missing results of the preliminary webview build step

[sirOwlBeak]

hello,

i dont have a lot experience in compiling native c++ code so if i make some obvious mistake, please forgive me. that said, i invoked the cmake build script from visual studio and the build failed with error below, saying that it can not find the webview2 header. If i check manually the candidate folders from the cmake log they indeed do not exist on the disk. Am i missing a step? or did i invoke the cmake script wrong?

-- Building for: Visual Studio 18 2026
-- Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.26100.0 to target Windows 10.0.26200.
-- The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.51.36257.0
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/18/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.51.36231/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Setting up InfiniFrame native dependencies
-- Configuring vendored library 'simdjson' from C:/Users/Beheerder/Documents/DotNET/Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.NativeBridge/Native/src/Dependencies/simdjson
--   created target 'simdjson_vendor' and alias 'simdjson::simdjson'
-- Configuring vendored library 'simdutf' from C:/Users/Beheerder/Documents/DotNET/Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.NativeBridge/Native/src/Dependencies/simdutf
--   created target 'simdutf_vendor' and alias 'simdutf::simdutf'
-- Configuring vendored library 'wintoastlib' from C:/Users/Beheerder/Documents/DotNET/Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.NativeBridge/Native/src/Dependencies/wintoastlib
--   created target 'wintoastlib_vendor' and alias 'wintoastlib::wintoastlib'
-- Resolved Windows architecture: x64
-- Using Microsoft.Web.WebView2 version from C:/Users/Beheerder/Documents/DotNET/Repos/InfiniFrame/Directory.Packages.props=1.0.4191.47
-- Using Microsoft.Windows.ImplementationLibrary version from C:/Users/Beheerder/Documents/DotNET/Repos/InfiniFrame/Directory.Packages.props=1.0.260126.7
-- Resolving WebView2 SDK path for version 1.0.4191.47
-- Searching dependency base dir for 'include/WebView2.h'
--   candidate: C:/Users/Beheerder/Documents/DotNET/Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.NativeBridge/Native/packages/Microsoft.Web.WebView2.1.0.4191.47/build/native
--   candidate: C:/Users/Beheerder/Documents/DotNET/Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.NativeBridge/Native/packages/microsoft.web.webview2/1.0.4191.47/build/native
--   candidate: C:\Users\Beheerder/.nuget/packages/microsoft.web.webview2/1.0.4191.47/build/native
--   resolved: <not found>
CMake Error at .cmake/NativeDependencies.cmake:195 (message):
  WebView2 headers not found
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  .cmake/NativeDependencies.cmake:294 (infiniframe_resolve_webview2_base_dir)
  CMakeLists.txt:36 (infiniframe_setup_dependencies)

it seems like a small thing but i cannot figure it out on my own. Im pretty curious to try out the examples to build a small tool myself with infiniframe

[AnnaSasDev]

did you first do a dotnet restore on the solution? The way on how the entire project is setup is that the c++ build runs in the same msbuild pipeline as the entire solution, as these headers are resolved from nuget packages

[sirOwlBeak]

ok i did the restore and that got things moving.
running the next build step cmake --build artifacts/native/windows/x64/Debug also lead to an error, where the following stands out:

  > infinilore.infiniframe.js-build@0.1.0 build
  > npm run typecheck && vite build --config vite.config.prod.ts && vite build --config vite.config.dev.ts


  > infinilore.infiniframe.js-build@0.1.0 typecheck
  > tsc --noEmit

  node:internal/errors:496
      ErrorCaptureStackTrace(err);
      ^

  TypeError [ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION]: Unknown file extension "" for C:\Users\{USERNAME}\Repos\InfiniFrame\src\InfiniFrame.Js\node_modules\typescript\bin\tsc. Loading extensionless files is not supported inside of "type":"mo
  dule" package.json contexts. The package.json file C:\Users\{USERNAME}\Repos\InfiniFrame\src\InfiniFrame.Js\node_modules\typescript\package.json caused this "type":"module" context. Try changing C:\Users\{USERNAME}\Repos\In
  finiFrame\src\InfiniFrame.Js\node_modules\typescript\bin\tsc to have a file extension. Note the "bin" field of package.json can point to a file with an extension, for example {"type":"module","bin":{"tsc":".\bin\tsc.js"}}
      at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:405:5)
      at Object.getFileProtocolModuleFormat [as file:] (node:internal/modules/esm/get_format:79:11)
      at defaultGetFormat (node:internal/modules/esm/get_format:124:36)
      at defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:84:20)
      at nextLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:163:28)
      at ESMLoader.load (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:603:26)
      at ESMLoader.moduleProvider (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:457:22)
      at new ModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:64:26)
      at #createModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:480:17)
      at ESMLoader.getModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:434:34) {
    code: 'ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION'
  }

  Node.js v18.17.0
  file:///C:/Users/{USERNAME}/Repos/InfiniFrame/scripts/js-buildfrontend.mjs:229
          throw new Error(`npm ${args.join(' ')} exited with code ${result.status ?? 1}.`);
                ^

CUSTOMBUILD : error : npm run build exited with code 1. [C:\Users\{USERNAME}\Repos\InfiniFrame\artifacts\native\windows\x64\Debug\InfiniFrame.Native_InfiniFrameJsBuild.vcxproj]
      at runNpm (file:///C:/Users/{USERNAME}/Repos/InfiniFrame/scripts/js-buildfrontend.mjs:229:15)
      at file:///C:/Users/{USERNAME}/Repos/InfiniFrame/scripts/js-buildfrontend.mjs:250:9
      at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:194:25)

  Node.js v18.17.0
  CMake Error at C:/Users/{USERNAME}/Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.NativeBridge/Native/.cmake/Build.InfiniFrameJs.Impl.cmake:14 (message):
    Frontend build failed with exit code 1

there was more output which i added as an attachment, maybe that can give more context.
cmake_build_errors.txt

just for fun i tried the suggestion that npm presented me with, and modified that file and the json line it mentioned, but no dice :(

and in case it could be relevant, npm (and pwsh) can be invoked from my visual studio instance, but i do not have the node.js workload installed right now.

[AnnaSasDev]

Ah from examining your cmake_build_errors.txt file I think one of the issues might be that your installed Node version is not compatible with the toolchain, given everything is built for Node 24.15+ I will make a fix that this properly documented

[AnnaSasDev]

#429 will implement these documentation and build chain check fixes. When it is merged with the core branch, can you check again?

[sirOwlBeak]

after checking out those changes, vs studio gives me the following error message:
Checking File Globs 1>Building JS: C:/.../Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.Js/wwwroot/InfiniFrame.js InfiniFrame frontend builds require Node.js 24.15.0 or newer; found 18.17.0. CMake Error at C:/.../Repos/InfiniFrame/src/InfiniFrame.NativeBridge/Native/.cmake/Build.InfiniFrameJs.Impl.cmake:14 (message): Frontend build failed with exit code 1

now, i did manage to get that particular version of node.js (24.15.0) and verified npm version command, but, the build step still leaves me hanging with more error messages, in the gist of :

 new Error("Cannot find native binding. npm has a bug related to optional dependencies (https://github.com/npm/cli/issues/4828). Please try `npm i` again after removing both
   package-lock.json and node_modules directory.");

i can give it some messing around later (read: dont know what im doing :)).

if you prefer me opening an issue, to keep things tidy, let me know

[AnnaSasDev]

this doesnt seem to be an issue with the codebase as a whole so far, so opening up an issue for it isnt needed I think.
Like the error message said, delete the stale node_modules directory and package-lock.json, run npm install and see if that resolves stuff