We are still updating the GSoC project idea list. Please check our Discord server's #gsoc channel for GSoC-related news.
Google Summer of Code 2025 ideas and guidelines - Neutralinojs
GSoC (Google Summer of Code) is an international program that motivates developers to contribute to open-source projects. Google awards stipends for contributors who successfully complete the GSoC program. GSoC contributors typically work on open-source development tasks under the guidance of organization mentors. Read more details about GSoC from the official website.
Anyone (including beginners and students) older than 18 can contribute to the GSoC program. Check more details about contributor eligibility from this link.
Follow these steps to get started with GSoC 2025 as a contributor:
- Understand Neutralinojs as a user (app developer) using the official website.
- Create a sample Neutralinojs app using several native API functions.
- Join the Neutralinojs Discord channel using this invitation link.
- Introduce yourself in the #gsoc channel on Discord and post the GitHub link of your sample app.
- Become familiar with the main project and sub-projects, start with the documentation, and then codebases.
- Watch framework, JavaScript API, and CLI code explanation videos for detailed codebase explanations.
- Read both contribution guide and code style guide, then start contributing (our recommendation is to start contributing to documentation first to master the Neutralinojs framework as a user).
- Tell us about tasks that you would like to work on. If you have new ideas, mention them in community channels including your project goals.
- Start drafting a proposal by discussing it with mentors.
- Submit your proposal and achieve the planned milestones based on the GSoC program schedule.
- Make sure to follow the above initial steps and become familiar with the project.
- Select a project idea out of the mentioned below
- If you have an idea of your own / want to initiate one, post its summary and goals in a new GitHub discussion thread.
- Wait until project maintainers give feedback to the post (We can identify possible changes in the early stage).
- Start drafting your proposal based on the Neutralinojs GSoC contributor proposal outline.
Please create your GSoC proposal according to the following outline:
- Contact details (Name, Country, Email, GitHub username, Discord username, and a small description about yourself)
- Neutralinojs experience (Explain your familiarity with Neutralinojs)4
- Contributions (Add links to your pull requests, issues, and discussion threads)
- Project description (Describe the project idea)
- Goals (Summary of deliverables)
- Tasks Timeline (Divide your goals into tasks and map with the GSoC timeline)
- Future contributions (How do you plan to contribute to Neutralinojs in the future?)
We have listed down some crucial tasks below for you. But, feel free to discuss
your own ideas with us via Discord or email (neutralinojs[AT]gmail.com) or create a GitHub discussion thread. You can contribute Neutralinojs framework, CLI, client library and templates.
Thank you for contributing to open-source 🎉
Neutralinojs CLI generates platform-specific binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows with a platform-independent resource file. Neutralinojs application developers currently should use various tools to create application installers (i.e.,: AppImage, NSIS) for each operating system. However, we have no plans to add application installer generation support directly to the neu CLI codebase to keep the CLI implementation minimal and less platform-dependent. So, we would like to implement the platform-specific installer generator as a plugin for the official CLI within the official Neutralinojs GitHub organization.
Skills required: Node.js, Neutralinojs, Application bundling on operating systems
Difficulty rating: Medium
Project size: ~350h
Mentors: TBA
- Developing a CLI plugin for the solution.
- Expose a new command to generate application packages.
# Installing the plugin
neu plugins --add neutralinojs-builder
# neu builder <target> <arch>
neu builder nsis --x64 # NSIS setup for Windows x64
neu builder deb --ia32 # Debian package for GNU/Linux ia32
neu builder appimage --x64 # AppImage for GNU/Linux x64
neu builder deb # GNU/Linux Debian packages for all supported CPU architectures
# Use configuration from neutralino.config.json
neu builder
# Removing the plugin
neu plugins --remove neutralinojs-builder- If the developer run
neu builderwithout any parameters, get the targets from the config file:
"cli": {
"builder": {
"linux": {
"targets": [
{
"target": "deb",
"arch": [
"x64",
"ia32",
"armhf"
]
}
]
},
"win": {
"targets": [
{
"target": "nsis",
"arch": [
"x64",
"ia32"
]
}
]
}
}
}- Implement package targets as internal plugins (import only required modules based on targets). Try to use modules like
targets/deb.js,targets/nsis.jsfor dynamic loading. - Keep the codebase minimal by following design patterns and principles that the official neu CLI project uses.
- Use neu CLI core APIs from the plugin and avoid repetitive code between neu CLI and Neutralinojs builder projects.
- Recommend users to install the builder plugin from the neu CLI if they need app installers
Neutralinojs renders the frontend web content of apps using platform-specific webview components without using a loading animation. The current implementation doesn't create any issues for small app frontends, but large frontends render a blank white screen at startup for a short period affecting the software quality and usability. The blank white screen appears for a considerable time in low-end devices and when developers load remote URLs. The only workaround for this issue is hiding and showing the app when it's ready, but it slows down the initial visible rendering time for users. This project idea suggests implementing a native loading animation for all supported platforms as a default feature to fix the startup white screen issue.
Related issue: neutralinojs/neutralinojs#814
Skills required: C++, Neutralinojs, platform-specific GUI development frameworks (GTK, Windows API, and Cocoa)
Difficulty rating: Medium
Project size: ~350h
Mentors: TBA
- Use platform-specific spinner or infinite progress bar controls
- Allow developers to use a custom GIF animation or static image
- Center the loading animation within the app window
- Use proper background and foreground colors based on the current system theme
- Indicate the loading state in the mouse cursor by using an appropriate built-in icon
- Use native, built-in GUI controls in each operating system for the default loader
- Let developers use a GIF from app resources and override the default loader setting
- Keep the implementation only within the C++ webview library codebase fork
- Use the following configuration block in
neutralino.config.json:
"window": {
"startupLoader": {
"type": "image", // none, system (default), image
"image": "/resources/images/loader.gif"
}
}Neutralinojs offers a well-structured, cross-platform native API for app developers. The current native API offers many JavaScript functions under several namespaces that most app developers can use for building general cross-platform apps. However, the current native API doesn't offer solutions for every specific development scenario -- app developers sometimes have to write native extensions or implement platform-specific command-line solutions as workarounds to implement several features that the framework itself can embed. For example, there are no built-in APIs to retrieve network details, handle file permissions, etc. This project idea suggests contributors to conduct a research for such missing framework features and implement them within the framework codebase.
Related issues: neutralinojs/neutralinojs#issues
Skills required: C++, Neutralinojs, platform-specific native APIs (POSIX and Windows APIs)
Difficulty rating: Medium
Project size: ~350h
Mentors: TBA
- Evaluate existing GitHub issues and discussions
- Finding missing functions by comparing Neutralinojs with other frameworks and inbuilt Node.js APIs
- Search forum threads created by mentioning missing native APIs in Neutralinojs
- Prepare a list of functions that can be added to the framework without heavily affecting bundle size, performance, and code complexity
- Implement new function names, parameters, and return values strictly adhering to the existing native API design
- Search for minimal, header-only libraries if the C++ standard library doesn't offer a solution
- Implement functions in a way that eliminates security vulnerabilities
Related issue: neutralinojs/neutralinojs#507
Skills required: C++, Neutralinojs, platform-specific GUI development frameworks (GTK, Windows API, and Cocoa)
Difficulty rating: Medium
Project size: ~350h
Mentors: TBA
We really appreciate your code contributions. Please read this contribution guide before sending a pull request. Thank you for your contributions.
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