Windows Webview2 Runtime

[leaanthony]

Greetings all!

It's great that we can now target webkit on windows via WebView2. What isn't so great is:

• Not every windows machine has it installed
• The runtime is 150M compressed

So the big question: Should Wails get involved with the installation of the runtime or should that be a deployment concern for the developer?

Before answering that question, I'd suggest going through this thread where they discuss the issue at length.

One thing that keeps playing on my mind is whether or not Wails should generate an NSIS installer that runs the runtime bootstrapper if none is detected. This is obviously a fair bit of work and a detour from the libraries primary goals so would need help if we decide to do this.

👍 for "let's make a distribution solution"
👎 for "that's a deployment concern for the developer"

Also, please feel free to voice your opinions in comments!

[goldalworming]

make distribution solution is great idea, the reason using electron is it's very easy from raw code, build and create installer

[leaanthony]

I've written some code that queries if the system has webview2 runtime installed and if not, prompt the user whether they want to install it. If they click yes, then the bootstrapper installer is downloaded and executed. If it installs successfully, the application can continue running. This adds a tiny amount of overhead to the app.

Do you think this is better than generating a full blown installer?

[leaanthony]

Here's the current solution:

When you run your app on a machine with no runtime, you get this message:

If you click "Ok", then it will download the bootstrapper and run it:

Once it is installed, the app will run:

It's not 100% what I want and there's a small bug but I think this is a pretty good way to go.

[DeltaByte]

Ah fair enough, thanks for explaning

[leaanthony]

I should say that it's also option 2 as well :-)

[Robert-M-Muench]

We are trying a simple wails-based tool with option 2 embed in a corporate environment. The requester to install WebView shows up, but then nothing happens for some users.

Is it be possible for normal users to install WV2, or are any administration rights necessary?

[leaanthony]

I think that might be a conversation you need to have with the corporation. Regarding "install on run" scenarios, Microsoft introduced a breaking change meaning we could not detect user installs any more. There's a ticket for this: #1177
If you would like to take on this ticket, it would be appreciated.

[Robert-M-Muench]

You mention a workaround you have in the WV2 ticket. Is this already included in Wails, or is this #1177

What's the workaround?

[leaanthony]

Here's a comparison of the effect on binary size for different webview2 strategies:

Default template with wails build -production -package -upx -webview2 <strategy>:

Strategy	Filesize	Description
Error	1,492,992 bytes	Notify user that the runtime is needed and exit
Browser	1,495,040 bytes	Notify the user they need to install the runtime and open the download page in a browser
Download (Default)	2,134,528 bytes	Notify user that the runtime needs to be installed and offer to download and run the bootstrapper
Embed	3,369,472 bytes	Notify user that the runtime needs to be installed and offer to install using an embedded bootstrapper

Perhaps Browser should be the default strategy?

[svengreb]

Browser should be fine, at least Wails is scoped to platforms that run a UI so at least one browser can be expected. If not just fall back to Error.

[nickarellano]

I noticed a few things on Windows builds:

1. Sometimes the applications load a white screen and after reopening it displays the program.
2. Some keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl + R crash the program (refresh)

Is this a WebView thing? This is all still alpha I'm just more curious what these behaviors are.

[leaanthony]

Thanks for raising this! Could you please open an issue with steps to reproduce and your current environment (wails doctor) and I'll look at this as a priority 👍

[nickarellano]

Will do! You are really on these comments hahah thank you!

[kylege]

I have the same situation here

[leaanthony]

There were fixes to this pushed to the branch. Please try the latest