Desktop Builds

Quickfire ships with a MAUI WebView shell (src/Quickfire.Desktop) plus a Windows Tray helper (src/Quickfire.Tray). The MAUI shell bootstraps a self-hosted publish of the Blazor app so producers can run Quickfire locally without IIS.

Components

Piece	Location	Purpose
Blazor host publish	src/Quickfire.Blazor/Surefire.csproj → Build/Desktop/Surefire/	Self-contained Kestrel host the MAUI app launches
Publish target	Surefire.csproj target PublishDesktopRuntime	Copies files into $(DesktopWebPublishDir) when SurefireMigrationsFlavor=Local
MAUI project	src/Quickfire.Desktop/Quickfire.csproj	WebView UI, setup wizard, Surefire host bootstrapper
Host service	src/Quickfire.Desktop/Services/SurefireHostService.cs	Extracts publish to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Surefire, hashes manifests, starts host, waits for readiness
Manifest target	Quickfire.csproj target PrepareSurefireHostPackage	Harvests published files + builds manifest.txt
Tray app	src/Quickfire.Tray	Handles Word/Outlook/Windows automation + notifications

Build / run flow

1. Publish the host

   dotnet publish src/Quickfire.Blazor/Surefire.csproj \
       -c Debug \
       -p:SurefireMigrationsFlavor=Local

   • Outputs to Build/Desktop/Surefire/
   • Uses SQLite migrations (Data/MigrationsLocal)

2. Prepare MAUI assets

   cd src/Quickfire.Desktop
   dotnet msbuild Quickfire.csproj \
       /t:PrepareSurefireHostPackage \
       /p:TargetFramework=net9.0-windows10.0.19041.0 \
       /p:Configuration=Debug

   • Copies publish folder + manifest into obj/.../SurefireHost

3. Run MAUI shell

   dotnet run --project Quickfire.csproj \
       -f net9.0-windows10.0.19041.0 \
       -c Debug

   • SurefireHostService unpacks host → starts Surefire.exe → polls http://127.0.0.1:<port>/healthz
   • WebView navigates to BaseUrl once healthy

4. Start Tray app (optional but recommended)

   dotnet run --project ../Quickfire.Tray/Surefire.Tray.csproj

Visual Studio tips

• Install the .NET Multi-platform App UI workload
• Configure the solution to use Local build flavor (sets SurefireMigrationsFlavor=Local)
• Set Quickfire.Desktop as the startup project to run publish + package + MAUI launch automatically
• If MAUI launches before the publish finishes, rerun the publish command manually then restart MAUI

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Blank WebView	Check %LOCALAPPDATA%\Surefire\logs and ensure Surefire.exe is running; verify publish folder exists
Host not found	Confirm Build/Desktop/Surefire/ is populated; rerun publish target
Ports blocked	Update appsettings.maui.json (SurefireHostOptions) to pick a different port
Tray commands not working	Ensure Tray app is running and connected (see icon). Check TrayLog.txt for SendEmberResponse entries
Desktop mode features disabled	Desktop runtime auto-disables Blastmail, Gateway, TaskAgents (see Program.cs feature flags). Override via env vars only if you know what you''re doing

Customization

• Change publish destination via -p:DesktopWebPublishDir="C:\SomePath"
• Update manifest logic inside PrepareSurefireHostPackage if you bundle extra folders
• Adjust MAUI ready-check path/timeout inside SurefireHostService
• Desktop-specific settings (data directory, logging) live in appsettings.maui.json

Use this doc any time you tweak the desktop bootstrapper so the GitHub wiki and installer docs stay current.