Gaphor on Windows¶

Gaphor can be installed as with our installer. Check out the Gaphor download page for details.

Older releases are available from GitHub.

CI builds are also available.

Development Environment¶

WinGet¶

We recommend using WinGet as a package manager in Windows. It is available on Windows 11 and modern versions of Windows 10 as a part of the App Installer.

If you have a slightly older version of Windows, you can alternatively use Chocolatey as a package manager. After it is installed, execute choco install instead of the winget install commands below.

Git¶

To set up a development environment in Windows first install Git by executing as an administrator:

winget install git.git

GTK and Python with Gvsbuild¶

Gvsbuild provides pre-built GTK libraries for Windows. We will install these libraries and Python.

Install the Latest Python¶

In Windows, The full installer contains all the Python components and is the best option for developers using Python for any kind of project.

For more information on how to use the official installer, please see the full installer instructions. The default installation options should be fine for use with Gaphor.

Install the latest Python version using the official installer.
Open a PowerShell terminal as a normal user and check the python version:
```
py -3.13 --version
```

Install Graphviz¶

Graphviz is used by Gaphor for automatic diagram formatting.

Install from WinGet with administrator PowerShell:

winget install graphviz

Install pipx¶

From the regular user PowerShell terminal execute:

py -3.13 -m pip install --user pipx
py -3.13 -m pipx ensurepath

Download GTK¶

Download the latest release asset at https://github.com/wingtk/gvsbuild/releases. The file will be called GTK4_Gvsbuild_VERSION_x64.zip, where VERSION is the latest released version.

Unzip the GTK4_Gvsbuild_VERSION_x64.zip file to C:\gtk. For example with 7Zip:

7z x GTK4_Gvsbuild_*.zip  -oC:\gtk -y

The resulting directory structure should look like:

C:\gtk
├── bin
├── include
├── lib
├── python
├── share
└── wheels

Setup Gaphor¶

In the same PowerShell terminal, clone the repository:

cd (to the location you want to put Gaphor)
git clone https://github.com/gaphor/gaphor.git
cd gaphor

Install Poetry:

pipx install poetry

Add GTK to your environmental variables:

$env:Path = $env:Path + ";C:\gtk\bin;C:\Program Files\Graphviz\bin"
$env:LIB = "C:\gtk\lib"
$env:INCLUDE = "C:\gtk\include;C:\gtk\include\cairo;C:\gtk\include\glib-2.0;C:\gtk\include\gobject-introspection-1.0;C:\gtk\lib\glib-2.0\include;"
$env:GI_TYPELIB_PATH = "C:\gtk\lib\girepository-1.0"
$env:XDG_DATA_HOME = "$env:userprofile\.local\share"

You can also edit your account’s Environmental Variables to persist across PowerShell sessions.

Install Gaphor’s dependencies:

poetry install

Reinstall PyGObject and pycairo using gvsbuild wheels:

poetry run pip install --force-reinstall (Resolve-Path C:\gtk\wheels\PyGObject*.whl)
poetry run pip install --force-reinstall (Resolve-Path C:\gtk\wheels\pycairo*.whl)

Launch Gaphor!

poetry run gaphor

Setting Up A Plugin Workspace for Gaphor¶

When setting up a plugin workspace you need to perform the following steps:

cd (your project's workspace)

If your project does not already have a pyproject.toml file, create one. For details see the Poetry documentation. If you already have a .toml file, make sure you have gaphor as a development dependency. For details see the Gaphor Hello World Plugin.

poetry init

Install your project’s dependencies. If you have made your project dependent upon Gaphor, this will pull in Gaphor.

poetry install

Reinstall PyGObject and pycairo using gvsbuild wheels:

poetry run pip install --force-reinstall (Resolve-Path C:\gtk\wheels\PyGObject*.whl)
poetry run pip install --force-reinstall (Resolve-Path C:\gtk\wheels\pycairo*.whl)

Note that if you have forgotten to reinstall PyGObject and pycairo, the first time you add an element to a diagram that has text, gaphor will crash!

Launch Gaphor!

poetry run gaphor

Debugging using Visual Studio Code¶

Start a new PowerShell terminal, and set current directory to the project folder:

cd (to the location you put gaphor)

Ensure that path environment variable is set:

$env:Path = "C:\gtk\bin;" + $env:Path

Start Visual Studio Code:

code .

To start the debugger, execute the following steps:

Open __main__.py file from gaphor folder
Add a breakpoint on line main(sys.argv)
In the menu, select Run → Start debugging
Choose Select module from the list
Enter gaphor as module name

Visual Studio Code will start the application in debug mode, and will stop at main.

Debugging Your Plugin Using Visual Studio Code¶

cd (your project's workspace)

Start gaphor:

In the VSCode menu, select Run → Start debugging
Choose Select module from the list
Enter gaphor as module name

Your plugin should appear under the Tools menu.

Packaging for Windows¶

In order to create an exe installation package for Windows, we utilize PyInstaller which analyzes Gaphor to find all the dependencies and bundle them in to a single folder. We then use a custom bash script that creates a Windows installer using NSIS and a portable installer using 7-Zip. To install them, open PowerShell as an administrator, then execute:

winget install nsis 7zip

Then build your installer using:

poetry install --only main,packaging,automation
poetry run pip install --force-reinstall (Resolve-Path C:\gtk\wheels\PyGObject*.whl)
poetry run pip install --force-reinstall (Resolve-Path C:\gtk\wheels\pycairo*.whl)
poetry build
poetry run poe package
poetry run poe win-installer

Limited Anaconda Install¶

Sometimes, it may be helpful to call Gaphor functionality from a python console on computers without the ability for a full development install (e.g., without administrative privileges). Because not all necessary Gaphor build dependencies (specifically, gtksourceview5 and libadwaita) are not available as anaconda packages, you will not be able to build the program or instantiate/run application classes like Application and Session.

However, this setup can still be helpful if you want to use or call Gaphor as a library in the context of a larger project. In these cases, Gaphor can be installed as a package in an anaconda environment using the following process:

Create new anaconda environment¶

If you use anaconda for other projects, it’s a good idea to create a new environment for Gaphor, so that its dependencies don’t end up conflicting with your pre-existing development environment. To do this, run the following command from anaconda prompt:

conda create -n "gaphor"
conda activate gaphor

where gaphor can be any name desired for the environment.

Update packages in the new environment¶

Get the most recent packages using:

conda update --all

Install dependencies¶

The following Gaphor dependencies are installable from anaconda:

conda install graphviz
conda install -c conda-forge gobject-introspection gtk4 pygobject pycairo hicolor-icon-theme adwaita-icon-theme

Unfortunately, the gtksourceview5 and libadwaita dependencies are not available as anaconda packages. So you may not be able to fully build/run the program in this environment.

Set up your development environment¶

Now, to develop with Gaphor, you will want to set it up with your development. If you want to work with ipython, install it below:

conda install ipython ipykernel

VSCode Tips¶

VSCode should work out-of-the box if it is already installed. Just set ‘gaphor’ as the kernel in your VSCode Profile or notebook.

Spyder Tips¶

You can install spyder in this environment using conda install spyder.

If this does not work, (i.e., if conda install spyder reveals conflicts), you can instead use the following workaround:

conda install spyder-kernels=2.4

Then, in spyder, set ‘gaphor’ as your python interpreter

Install Gaphor¶

From a python console running within your new anaconda environment, you may then install Gaphor using pip:

pip install gaphor