KuzuDB-net

.NET Wrapper for KuzuDB

This project contains the necessary library files to use the Kùzu graph database (https://kuzudb.com/) in .NET applications.

You can either download the prebuilt libraries (see: Get the prebuilt libaries) or build them yourself. The project uses SWIG (www.swig.org) to automatically generate C# wrapper code and Visual Studio to build the library.

Get the prebuilt libaries

The prebuilt libraries will be published in the releases of this repo. For information on the usage, look into the General Usage section or consult the C# and VB example projects in the KuzuDB-Net folder.

Folder structure

• KuzuDB-Net

  • Contains a C# project to create the library DLL
  • Contains an example VB.Net project to test the DLL
  • Contains an example C# project to test the DLL

• KuzuFiles

  • Kuzu files (.h, .dll, .lib, etc.) should be added here (see: Building the libraries yourself)
  • the generated_classes subfolder will hold the SWIG generated C# wrapper classes

• SWIG-Input File

  • Contains the SWIG interface file for SWIG to generate the C# wrapper files and kuzu_wrap.cpp

• wrapperlib

  • Will contain the needed files to build kuzunet.dll

Building the libraries yourself

The build process with the code from this repo was last tested with the following setup:

• Windows 11
• Visual Studio Community 22 with "Desktop Development with C++" package and .NET Framework 4.8
• Kuzu v.0.3.2
• SWIG version 4.2.1
• cmake 3.29.2
• ninja 1.12.0

Use the following steps to build your own version of the library files:

1. Get the newest version of Kuzu C/C++ libs (see last tested versions above)

• create KuzuFiles dir and generated_classes inside of it
• Download the c/c++ windows lib from https://github.com/kuzudb/kuzu/releases/
• put the files(.h, .dll, .lib, etc.) in KuzuFiles folder

2. Use SWIG to generate class files and wrapper

• Install swig (see last tested versions above).
• Generate C# classes and kuzu_wrap.cpp by using the provided SWIG interface file with the following command

swig -c++ -csharp -IKuzuFiles/ -outdir "KuzuFiles/generated_classes/" -o wrapperlib/kuzu_wrap.cpp SWIG-InputFile/kuzu.i

3. Build kuzunet.dll

• check that you have Visual Studio with C++ dev package, as well as cmake and kuzu as described above
• build kuzunet.dll using cmake and ninja in the wrapperlib folder with following commands:

cd wrapperlib
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G Ninja .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
ninja

4. Build and test the lib files

In the KuzuDB-net folder is a KuzuDB-TestAndExplorer.sln file. It includes three things:

• The C# project to build the datbase .dll
• A small VB project to test the outcome
• A small C# project to test the outcome

For building the libary you need the KuzuDB-Net C# project

• open the sln file
• add all the files from KuzuFiles/generated_classes to the projects WrapperFiles folder (replace the existing ones)
• add kuzu_shared.dll (from KuzuFiles) and kuzunet.dll (from wrapperlib/build) to the KuzuNet-DB project (replace the existing ones)
• select Copy if newer for the added kuzu_shared.dll and kuzunet.dll

For testing your library you need to:

• open the .sln file
• make sure the KuzuDB-TestAndExplorer project has the KuzuDB-Net project as reference
• build the solution

General Usage

To you use the library in your .NET project, you have two options:

Option 1: Copy the downloaded or built lib files

Add the following files to your application directory (where your .exe file is): kuzu_shared.dll KuzuDB.dll kuzunet.dll

An add KuzuDB.dll as reference to your project.

Option 2: Add the lib building project as dependency

Use Visual Studio and add KuzuDB-Net project as project reference to your project (see example projects in KuzuDB-TestAndExplorer.sln).

Use the lib in VB or C#

C# Usage

using static kuzunet;

Visual Basic Usage

Imports kuzunet

Check the examples in KuzuDB-TestAndExplorer.sln for minimal VB and C# examples.