The WinFormedge Project

This is a .NET library based on Microsoft WebView2 that can buid powerful WinForm applications with HTML, CSS and JavaScript easily.

✨ About

WinFormedge is an open-source .NET library built on Microsoft WebView2, enabling developers to create modern, visually appealing WinForms applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With WinFormedge, you can seamlessly integrate web technologies into your WinForm projects, allowing for rich and interactive user interfaces.

The inspiration behind WinFormedge comes from another project I maintain: WinFormium (also known as NanUI). Like WinFormedge, WinFormium lets developers build WinForms applications using web technologies—but unlike WinFormedge, it relies on the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF).

🖥️ Requirements

Development Environment:

• Visual Studio 2022
• .NET 8.0 or higher

Deployment Environment:

• Windows 10 1903 or higher

This is a Windows ONLY library. It is not compatible with other operating systems.

The minimum supported operating system is Windows 10 version 1903 (May 2019 Update). And some fetures such as SystemBackdrop and SystemColorMode are only available on Windows 11.

📋 Milestones

The project is currently in the early stages of development. The following milestones are planned for the project:

• Implement features of the Form
  • Default Form
  • Borderless Form
  • Fullscreen mode
  • System color mode
  • SystemBackdrop
  • DirectCompostion Visual Tree (for CoreWebView2CompositionController)
• Implement features of the WebView
  • WebView2Environment
  • WebView2Controller
  • Interfaces of WebView2 like WebView2 Control for WinForm
  • Custom Context Menu
  • AppRegion support
  • Resizing and Moving actions on Borderless Form
  • Embedded File Resources for WebResourceRequest & WebResourceResponse
  • Proxy File Resources for WebResourceRequest & WebResourceResponse
• JavaScript Interop
  • ExecuteScriptAsync
  • AddScriptToExecuteOnDocumentCreated
  • Internal window host object
  • JavaScript to C# Interop

🧩 Changelog

The changelog for the WinFormedge project is available in the CHANGELOG.md file. It contains a detailed list of changes, bug fixes, and new features added to the project. The changelog is updated regularly to reflect the latest changes in the project.

🔧 Installation

The release of WinFormedge library is not available yet and it will be on NuGet soon after the first release. if you want to try it, you can build the library by using the source code in this moment.

When the project is released, it will be available on NuGet. You can install it by using the NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio.

🪄 Getting Started

Create a WinForm Application by using default project template

1. Replace initialization code by using WinFormedge application initialization procedure.

You should use FormedgeApp instead of Application class to initialize your WinForm application in the program.cs file. The FormedgeApp class is a builder for creating a WinFormedge application. It provides methods for configuring the application and running it.

using WinFormedge;

namespace MinimalExampleApp;

internal static class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize();

        var app = FormedgeApp.CreateBuilder()
            .UseDevTools()
            .UseWinFormedgeApp<MyFormedgeApp>().Build();

        app.Run();
    }
}

When the FormedgeApp class is created, it will automatically initialize the WebView2 environment and run the message loop.

2. Create a AppStartup class.

The AppStartup class is the entry point of your WinFormedge application. It provides methods for configuring the application. You can override the OnApplicationLaunched method to perform any initialization tasks before the application starts.

And you must override the OnApplicationStartup method to create the main window of your application. If the OnApplicationStartup method returns values created by StartupOptions class, the FormedgeApp class will create the main window of your application. Otherwise if the OnApplicationStartup method returns null the application will be closed.

using WinFormedge;

namespace MinimalExampleApp;

internal class MyFormedgeApp : AppStartup
{
    protected override bool OnApplicationLaunched(string[] args)
    {

        return true;
    }
    protected override AppCreationAction? OnApplicationStartup(StartupOptions options)
    {
        return options.UseMainWindow(new MyWindow());
    }
}

You can do some staffs like User Login, User Settings, etc. in the OnApplicationStartup method to determine using which window to start the application. Andalso you can end the application by returning null if conditions are not met.

3. Create a MainWindow class.

The MainWindow class is the main window of your application. It inherits from the Formedge class. You can use the Formedge class to create a window with a WebView2 control.

using WinFormedge;
using Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core;

namespace MinimalExampleApp;
internal class MyWindow : Formedge
{
    public MyWindow()
    {
        Load += MyWindow_Load;
        DOMContentLoaded += MyWindow_DOMContentLoaded;

        Url = "https://cn.bing.com";
    }

    private void MyWindow_Load(object? sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Window and WebView2 are ready to use here.
    }

    private void MyWindow_DOMContentLoaded(object? sender, CoreWebView2DOMContentLoadedEventArgs e)
    {
        // The DOM content is loaded and ready to use here.
        ExecuteScriptAsync(""""
(()=>{
const headerEl = document.querySelector("#hdr");
headerEl.style.appRegion="drag";
})();
        """");
    }

    protected override WindowSettings ConfigureHostWindowSettings(HostWindowBuilder opts)
    {
        // Configure the host window settings here.
        var win = opts.UseDefaultWindow();

        win.ExtendsContentIntoTitleBar = true;
        win.MinimumSize = new Size(960, 480);
        win.Size = new Size(1280, 800);
        win.SystemBackdropType = SystemBackdropType.MicaAlt;
        win.AllowFullScreen = true;

        return win;
    }
}

Codes above creates a Formedge window. By using Url property, you can set the initial URL of the window. Sets the ExtendsContentIntoTitleBar property to true to extend the WebView into the non-client area of the window to create a borderless window. You can also set the Size property to set the initial size of the window.

The Load event is raised when the window and WebView2 are ready to use. You can use this event to perform any initialization tasks that require the WebView2 control to be ready.

The DOMContentLoaded event is raised when the DOM content is loaded and ready to use. You can use this event to perform any tasks that require the DOM content to be loaded. As you can see in the example, you can use the ExecuteScriptAsync method to execute JavaScript code in the WebView2 control. The JavaScript code in the example sets the appRegion property of the header element to drag, which allows the user to drag the window by clicking and dragging the element on these rectangles.

4. Run the application.

You can run the application by pressing F5 in Visual Studio. The application will create a window with a WebView2 control that displays the Bing homepage.

You can drag the window by clicking and dragging the header element of the page and resize the window by dragging the edges of the window.

📚 Documentation

The documentation for the WinFormedge project is not available yet. However, you can find the source code and examples in the src and examples folders. The source code is well-documented and provides examples of how to use the WinFormedge library right now.

🛠️ Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have any ideas, suggestions, or bug reports, please feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

• Microsoft WebView2
• Chromium Embedded Framework
• NanUI
• WinFormium