WebView2 in PowerShell Winform GUI - winforms

Question

I have not been able to find any information on this so I'm not sure its entirely possible. I'm currently trying to integrate the WebView2 control into my PowerShell Winform GUI. I can see while debugging my script that the webView2 control is created, but nothing ever loads. I have the WebView2 runtime installed.
This is what I have so far:
function Show-test-WebView2Control_psf {
#----------------------------------------------
#region Import the Assemblies
#----------------------------------------------
[void][reflection.assembly]::LoadFile('C:\Tests\Assemblies\Debug\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.dll')
[void][reflection.assembly]::LoadFile('C:\Tests\Assemblies\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll')
[void][reflection.assembly]::LoadFile('C:\Tests\Assemblies\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf.dll')
[void][reflection.assembly]::Load('System.Drawing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a')
[void][reflection.assembly]::Load('System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089')
#endregion Import Assemblies
#----------------------------------------------
#region Generated Form Objects
#----------------------------------------------
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::EnableVisualStyles()
$form1 = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.Form'
$buttonRefresh = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.Button'
$buttonGo = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.Button'
$textbox1 = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.TextBox'
[Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2] $webview = New-Object 'Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2'
$InitialFormWindowState = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState'
#endregion Generated Form Objects
#----------------------------------------------
# User Generated Script
#----------------------------------------------
$form1_Load={
#TODO: Initialize Form Controls here
$webview.Source = ([uri]::new($textbox1.Text))
$webview.Visible = $true
}
$webview_Ready = {
$webview.NavigateToString("https://www.google.com")
}
$webview_CoreWebView2Ready={
$webview.Source = [System.Uri]$textbox1.Text
}
$buttonGo_Click={
#TODO: Place custom script here
$webview.Source = [System.Uri] $textbox1.Text;
}
$webview_SourceChanged={
$form1.Text = $webview.Source.AbsoluteUri;
}
# --End User Generated Script--
#----------------------------------------------
#region Generated Events
#----------------------------------------------
$Form_StateCorrection_Load=
{
#Correct the initial state of the form to prevent the .Net maximized form issue
$form1.WindowState = $InitialFormWindowState
}
$Form_Cleanup_FormClosed=
{
#Remove all event handlers from the controls
try
{
$buttonGo.remove_Click($buttonGo_Click)
$webview.remove_CoreWebView2Ready($webview_CoreWebView2Ready)
$webview.remove_SourceChanged($webview_SourceChanged)
$form1.remove_Load($form1_Load)
$form1.remove_Load($Form_StateCorrection_Load)
$form1.remove_FormClosed($Form_Cleanup_FormClosed)
}
catch { Out-Null <# Prevent PSScriptAnalyzer warning #> }
}
#endregion Generated Events
#----------------------------------------------
#region Generated Form Code
#----------------------------------------------
$form1.SuspendLayout()
#
# form1
#
$form1.Controls.Add($buttonRefresh)
$form1.Controls.Add($buttonGo)
$form1.Controls.Add($textbox1)
$form1.Controls.Add($webview)
$form1.AutoScaleDimensions = New-Object System.Drawing.SizeF(6, 13)
$form1.AutoScaleMode = 'Font'
$form1.ClientSize = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(619, 413)
$form1.Name = 'form1'
$form1.Text = 'Form'
$form1.add_Load($form1_Load)
#
# buttonRefresh
#
$buttonRefresh.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(13, 13)
$buttonRefresh.Name = 'buttonRefresh'
$buttonRefresh.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75, 23)
$buttonRefresh.TabIndex = 3
$buttonRefresh.Text = 'Refresh'
$buttonRefresh.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
#
# buttonGo
#
$buttonGo.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(538, 9)
$buttonGo.Name = 'buttonGo'
$buttonGo.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75, 23)
$buttonGo.TabIndex = 2
$buttonGo.Text = 'Go'
$buttonGo.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$buttonGo.add_Click($buttonGo_Click)
#
# textbox1
#
$textbox1.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(96, 13)
$textbox1.Name = 'textbox1'
$textbox1.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(435, 20)
$textbox1.TabIndex = 1
$textbox1.Text = 'https://www.bing.com'
#
# webview
#
$webview.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(0, 49)
$webview.Name = 'webview'
$webview.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(619, 364)
$webview.TabIndex = 0
$webview.ZoomFactor = 1
$webview.add_SourceChanged($webview_SourceChanged)
$form1.ResumeLayout()
#endregion Generated Form Code
#----------------------------------------------
#Save the initial state of the form
$InitialFormWindowState = $form1.WindowState
#Init the OnLoad event to correct the initial state of the form
$form1.add_Load($Form_StateCorrection_Load)
#Clean up the control events
$form1.add_FormClosed($Form_Cleanup_FormClosed)
#Show the Form
return $form1.ShowDialog()
} #End Function
#Call the form
Show-test-WebView2Control_psf | Out-Null
Is there a way to do this? If so, can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

