Protocol not set when using SSL in native mode

[nachobacanful]

First Check

• I added a very descriptive title here.
• This is not a Q&A. I am sure something is wrong with NiceGUI or its documentation.
• I used the GitHub search to find a similar issue and came up empty.

Example Code

from nicegui import ui

ui.run(
    port=8443,
    native=True
    ssl_certfile="<path_to_certfile>",
    ssl_keyfile="<path_to_keyfile>",
)

Description

When using ssl_certfile and ssl_keyfile in conjunction with native=True NiceGUI passes in the wrong protocol (http) to the native PyWebView window. This launches the browser window, but it launches with the http protocol, and because it's a native window, there is no way to manually correct this, resulting in a broken application that doesn't load (protocol error). The expected behavior is that the protocol URL is updated to https when passing in SSL values, directing the browser window to the correct protocol URL. The source of the issue is not that SSL is not used, but rather that the URL is not updated to reflect HTTPS.

The correct protocol is defined here:

nicegui/nicegui/ui_run.py

Lines 187 to 190 in 26765aa

	if kwargs.get('ssl_certfile') and kwargs.get('ssl_keyfile'):
	protocol = 'https'
	else:
	protocol = 'http'

Yet it is not used here:

nicegui/nicegui/ui_run.py

Line 180 in 26765aa

native_module.activate(native_host, port, title, width, height, fullscreen, frameless)

and here

nicegui/nicegui/native/native_mode.py

Line 37 in 26765aa

'url': f'http://{host}:{port}',

Solution:

1. The definition should be moved up a couple of lines before its (and passed in) use here:
   

   nicegui/nicegui/ui_run.py

   Line 180 in 26765aa

   native_module.activate(native_host, port, title, width, height, fullscreen, frameless)

2. The function definition should be updated to take a protocol
   

   nicegui/nicegui/native/native_mode.py

   Line 98 in 26765aa

   def activate(host: str, port: int, title: str, width: int, height: int, fullscreen: bool, frameless: bool) -> None:

   
   and here
   

   nicegui/nicegui/native/native_mode.py

   Line 98 in 26765aa

   def activate(host: str, port: int, title: str, width: int, height: int, fullscreen: bool, frameless: bool) -> None:

   
   and here
   

   nicegui/nicegui/native/native_mode.py

   Line 30 in 26765aa

   host: str, port: int, title: str, width: int, height: int, fullscreen: bool, frameless: bool,

   
   and lastly it should be chanched from "http://... to "{protocol}://... here
   

   nicegui/nicegui/native/native_mode.py

   Line 37 in 26765aa

   'url': f'http://{host}:{port}',

It is correctly used here:

nicegui/nicegui/welcome.py

Line 26 in 26765aa

urls = [(f'{protocol}://{ip}:{port}' if port != '80' else f'{protocol}://{ip}') for ip in sorted_ips]

note

Fixing this issue would require to update two function signature definitions to pass in protocol:

nicegui/nicegui/native/native_mode.py

Line 30 in 26765aa

host: str, port: int, title: str, width: int, height: int, fullscreen: bool, frameless: bool,

nicegui/nicegui/native/native_mode.py

Line 98 in 26765aa

def activate(host: str, port: int, title: str, width: int, height: int, fullscreen: bool, frameless: bool) -> None:

NiceGUI Version

2.11.1

Python Version

3.12.3

Browser

Other

Operating System

Windows

Additional Context

No response

[evnchn]

Hello @nachobacanful. Thanks for the report.

Apparently we didn't go through everything in #4679, and native mode is left in the dust...

Your fix looks good. Do you want to make a PR?

[nachobacanful]

Oh, I didn't see that issue. I will check it out and gain some insight. I will also craft a PR.

Do you guys have any preference on the function signature? This could be a breaking change.

I am not sure how many places this function activate() is used. From what I can tell, it's only one place, but I could be wrong. I am not 100% familiar with this codebase.

There are three ways I could craft this patch. You guys tell me which one you prefer.

# the correct way since `protocol` comes before `host`, but changes argument order,
# meaning all calls would have to be updated,  else things break.
def func ( protocol, old_arguments...)

# protocol at the end. wrong order. easy to just add the functionality,
# don't need to change order, but would have to be updated in the future if we want it to look good
# would also be forced to find all calls and update them
def func ( old_arguments..., protocol)

# same as previous but with added bonus that if we forget to change a call, it will not break the code. 
def func ( old_arguments..., protocol='http')

[evnchn]

My understanding is that, those functions are internal to NiceGUI, and we can do whatever we want.

Moreover, we already added in the function parameter in a way which would be considered breaking-change, were it not for the fact that those functions are internal, back in #4679.

So, it'd be fine?

[falkoschindler]

Yes, we can simply extend the signature of this internal function and adjust all callees within the codebase accordingly.

[falkoschindler]

@nachobacanful I just stumbled across this issue. Are you still planning to create a PR? Or shall we take over?

[nachobacanful]

Sorry, life got on the way. I can look into it again. Apologies for the delays. I'll get a PR ready in the next week or so.

[evnchn]

I was about to PR-in (https://github.com/evnchn/nicegui/tree/use-https-for-ssl-nativemode) when I read #4814 (comment) again.

Back in #4679 the parameter was added to helpers. But now we are adding to native

The native.activate can be import as follows:

from nicegui import ui, native

native.activate(...)

Is it really private API? Should we play it safe with *, protocol: str = 'http'?

[falkoschindler]

According to https://github.com/zauberzeug/nicegui/blob/main/nicegui/__init__.py, native is not part of __all__ and therefore not (meant to be) public. So it should be safe to change the signature of native.activate.