island");
jx_iframe_html("<h1>Island payload</h1>");

// Compiled JSON attachment returned by /json.
jx_page_json('{"engine":"jx","target":"native-window-c"}');

// Enable localhost bridge endpoints.
jx_local_api(true);

CSS

If a sibling style.css exists next to the PHP input file, JX infers it and embeds it into the generated C. This keeps the generated native executable self-contained for the static page assets it knows how to bundle.

examples/native_window_input.php
examples/style.css

jx -o out.c examples/native_window_input.php

Includes, Requires, CSS Images

Bridge-mode bundling supports static quoted relative PHP includes:

• include
• include_once
• require
• require_once

JX can also bundle assets referenced by CSS url(...) and quoted image paths when they are static, quoted, and relative to the page being emitted. The single-executable page example is expected at:

examples/single_exe_page/page.php

Example shape:

<?php
require_once "partials/header.php";
include "partials/body.php";

jx_page_title("Single EXE page");
jx_page_body("Includes and relative assets can be bundled into generated C.");

Troubleshooting

Winsock linker errors

undefined reference to __imp_socket
undefined reference to __imp_WSAStartup

This means -lws2_32 is missing or appears before out.c. Re-run the compile with libraries at the end:

gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -mwindows -I . -o out.exe out.c -lws2_32 -lgdi32 -luser32

What This Is Not

• It is not a WebView wrapper.
• It is not opening a browser.
• It is a native Win32/GDI window renderer.
• PHP runtime bridging is separate from native jx_* page emission.

Verification

End-to-end smoke path:

# 1. Build JX.
gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -I . -o jx src/native/jx.c

# 2. Emit C.
./jx -o out.c examples/native_window_input.php

# 3. Compile EXE.
x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -mwindows -I . -o out.exe out.c -lws2_32 -lgdi32 -luser32

# 4. Run the EXE on Windows.
./out.exe

# 5. Query compiled JSON while the EXE is running.
curl http://127.0.0.1:7878/json

For the long-form repo documentation, see native-window-c-emission.md.