microsoft-webui-handler

High-performance template renderer for the WebUI framework. Consumes the compiled binary protocol and produces HTML output at request time.

Overview

microsoft-webui-handler evaluates expressions, resolves state bindings, and renders full or partial HTML responses from pre-compiled WebUI protocol buffers — with no JavaScript runtime required.

Key Functions

`Protocol::render_partial`

Returns a complete client-navigation response with active-route projected state.

`Protocol::render_component_templates`

Returns compiled templates and CSS for specific components by tag name. Used for on-demand loading of components not in the route tree (dialogs, overlays). Supports inventory-based deduplication.

let result = protocol.render_component_templates(
    &["settings-dialog", "notification-panel"],
    &inventory_hex,
);
// Returns: { componentStyles: {...}, templates: {...}, inventory: "..." }

Available via all bindings: Rust (Protocol::render_component_templates), Node/WASM/npm (Protocol.renderComponentTemplates), and FFI (webui_protocol_render_component_templates).

Runtime-discovered streaming

WebUIHandler::stream_response returns a borrowed StreamingResponse. StreamingSession is the owned byte-returning form used by host bindings.

let mut session = StreamingSession::new(handler, protocol, options)?;
let mut step = session.start(initial_state)?;

while !step.done {
    step = match step.boundary.as_ref() {
        Some(boundary) => {
            let state = load_state(&boundary.owner, &boundary.name, boundary.key.as_ref())?;
            // Writes only this occurrence, through its checkpoint.
            session.resume(boundary.instance_id, state, BoundaryMode::Final)?
        }
        // Writes the shell bytes up to the next occurrence or the terminal.
        None => session.advance()?,
    };
    write_and_flush(&step.bytes)?;
}

start, resume, and advance return StreamStep { bytes, boundary, done }, and each step's bytes are one independently writable, independently flushed segment. A descriptor contains response-local instance_id, stable declaration_id, owner-local name, owner, and an optional string or numeric key. boundary: Some waits for resume; boundary: None with done: false means the committed occurrence flushed and the caller must advance; the done step includes terminal and document-tail bytes.

resume is boundary-only: it writes the occurrence markers, body, checkpoint, and sentinel, then returns. advance writes the parent or shell bytes that follow through the next occurrence or terminal. This makes an early component-local child independently flushable without an authored sibling boundary.

start and resume accept either owned or borrowed state. Pass a freshly loaded or decoded Value to move changed top-level values without cloning, or &Value when retaining caller ownership. Equal values preserve the prior reference base. Use resume_current when the retained snapshot is already authoritative and no comparison is needed. Both resume forms stop after the checkpoint flush, so an async host can release its worker before calling advance.

Commit an occurrence as BoundaryMode::Updatable to call update(instance_id, patch) later, including between its resume and the following advance. Updates are projected state records and do not insert markup. Component-local occurrences use generated parent spans so an early child can hydrate before the parent tail. One response may commit at most 128 updatable occurrences, matching what the browser retains; a resume past that is refused before any byte is written, so the same pending occurrence can be committed as BoundaryMode::Final instead. Final occurrences release their roots at hydration and never count against the cap.

A <boundary> may not appear inside a <for> repeat body (directly or through a component, <if>, route, or outlet): the build rejects it with boundary-in-repeat. Wrap the whole <for> in one boundary to pace the list as a single region. Boundaries before and after a <for> are also valid. A component-owned declaration reached from multiple static callsites in one entry traversal still requires a unique string or numeric key.

Documentation

See the WebUI repository for full usage guides and examples.

microsoft-webui-handler 0.0.28