Core API

Explains how to start JadeView, and what each field of the two structs used when creating a window controls respectively. Other functions are organized into separate sections on the left.

Lifecycle and Startup

Initialize the runtime (JadeView_init)

Purpose: Start the library's internal GUI thread and event loop, and register what your application is called, where its data goes, and whether it should be single-instance. After a successful call, you still need to wait for the app-ready event before creating windows or using the local protocol.

int32_t JadeView_init(
  int32_t enable_devmod,
  const char* log_path,
  const char* data_directory,
  const char* app_name,
  const char* app_signature,
  int32_t single_instance
);

What you receive in app-ready

The event_data format differs between success and failure (success is JSON, failure is plain text), so decide success solely by window_id == 1 — do not rely on parsing event_data:

A crash during runtime does not go through app-ready; it is reported via the separate crash event.

Call jade_on("app-ready", ...) before JadeView_init, otherwise you will miss the first notification.

Run the message loop (run_message_loop)

Purpose: May be used in the legacy integration approach where "the exe runs the message loop itself". It blocks the current thread and does not return until the app shuts down (e.g. via jadeview_exit). In the common DLL embedding scenario, the loop already runs in the thread started by JadeView_init, so this function is optional and generally not needed (consistent with the Quick Start).

int32_t run_message_loop(void);

Exit the application (jadeview_exit) v2.4

Purpose: Closes all JadeView windows, tears down resources, and lets the event loop end. Starting with v2.4, this function waits for the GUI event loop and JadeView-owned background threads to finish before it returns successfully, making it suitable as the final step before unloading the DLL.

int32_t jadeview_exit(void);

The original jadeview_exit API was introduced in v2.2; the badge above denotes its v2.4 wait-for-shutdown behavior update.

Exit with a timeout (jadeview_exit_wait) v2.4

Purpose: Starts a complete shutdown and waits for the GUI event loop to stop, with a host-specified timeout. Use it in DLL integrations to confirm that JadeView is no longer executing code before calling FreeLibrary.

int32_t jadeview_exit_wait(uint32_t timeout_ms);

The local protocol service APIs (set_protocol_service_path, register_resource, unregister_resource, clear_window_resources) have been moved to the separate document Local Protocol Service.

The context menu APIs (jade_menu_item_create, etc.) have been moved to the separate document Context Menu.

Version Changes at a Glance

Added and enhanced in 2.4

Added and enhanced in 2.3

Added and renamed interfaces in 2.0 (relative to the old version)

Core Structs

Window options struct (WebViewWindowOptions)

Purpose: Describes what the first screen looks like, whether it can be resized, and where it appears on screen. The field order must match the struct declaration in JadeView.h; underfilling, overfilling, or type misalignment will cause silent memory misreads.

Web page behavior struct (WebViewSettings)

Purpose: Controls the behavior of the web page inside WebView (autoplay, right-click, UA, etc.). Passing NULL means using all defaults.

The system integration APIs (get_cursor_position, clipboard_read_text, clipboard_write_text, jade_print_dialog, jade_get_printer_list) have been moved to the separate document System Integration API.