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Your First Boden Application

To create your first Boden app, open up a terminal (or command prompt), change to your local boden directory, and execute the following commands:

python boden.py new -n AwesomeApp
cd AwesomeApp
python ../boden.py open

This will create a new folder named AwesomeApp and generate source and project files for a simple Hello World cross-platform application. The last command will prepare and open an Xcode project on the Mac or an Android Studio project on Linux/Windows.

In Xcode, select the AwesomeApp target and then press Cmd+R to build and run the Hello World application.

In Android Studio, wait for Gradle to finish its sync and configuration processes and then select the bodendemo target and press Cmd+R to build and run the example application, then select the AwesomeApp target and then press Ctrl+R on Mac or Shift+F10 on Linux/Windows to build an run the Hello World application.

Note

On macOS and Linux you can also simply type ./boden instead of calling python boden.py explicitly. If you want to build the Android version of the app on macOS, run ../boden open -p android.

Hello World

Here's a quick look at the source code generated by the boden new command:

// MainViewController.cpp
#include <bdn/ui.h>
#include <bdn/ui/yoga.h>

#include "MainViewController.h"

using namespace bdn;
using namespace bdn::ui;

MainViewController::MainViewController()
{
    _window = std::make_shared<Window>();
    _window->title = "AwesomeApp";
    _window->geometry = Rect{0, 0, 400, 300};
    _window->setLayout(std::make_shared<yoga::Layout>());

    auto button = std::make_shared<Button>();
    button->label = "Hello World";

    _window->contentView = button;

    _window->visible = true;
}

MainViewController.cpp is the most interesting part of the source generated for the Hello World application. The main view controller will be instantiated at application launch. It's responsible for setting up the application's user interface.

Here's what the code does in detail:

First, create a new Window and set its title to AwesomeApp:

_window = std::make_shared<Window>();
_window->title = "AwesomeApp";

To get an automatic layout, use a yogalayout::Layout and set a default window size:

_window->geometry = Rect{0, 0, 400, 300};
_window->setLayout(std::make_shared<yoga::Layout>());

Then, instantiate a new Button and set its label to "Hello World":

auto button = std::make_shared<Button>();
button->label = "Hello World";

As the button is the only control which will be displayed in this example, set it as the window's content view:

_window->contentView = button;

Finally, make the window visible:

_window->visible = true;

TodoMVC Tutorial

Want to learn more? Check out our TodoMVC Tutorial on Medium!

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