BUILD_DLL.md

Steps to Build a .DLL on macOS Using the .NET CLI

1. Install the .NET SDK for macOS:

   • Download and install the .NET SDK for macOS.

   • After installation, you can verify it by running:

     dotnet --version

2. Create a New Class Library Project:

   • Open the Terminal, navigate to your desired directory, and create a new class library project by running:

     dotnet new classlib -o MyDotNetLibrary

   • This creates a folder named MyDotNetLibrary with a basic class library template.

3. Edit the Code:

   • Navigate to the project folder and open the generated Class1.cs file with your preferred code editor (VS Code, Sublime, etc.):

     cd MyDotNetLibrary

   • Replace the content with your code:

     using System;
     using NodeApi.DotNet;
     
     namespace MyDotNetLibrary
     {
         public class MyMathClass
         {
             public int Add(int a, int b) => a + b;
     
             [JSExport]
             public static string SayHello(string name) => $"Hello, {name} from .NET!";
         }
     }

4. Build the DLL:

   • Build the project to produce the .dll file:

     dotnet build

   • This generates a .dll file in the bin/Debug/net6.0/ directory by default.

5. Locate the DLL File:

   • You can find MyDotNetLibrary.dll in the bin/Debug/net6.0/ directory within the project folder.

6. Use the DLL in Node.js:

   • With the .dll file ready, you can now load and interact with it in a Node.js application using the node-api-dotnet package.

Example: Loading the DLL in Node.js on macOS

import dotnet from 'node-api-dotnet/net6.0';

dotnet.load('path/to/MyDotNetLibrary.dll');

const MyMathClass = dotnet.MyDotNetLibrary.MyMathClass;
const instance = new MyMathClass();
console.log(instance.Add(3, 5)); // Example usage