Skip to main content

Code and Project Files

aardio Source Code File​

The file extension for aardio code files is .aardio.

It can contain UTF-8 encoded source code or compiled binary code.

aardio Project File​

The aardio project file has the extension .aproj and its content is the project configuration in XML format, also encoded with UTF-8.

The defalut aardio project file is usually named default.aproj.

aardio allows multiple .aproj files in a project directory, but most time there is only one default.aproj file.

Following is contents of a web.view project file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<project ver="37" name="web.view Example" libEmbed="true" icon="..." ui="win" 
         output="release_name.exe" CompanyName="aardio" FileDescription="aardio project name" 
         LegalCopyright="Copyright (C) Author 2025" ProductName="Product Name" 
         InternalName="Internal Name" FileVersion="0.0.0.1" ProductVersion="0.0.0.1" 
         publishDir="/dist/" dstrip="false">
	<file name="main" path="main.aardio"/>
	<folder name="Window" path="forms" comment="" embed="true" local="false" ignored="false"/>
	<folder name="Web" path="web" embed="true" comment="directory" local="true">
		<file name="index.html" path="web\index.html" comment="web\index.html"/>
		<file name="index.js" path="web\index.js" comment="web\index.js"/>
	</folder>
    <folder name="Web Source Code" path="web.src" embed="false" comment="directory"  local="false" ignored="true"/>
</project>

project​

  • project is the root node, it contains several folder and file child nodes.

    The property ui of the project specifies the graphical interface type.

    • ui="win" : desktop application will be released, no console window when runing.
    • ui="console" : only release a console window program.

    The property dstrip of the project decides whether to remove the debug symbols.

    • dstrip="true" will remove all debug information so that the released file is smaller, but missed useful debug messages (e.g: filename and line numbers).

folder​

  • folder node defines virtual directories of a project.
    • If folder's property embed="true", this directory will be embedded into the EXE resource file when releasing. Many functions and libraries in aardio support such automatically embedding without any additional code changes. For example: string.load(“/res/test.txt”), no matter the file specified by the parameter is an EXE resource file or not, the return value is the same. This is one of main features of aardio.
    • If folder's property local="true", means this is a local directory (usually this is a public directory of a web front-end project), and all files under this directory will be added when releasing to EXE file. This kind of directory does not show sub files or directories in the project view, and the "Sync Local Directory" option in the right-click menu is also invalid.
    • If folder's property ignored="true", this directory is ignored when releasing. This usually used to point to the directory that contains the source code of a web front-end project, but the project doesn't really need these extra directories, so it will be ignored when generating the EXE.

file​

  • file node indicates the file should be added.

    There can be only one application startup file in the root directory of a project, that must be main.aardio or end with .main.aardio. The project root directory can only contain folders except the startup file.

The aardio project root is also the application root.

In aardio, if the first character of file path is a single slash or backslash, it means the path start from the application root.

for example /res/test.txt. aardio 工程根目录也是 应用程序根目录，在 aardio 中文件路径第一个字符如果是单个斜杠或反斜杠则表示应用程序根目录，例如 /res/test.txt 。