CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting

Bootstrap an Avalonia desktop app on the .NET Generic Host — dependency injection, IHostedService/BackgroundService lifecycle, configuration, and logging — without the hand-written Avalonia↔host plumbing. Your Program.Main becomes create a builder, register services, build, run.

[STAThread]
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var builder = DesktopApplication.CreateBuilder<App>(args);
    builder.Services.AddSingleton<IMyService, MyService>();
    builder.Services.AddHostedService<MyBackgroundWorker>();
    builder.Build().Run(args);
}

// The Avalonia XAML previewer needs a parameterless AppBuilder-returning method.
public static AppBuilder BuildAvaloniaApp() => DesktopApplication.ConfigureAppBuilder<App>();

Run() starts the hosted services, runs the Avalonia classic-desktop main loop, and stops the host on exit (cancelling background services) — the correct lifecycle, by construction. Your App receives the built provider by implementing IServiceProviderAccessor:

public partial class App : Application, IServiceProviderAccessor
{
    public IServiceProvider? Services { get; private set; }
    IServiceProvider IServiceProviderAccessor.Services { set => Services = value; }

    public override void OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted()
    {
        // Services is set before this runs; resolve view models, register data templates, show the main window…
        base.OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted();
    }
}

Packages

Package	What it is	Depends on
CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting	The lifetime-agnostic contract (IServiceProviderAccessor).	nothing
CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.Desktop	DesktopApplication / DesktopApplicationBuilder / DesktopApplicationOptions for the classic desktop lifetime (Windows, Linux, macOS).	Avalonia.Desktop, Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting

Both ship their types in the CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting namespace (the .Desktop suffix is package identity, not namespace — mirroring Avalonia.Desktop), so a consumer needs a single using CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting;. Future single-view/mobile lifetimes would add sibling packages on the same common contract.

dotnet add package CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.Desktop

Repository layout

src/
  CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting/                  common contract (IServiceProviderAccessor)
  CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.Desktop/          classic-desktop host (DesktopApplication, …)
  CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.Sample/           minimal bootstrap app (not published)
  CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.Desktop.UnitTests/
  CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.slnx              solution + Directory.Build.props + Directory.Packages.props
docs/                                       usage samples

Build & run

dotnet build src/CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.slnx -c Release   # build
dotnet test  src/CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.slnx              # tests
dotnet run --project src/CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.Sample    # the sample app
dotnet pack  src/CCSWE.Avalonia.Hosting.slnx -c Release -o artifacts   # both NuGet packages

The major version tracks the Avalonia major (12.x → Avalonia 12.x), via Nerdbank.GitVersioning.

License

MIT © Cory Charlton / CCSWE.