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A tiny cross-platform webview library for C/C++ to build modern cross-platform GUIs.

The goal of the project is to create a common HTML5 UI abstraction layer for the most widely used platforms.

It supports two-way JavaScript bindings (to call JavaScript from C/C++ and to call C/C++ from JavaScript).

[!NOTE] Language binding for Go has moved. Versions <= 0.1.1 are available in this repository.

Platform Support

PlatformTechnologies
LinuxGTK, WebKitGTK
macOSCocoa, WebKit
WindowsWindows API, WebView2

Documentation

The most up-to-date documentation is right in the source code. Improving the documentation is a continuous effort and you are more than welcome to contribute.

Prerequisites

Your compiler must support minimum C++11 except for platforms that require a more modern version.

This project uses CMake and Ninja, and while recommended for your convenience, these tools aren't required for using the library.

Linux and BSD

The GTK and WebKitGTK libraries are required for development and distribution. You need to check your package repositories regarding which packages to install.

Packages

Library Dependencies

BSD

Windows

Your compiler must support C++14 and we recommend to pair it with an up-to-date Windows 10 SDK.

For Visual C++ we recommend Visual Studio 2022 or later. There are some requirements when using MinGW-w64.

Developers and end-users must have the WebView2 runtime installed on their system for any version of Windows before Windows 11.

Getting Started

If you are a developer of this project then please go to the development section.

You will have a working app, but you are encouraged to explore the available examples.

Create the following files in a new directory:

.gitignore:

# Build artifacts
/build

C++ Example

CMakeLists.txt:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(example LANGUAGES CXX)

set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin")
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib")
set(CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib")

include(FetchContent)

FetchContent_Declare(
    webview
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/webview/webview
    GIT_TAG 0.12.0)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(webview)

add_executable(example WIN32)
target_sources(example PRIVATE main.cc)
target_link_libraries(example PRIVATE webview::core)

main.cc:

#include "webview/webview.h"

#include <iostream>

#ifdef _WIN32
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE /*hInst*/, HINSTANCE /*hPrevInst*/,
                   LPSTR /*lpCmdLine*/, int /*nCmdShow*/) {
#else
int main() {
#endif
  try {
    webview::webview w(false, nullptr);
    w.set_title("Basic Example");
    w.set_size(480, 320, WEBVIEW_HINT_NONE);
    w.set_html("Thanks for using webview!");
    w.run();
  } catch (const webview::exception &e) {
    std::cerr << e.what() << std::endl;
    return 1;
  }

  return 0;
}

C Example

CMakeLists.txt:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(example LANGUAGES C CXX)

set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin")
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib")
set(CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib")

include(FetchContent)

FetchContent_Declare(
    webview
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/webview/webview
    GIT_TAG 0.12.0)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(webview)

add_executable(example WIN32)
target_sources(example PRIVATE main.c)
target_link_libraries(example PRIVATE webview::core_static)

main.c:

#include "webview/webview.h"
#include <stddef.h>

#ifdef _WIN32
#include <windows.h>
#endif

#ifdef _WIN32
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInst, HINSTANCE hPrevInst, LPSTR lpCmdLine,
                   int nCmdShow) {
  (void)hInst;
  (void)hPrevInst;
  (void)lpCmdLine;
  (void)nCmdShow;
#else
int main(void) {
#endif
  webview_t w = webview_create(0, NULL);
  webview_set_title(w, "Basic Example");
  webview_set_size(w, 480, 320, WEBVIEW_HINT_NONE);
  webview_set_html(w, "Thanks for using webview!");
  webview_run(w);
  webview_destroy(w);
  return 0;
}

Building the Example

Build the project:

cmake -G Ninja -B build -S . -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build

Find the executable in the build/bin directory.

Building Amalgamated Library

An amalgamated library can be built when building the project using CMake, or the amalgamate.py script can be invoked directly.

The latter is described below.

python3 scripts/amalgamate.py --output webview_amalgamation.h core/include/webview/webview.h

See python3 scripts/amalgamate.py --help for script usage.

Non-CMake Usage

Here's an example for invoking GCC/Clang-like compilers directly. Use the main.cc file from the previous example.

Place either the amalgamated webview.h header or all of the individual files into libs/webview, and WebView2.h from MS WebView2 into libs.

Build the project on your chosen platform.

