window_frame_kit #

A Flutter plugin that combines frame takeover (frameless window + native four-edge drag resize) with a full window management API (event streams, geometry, always-on-top, close prevention, and more) in a single package — for Windows, Linux, and macOS desktop apps.

One package, both halves: until now, Flutter desktop apps that wanted a borderless window and a listenable window had to combine two packages (frame plugins and window-manager plugins fight over the same Win32 messages). window_frame_kit merges them — and ships with a C++-only, zero-win32-package dependency tree, so your app is never locked to an outdated win32 major version.

Platforms #

Desktop only — there are no mobile or web targets.

Getting started #

dependencies:
  window_frame_kit: ^0.1.0

The single import exposes the same windowManager facade you already know:

import 'package:window_frame_kit/window_frame_kit.dart';

Enabling the custom frame #

Pass customFrame: true in WindowOptions — it is applied after titleBarStyle and before any fullscreen/maximized state restore, so the window starts borderless on first paint (no themed border, no Win11 8px top inset):

Future<void> main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  await windowManager.ensureInitialized();
  const options = WindowOptions(
    size: Size(1280, 720),
    minimumSize: Size(854, 480),   // enforced natively, see below
    titleBarStyle: TitleBarStyle.hidden,
    customFrame: true,             // <-- frame takeover
  );
  windowManager.waitUntilReadyToShow(options, () async {
    await windowManager.show();
    await windowManager.focus();
  });
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

When enabled, the native FrameController owns the window frame:

• Borderless WM_NCCALCSIZE — no system themed border, no Win11 8px top inset; maximized windows clamp to the monitor work area (no taskbar overlap, no cropped content).
• Four-edge / four-corner resize via WM_NCHITTEST with per-monitor-DPI hit bands — including the top edge, which plain WM_NCCALCSIZE route cannot reach because the Flutter view covers the whole client area.
• Cooperative WM_GETMINMAXINFO — setMinimumSize / setMaximumSize are enforced natively (this fixes bitsdojo_window's unconditional return 0, which silently defeated them).
• Fullscreen is never resizable — both the plugin's own fullscreen state and an external fullscreen path that strips WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW (e.g. a video player's native fullscreen route) make every edge inert.

Prefer a runtime toggle? Call windowManager.setCustomFrame(true / false) any time — the decoration state is snapshotted and restored on both platforms, so the toggle is reversible.

Platform support matrix #

Legend: ✓ supported · ✗ not supported (typed UnimplementedError / channel-level NotImplementedError per platform) · ❓ ported from upstream 0.5.2 and CI-compiled, not yet smoke-tested on a real machine.

Widgets (DragToMoveArea, DragToResizeArea, WindowCaption, …) are pure Dart and platform-independent. window_frame_kit also exposes the upstream 15-window-event stream through WindowListener.

Migrating from the bitsdojo_window + window_manager pair #

The dependency tree drops both bitsdojo_window (and its locked win32 5.x) and window_manager — one import, one plugin, one message handler.

Relation to Flutter's official windowing APIs #

Flutter's multi-window APIs (the windowing feature) target multiple window instances per app. window_frame_kit targets chrome takeover of the single main window: borderless drawing, native edge resize, min/max constraints and a full state/event facade. The two compose — keep using the official APIs for auxiliary windows and use window_frame_kit for the main window's frame and lifecycle.

Derivation #

window_frame_kit is a fork-and-graft package, built in the open with full attribution:

• Base: a verbatim port of window_manager 0.5.2 (MIT, © LiJianying) — the full capability API and event system. The upstream git remote points at this repository so upstream changes can be cherry-picked or diffed.
• Frame graft: the frame-takeover concepts (borderless via WM_NCCALCSIZE, native edge resize via WM_NCHITTEST) are grafted from bitsdojo_window 0.1.6 (MIT, © Bogdan Hobeanu). Grafted lines carry // FRAME: markers.
• Intentional deviations from upstream — including the cooperative GETMINMAXINFO rewrite that fixes bitsdojo's unconditional return 0 (which silently broke setMinimumSize) — are tracked in DEVIATIONS.md. When merging upstream, every ledger entry is checked so a deviation is never silently overwritten.

License #

MIT — see LICENSE. The license stacks the copyright notices of both upstream projects (window_manager, bitsdojo_window) alongside this package's own line.