Installation¶

The nativella command opens a PHP project in a window, and builds it into a standalone executable. It carries its own PHP: nothing else to install, apart from the webview of the system on Linux. The releases have it for Linux x86_64 and macOS arm64.

Download¶

Linux x86_64¶

The executable needs glibc 2.35 or later, and the webview of the system, WebKitGTK 4.1, which it loads when it starts: a library to run it, not to build anything. The standalone executables it builds need the same. Install the webview of your distribution:

Elsewhere, install the WebKitGTK 4.1 package of the distribution. RHEL, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux 9 have glibc 2.34: the releases do not run there. Without the library of the tray, an application stops when it shows its tray icon.

Then the command:

curl -fLo nativella https://github.com/lyrixx/nativella/releases/latest/download/nativella-linux-x86_64
chmod +x nativella
sudo mv nativella /usr/local/bin/

macOS arm64¶

curl -fLo nativella https://github.com/lyrixx/nativella/releases/latest/download/nativella-macos-aarch64
chmod +x nativella
sudo mv nativella /usr/local/bin/

The executable is not signed: downloaded with a browser, it is quarantined, and xattr -d com.apple.quarantine nativella lets it run.

What is inside¶

The executable carries PHP 8.5, linked statically, built with static-php-cli, with the extensions a Symfony, Laravel or Doctrine application needs: see Building for the list. The PHP of the machine, if any, is only for your project: Composer, the console. Check that it runs:

nativella --version

nativella --help lists the commands: run opens a project in a window, build makes a standalone executable of it, licenses prints the licenses of the software the executable contains, PHP and its libraries included.

The PHP package¶

The native APIs are a Composer package, nativella/nativella. The Symfony bundle and the Laravel package require it: add the one your application needs.

composer require nativella/symfony-bundle   # Symfony
composer require nativella/laravel          # Laravel
composer require nativella/nativella        # plain PHP, or another framework

Symfony, Laravel and Plain PHP go on from there.

Composer writes a constraint such as ^0.3, which stays on 0.3.x: before 1.0, a minor version can break things. The packages and the nativella command are released together, with the same version number: upgrade them together.

To work on Nativella itself, the demos of the repository take the packages from packages/ through a path repository: see Developing Nativella.

Try it without the package¶

nativella run serves any PHP application, package or not. Without the package you get a window, but no native API. It is a good first check:

nativella run path/to/your/app

Build from source¶

The releases are built from the repository, with its Docker stack: castor static-php:build builds the static PHP, castor nativella:build links dist/nativella against it. See Developing Nativella.

Other platforms¶

On macOS, the CI builds Nativella and runs its tests and the demos, without a window: nobody has opened one there yet. Windows is untested: the code has the platform switches Tauri needs (pages are served from http://php.localhost/ instead of php://localhost/), but nobody has built Nativella there yet. It would need PHP for Windows, static or as a library, and WebView2, which ships with Windows 11. Reports and patches are welcome.

On Android, nativella android makes the APK of a project from the template APK of its release; on iOS, nativella ios makes an app for the simulator, or, untested, for devices, from a template app of its release. See Mobile.