<details> <summary>macOS</summary> <pre><code>c++ main.cc -O2 --std=c++11 -Ilibs -framework WebKit -ldl -o example</code></pre> </details> <details> <summary>Linux</summary> <pre><code>c++ main.cc -O2 --std=c++11 -Ilibs $(pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-3.0 webkit2gtk-4.1) -ldl -o example</code></pre> </details> <details> <summary>Windows</summary> <pre><code>c++ main.cc -O2 --std=c++14 -static -mwindows -Ilibs -ladvapi32 -lole32 -lshell32 -lshlwapi -luser32 -lversion -o example</code></pre> </details>

Customization

CMake Targets

The following CMake targets are available:

NameDescription
webview::coreHeaders for C++.
webview::core_sharedShared library for C.
webview::core_staticStatic library for C.

Special targets for on-demand checks and related tasks:

NameDescription
webview_format_checkCheck files with clang-format.
webview_reformatReformat files with clang-format.

CMake Options

The following boolean options can be used when building the webview project standalone or when building it as part of your project (e.g. with FetchContent).

OptionDescription
WEBVIEW_BUILDEnable building
WEBVIEW_BUILD_AMALGAMATIONBuild amalgamated library
WEBVIEW_BUILD_DOCSBuild documentation
WEBVIEW_BUILD_EXAMPLESBuild examples
WEBVIEW_BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARYBuild shared libraries
WEBVIEW_BUILD_STATIC_LIBRARYBuild static libraries
WEBVIEW_BUILD_TESTSBuild tests
WEBVIEW_ENABLE_CHECKSEnable checks
WEBVIEW_ENABLE_CLANG_FORMATEnable clang-format
WEBVIEW_ENABLE_CLANG_TIDYEnable clang-tidy
WEBVIEW_ENABLE_PACKAGINGEnable packaging
WEBVIEW_INSTALL_DOCSInstall documentation
WEBVIEW_INSTALL_TARGETSInstall targets
WEBVIEW_IS_CIInitialized by the CI environment variable
WEBVIEW_PACKAGE_AMALGAMATIONPackage amalgamated library
WEBVIEW_PACKAGE_DOCSPackage documentation
WEBVIEW_PACKAGE_HEADERSPackage headers
WEBVIEW_PACKAGE_LIBPackage compiled libraries
WEBVIEW_STRICT_CHECKSMake checks strict
WEBVIEW_STRICT_CLANG_FORMATMake clang-format check strict
WEBVIEW_STRICT_CLANG_TIDYMake clang-tidy check strict
WEBVIEW_USE_COMPAT_MINGWUse compatibility helper for MinGW
WEBVIEW_USE_STATIC_MSVC_RUNTIMEUse static runtime library (MSVC)

[!NOTE] Checks are enabled by default, but aren't enforced by default for local development (controlled by the WEBVIEW_IS_CI option).

Non-boolean options:

OptionDescription
WEBVIEW_CLANG_FORMAT_EXEPath of the clang-format executable.
WEBVIEW_CLANG_TIDY_EXEPath of the clang-tidy executable.

Package Consumer Options

These options can be used when when using the webview CMake package.

Linux-specific Options

OptionDescription
WEBVIEW_WEBKITGTK_APIWebKitGTK API to interface with, e.g. 6.0, 4.1 (recommended) or 4.0. This will also automatically decide the GTK version. Uses the latest recommended API by default if available, or the latest known and available API. Note that there can be major differences between API versions that can affect feature availability. See webview API documentation for details on feature availability.

Windows-specific Options

OptionDescription
WEBVIEW_MSWEBVIEW2_VERSIONMS WebView2 version, e.g. 1.0.1150.38.
WEBVIEW_USE_BUILTIN_MSWEBVIEW2Use built-in MS WebView2.

Compile-time Options

These options can be specified as preprocessor macros to modify the build, but are not needed when using CMake.

C API Linkage

NameDescription
WEBVIEW_APIControls C API linkage, symbol visibility and whether it's a shared library. By default this is inline for C++ and extern for C.
WEBVIEW_BUILD_SHAREDModifies WEBVIEW_API for building a shared library.
WEBVIEW_SHAREDModifies WEBVIEW_API for using a shared library.
WEBVIEW_STATICModifies WEBVIEW_API for building or using a static library.

Backend Selection

NameDescription
WEBVIEW_GTKCompile the GTK/WebKitGTK backend.
WEBVIEW_COCOACompile the Cocoa/WebKit backend.
WEBVIEW_EDGECompile the Win32/WebView2 backend.

