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Vix UI Roadmap

This roadmap describes the planned evolution of vix::ui.

Vix UI is a web-first UI foundation for Vix.cpp applications. It starts with server-rendered views, HTML helpers, assets, forms, and app shell primitives. Desktop and mobile support will be added progressively through WebView-based app shells.

v0.1.0 — UI foundation

Status: done.

Focus:

  • core view abstraction
  • template-compatible view context
  • rendered view result
  • HTML escaping helpers
  • HTML attribute helpers
  • small HTML generation helpers
  • transport-neutral HTML response
  • asset descriptors
  • asset manifests
  • asset manager
  • basic form and field helpers
  • validation error model
  • platform descriptor
  • shell configuration
  • lightweight app shell state
  • examples
  • unit tests

Goal:

Create the first stable UI module foundation without introducing native desktop or mobile complexity too early.

v0.2.0 — Vix web integration

Focus:

  • easier integration with vix::App
  • easier integration with vix::Response
  • helpers for rendering vix::ui::View directly from routes
  • helpers for returning vix::ui::HtmlResponse
  • conventions for templates, layouts, components and assets
  • improved examples using real Vix routes

Possible API direction:

app.get("/", [](Request &, Response &res)
{
  auto view = vix::ui::View("home.html")
      .set_title("Home")
      .set("name", "Gaspard");

  res.ui(view);
});

Goal:

Make Vix UI useful in normal Vix web applications, not only standalone examples.

v0.3.0 — Desktop shell MVP

Focus:

  • Linux-first desktop shell
  • local Vix server launch support
  • WebView window integration
  • load http://127.0.0.1:<port>
  • shell lifecycle: start, stop, restart
  • window title, size, resizable and fullscreen options
  • development mode support
  • basic desktop example

Goal:

Run a Vix web application as a desktop app without rewriting the UI.

Model:

Vix app
  -> HTTP server
  -> templates / vix::ui
  -> local URL
  -> desktop WebView window

v0.4.0 — Desktop shell expansion

Focus:

  • improve Linux support
  • prepare Windows support
  • prepare macOS support
  • shell error reporting
  • better platform detection
  • local server readiness checks
  • configurable startup timeout
  • desktop app metadata
  • icon path support
  • basic packaging direction

Goal:

Move from proof of concept to a more usable desktop app shell.

v0.5.0 — Live UI helpers

Focus:

  • WebSocket-friendly UI helpers
  • partial HTML fragments
  • small component update conventions
  • server-driven UI update patterns
  • helpers for dashboards and internal tools
  • flash messages
  • simple notification/toast rendering helpers

Goal:

Make Vix UI useful for dynamic dashboards, admin panels, monitoring pages and internal tools.

v0.6.0 — Forms and validation improvements

Focus:

  • richer field types
  • select options
  • checkbox state
  • radio groups
  • file input helpers
  • form data binding
  • old input values
  • field-level rendering helpers
  • form error summaries
  • CSRF helper integration point

Goal:

Make server-rendered forms more practical for real applications.

v0.7.0 — Asset pipeline helpers

Focus:

  • asset versioning
  • manifest lookup
  • hashed asset paths
  • CSS and JS grouping
  • preload helpers
  • module script support
  • production/development asset modes

Goal:

Make static assets easier to manage in Vix UI applications.

v0.8.0 — Mobile/PWA direction

Focus:

  • PWA-oriented helpers
  • mobile viewport helpers
  • manifest metadata
  • installable web app support
  • safe-area CSS helpers
  • mobile WebView research
  • Android shell planning

Goal:

Prepare Vix UI applications to run well on mobile browsers and future mobile WebView shells.

v1.0.0 — Stable UI foundation

Focus:

  • stable public API
  • stable module structure
  • complete tests
  • complete examples
  • production-ready docs
  • Vix route integration
  • asset helpers
  • forms
  • app shell configuration
  • desktop shell baseline

Goal:

Provide a reliable, simple UI foundation for Vix.cpp applications.

Non-goals

Vix UI is not trying to be:

  • a React clone
  • a Flutter clone
  • a Qt replacement
  • a native widget toolkit
  • a complex virtual DOM engine
  • a heavy frontend framework

The direction is:

server-rendered UI first
WebView app shell later
native UI only if truly needed

Design principles

  • keep the API small
  • build on top of Vix templates
  • avoid duplicate rendering engines
  • prefer explicit data flow
  • keep desktop/mobile as shells, not as a new UI system
  • make simple web apps easy
  • make future desktop apps possible