Change project initialization to not require wails binary

[mpldr]

One of the great features Go has is go run. With this it is possible to run wails without having a binary in the path for other projects which are not using it. (muscle memory makes me type wails build anyways)

I would like to propose a --go-run flag which does the following:

• create a tools.go (see below for explanation)
• create a Makefile or a build.sh

tools.go

This file has the contents:

//go:build ignore

package main

import _ "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails"

This pins the wails version and it ensures that wails is not removed from the dependencies when running go mod tidy, otherwise there might be dependency issues. It also allows for multiple projects to use different versions (for example, a hobby project might use a more up-to-date version of wails than a work project)

Makefile/build.sh

If make is available, create a Makefile wrapping the most common functions:

GO ?= $(shell which go || echo go)
WAILS := $(GO) run github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails

build:
	$(WAILS) build

dev:
	$(WAILS) dev

If make is not found within the path, a simple build.sh achieving the same can be generated. The reason for this is simply because nobody wants to type the import path every time they want to run it.

Updating wails

Wails can now be updated for just this project the same way all other Go packages are updated and there is no chance of a developer using a wrong version.

[leaanthony]

Thanks for opening this. Some of this will be addressed in as-of-yet unannounced v3 👍

[leaanthony]

Yeah, I'm literally looking at that now. Static analysis is hard 😅

[mpldr]

Right now it's simply not possible to write a makefile for wails, as the build steps are not atomic.

[mpldr]

To elaborate: the wails build command performs most of the steps internally (npm build, binding generation, compiling), some of which are just not part of the build process (go mod tidy)

[mpldr]

While I do understand the appeal, this is also pretty limiting.

[leaanthony]

Correct

[johnmaguire]

Currently v3 is also incompatible with this flow. See this closed (but valid) bug for details.