Windows-specific Options

OptionDescription
WEBVIEW_MSWEBVIEW2_BUILTIN_IMPLEnables (1) or disables (0) the built-in implementation of the WebView2 loader. Enabling this avoids the need for WebView2Loader.dll but if the DLL is present then the DLL takes priority. This option is enabled by default.
WEBVIEW_MSWEBVIEW2_EXPLICIT_LINKEnables (1) or disables (0) explicit linking of WebView2Loader.dll. Enabling this avoids the need for import libraries (*.lib). This option is enabled by default if WEBVIEW_MSWEBVIEW2_BUILTIN_IMPL is enabled.

MinGW-w64 Requirements

In order to build this library using MinGW-w64 on Windows then it must support C++14 and have an up-to-date Windows SDK.

Distributions that are known to be compatible:

MS WebView2 Loader

Linking the WebView2 loader part of the Microsoft WebView2 SDK is not a hard requirement when using our webview library, and neither is distributing WebView2Loader.dll with your app.

If, however, WebView2Loader.dll is loadable at runtime, e.g. from the executable's directory, then it will be used; otherwise our minimalistic implementation will be used instead.

Should you wish to use the official loader then remember to distribute it along with your app unless you link it statically. Linking it statically is possible with Visual C++ but not MinGW-w64.

Here are some of the noteworthy ways our implementation of the loader differs from the official implementation:

Customization options can be used to change how the library integrates the WebView2 loader.

Development

This project uses the CMake build system.

Development Dependencies

In addition to the dependencies mentioned earlier in this document for developing with the webview library, the following are used during development of the webview library.

Building

cmake -G "Ninja Multi-Config" -B build -S .
cmake --build build --config CONFIG

Replace CONFIG with one of Debug, Release, or Profile. Use Profile to enable code coverage (GCC/Clang).

Run tests:

ctest --test-dir build --build-config CONFIG

Generate test coverage report:

gcovr

Find the coverage report in build/coverage.

Packaging

Run this after building the Debug and Release configs of the project:

cd build
cpack -G External -C "Debug;Release" --config CPackConfig.cmake

Cross-compilation

See CMake toolchain files in the cmake/toolchains directory.

For example, this targets Windows x64 on Linux with POSIX threads:

cmake -G "Ninja Multi-Config" -B build -S . -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/x86_64-w64-mingw32.cmake -D WEBVIEW_TOOLCHAIN_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX=-posix
cmake --build build --config CONFIG

Limitations

Browser Features

Since a browser engine is not a full web browser it may not support every feature you may expect from a browser. If you find that a feature does not work as expected then please consult with the browser engine's documentation and open an issue if you think that the library should support it.

For example, the library does not attempt to support user interaction features like alert(), confirm() and prompt() and other non-essential features like console.log().

Bindings

LanguageProject
Adathechampagne/webview-ada
Buntr1ckydev/webview-bun
C#webview/webview_csharp
C3thechampagne/webview-c3
Crystalnaqvis/webview
Dthechampagne/webview-d, ronnie-w/webviewd
Denowebview/webview_deno
Gowebview/webview_go
HarbourEricLendvai/Harbour_WebView
Haskelllettier/webviewhs
Janetjanet-lang/webview
Javawebview/webview_java
KotlinWinterreisender/webviewko
Nimoskca/webview, neroist/webview
Node.jsWinterreisender/webview-nodejs
Odinthechampagne/webview-odin
PascalPierceNg/fpwebview
Pythonzserge/webview-python
PHP0hr/php-webview
RubyMaaarcocr/webview_ruby
RustBoscop/web-view
Swiftjakenvac/SwiftWebview
Vmalisipi/mui, ttytm/webview
Zigthechampagne/webview-zig

If you wish to add bindings to the list, feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue.

Generating Bindings

You can generate bindings for the library by yourself using the included SWIG interface (webview.i).

Here are some examples to get you started. Unix-style command lines are used for conciseness.

mkdir -p build/bindings/{python,csharp,java,ruby}
swig -c++ -python -outdir build/bindings/python -o build/bindings/python/python_wrap.cpp webview.i
swig -c++ -csharp -outdir build/bindings/csharp -o build/bindings/csharp/csharp_wrap.cpp webview.i
swig -c++ -java -outdir build/bindings/java -o build/bindings/java/java_wrap.cpp webview.i
swig -c++ -ruby -outdir build/bindings/ruby -o build/bindings/ruby/ruby_wrap.cpp webview.i

License

Code is distributed under MIT license, feel free to use it in your proprietary projects as well.