Features | Requirements | Installation | Usage | Documentation | License

ℹ Webview project is now deprecated, as it is now part of the LuaRT distribution

🔹Features

• LuaRT binary module wrapping the Microsoft Edge Webview2 component
• HTML/Javascript/CSS render widget for Windows 7 and later
• Embed web content (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) in your LuaRT applications
• Build fast and lightweight Web Applications (in less than 300kb !), no .NET, no UWP, no WinRT
• Messages based communication between LuaRT (backend) and Javascript (frontend)
• Evaluate Javascript expressions dynamically in your Lua application
• Render files from a virtual host (ie a local folder)
• No other dependencies (no need for Webview2Loader.dll)

Check out Webview's homepage for a short presentation.

🔹Requirements

LuaRT programming framework

Webview for LuaRT is not a standalone module, it depends on the LuaRT toolchain which must have already been installed before proceeding. Go to the LuaRT Homepage if you have not already installed it.

Microsoft Edge Webview2 runtime

Webview for LuaRT depends on the Microsoft Edge Webview2 runtime.The runtime is already installed on Windows 10 and Windows 11. If not, follow this link to download and install the Microsoft Edge Webview2 runtime

🔹Installation

Installation

Method 1 : Webview for LuaRT release package 📦

The preferred way to get the Webview widget is to download the latest binary release available on GitHub. Be sure to download the package that correspond to your LuaRT toolchain (x64 or x86).

Just unpack the downloaded archive to get the Webview.dll LuaRT binary module, and put it in the modules\ folder of your LuaRT distribution.

Method 2 : Webview for LuaRT from sources ⚙️

All you need to build the Webview widget from sources is a valid installation of the Mingw-w64 distribution (actually tested using GCC 8.1+), feedback is welcome for other C/C++ compilers.

First clone the Webview repository (or manualy download the repository) :

git clone https://github.com/samyeyo/Webview.git

Then go to the root directory of the repository and type make:

cd Webview\
make

LuaRT path and platform will then be autodetected. If it failed, you can still set the LUART_PATH variable in the Makefile.
If everything went right, it will produce the Webview.dll LuaRT binary module.

To install the module in the modules\ folder of your LuaRT distribution type the following command :

make install

🔹Usage

The LuaRT module must be used by the desktop LuaRT interpreter, wluart.exe. To use the LuaRT module in your applications, just require for the webview module to load it.

Once loaded, the Webview widget is added to the ui module and can be used as in this script :

-- save this script as 'example.wlua'
-- Run it with 'wluart example.wlua' or double-click on it on a Windows explorer window

local ui = require "ui"
require "webview"

-- Creates a Window
local win = ui.Window("Webview for LuaRT", 640, 540)

-- Creates a Webview widget
local wv = ui.Webview(win, "https://www.luart.org")

-- Make it aligned to the entire window
wv.align = "all"

-- Center and show the main Window
win:center()
win:show()

-- Update ui until the main window is closed
while win.visible do
    ui.update()
end

Note

The Webview.dll library must be in the current directory, or in your LUA_CPATH

The Webview.dll can be loaded in memory if you compile your application to executable with the rtc compiler

Webview for LuaRT aims to be lightweight, with a small footprint. The previous example, once compiled to executable, represent only 250kb in size, consumes 256Mb of RAM and 3.7% of CPU.

Don't hesitate to run the provided examples to get more familiar with the Webview widget, and to read the documentation for the various methods and properties (see link below).

🔹Documentation

• 🏡 Homepage
• 📖 Webview for LuaRT Documentation

🔹License

Webview for LuaRT is copyright (c) 2023 Samir Tine. Webview for LuaRT is open source, released under the MIT License.

See full copyright notice in the LICENSE file.