Trying out your code on my own I had to resolve two issues:
From the webview2 nuget package (for reference I used the WebView2 nuget 1.0.781-prerelease package) I copied the winforms and core DLL from the net45 folder and I copied the x64 webview2loader.dll all into the wv2 folder. You need to ensure the webview2loader.dll of the appropriate CPU architecture is copied next to the core dll.
The default WebView2 user data folder is in the folder containing the host executable. In this case the host executable is powershell and the containing folder isn't writable by normal processes. So you need to change the user data folder which you can do via the CoreWebView2CreationProperties UserDataFolder property before the WebView2 is initialized.
I have the modified code below. Additional work is required to resize and close the WebView2 and resolve other issues.
function Show-test-WebView2Control_psf {
#----------------------------------------------
#region Import the Assemblies
#----------------------------------------------
# I've put the following files in `C:\users\davris\tmp\wv2`
# Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll
# Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.dll
# WebView2Loader.dll
[void][reflection.assembly]::LoadFile('C:\users\davris\tmp\wv2\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.dll')
[void][reflection.assembly]::LoadFile('C:\users\davris\tmp\wv2\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll')
[void][reflection.assembly]::Load('System.Drawing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a')
[void][reflection.assembly]::Load('System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089')
#endregion Import Assemblies
#----------------------------------------------
#region Generated Form Objects
#----------------------------------------------
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::EnableVisualStyles()
$form1 = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.Form'
$buttonRefresh = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.Button'
$buttonGo = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.Button'
$textbox1 = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.TextBox'
[Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2] $webview = New-Object 'Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2'
$webview.CreationProperties = New-Object 'Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.CoreWebView2CreationProperties'
$webview.CreationProperties.UserDataFolder = "C:\users\davris\tmp\wv2\data";
$InitialFormWindowState = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState'
#endregion Generated Form Objects
#----------------------------------------------
# User Generated Script
#----------------------------------------------
$form1_Load={
#TODO: Initialize Form Controls here
$webview.Source = ([uri]::new($textbox1.Text))
$webview.Visible = $true
}
$buttonGo_Click={
#TODO: Place custom script here
$webview.Source = [System.Uri] $textbox1.Text;
}
$webview_SourceChanged={
$form1.Text = $webview.Source.AbsoluteUri;
}
# --End User Generated Script--
#----------------------------------------------
#region Generated Events
#----------------------------------------------
$Form_StateCorrection_Load=
{
#Correct the initial state of the form to prevent the .Net maximized form issue
$form1.WindowState = $InitialFormWindowState
}
$Form_Cleanup_FormClosed=
{
#Remove all event handlers from the controls
try
{
$buttonGo.remove_Click($buttonGo_Click)
$webview.remove_SourceChanged($webview_SourceChanged)
$form1.remove_Load($form1_Load)
$form1.remove_Load($Form_StateCorrection_Load)
$form1.remove_FormClosed($Form_Cleanup_FormClosed)
}
catch { Out-Null <# Prevent PSScriptAnalyzer warning #> }
}
#endregion Generated Events
#----------------------------------------------
#region Generated Form Code
#----------------------------------------------
$form1.SuspendLayout()
#
# form1
#
$form1.Controls.Add($buttonRefresh)
$form1.Controls.Add($buttonGo)
$form1.Controls.Add($textbox1)
$form1.Controls.Add($webview)
$form1.AutoScaleDimensions = New-Object System.Drawing.SizeF(6, 13)
$form1.AutoScaleMode = 'Font'
$form1.ClientSize = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(619, 413)
$form1.Name = 'form1'
$form1.Text = 'Form'
$form1.add_Load($form1_Load)
#
# buttonRefresh
#
$buttonRefresh.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(13, 13)
$buttonRefresh.Name = 'buttonRefresh'
$buttonRefresh.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75, 23)
$buttonRefresh.TabIndex = 3
$buttonRefresh.Text = 'Refresh'
$buttonRefresh.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
#
# buttonGo
#
$buttonGo.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(538, 9)
$buttonGo.Name = 'buttonGo'
$buttonGo.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75, 23)
$buttonGo.TabIndex = 2
$buttonGo.Text = 'Go'
$buttonGo.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$buttonGo.add_Click($buttonGo_Click)
#
# textbox1
#
$textbox1.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(96, 13)
$textbox1.Name = 'textbox1'
$textbox1.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(435, 20)
$textbox1.TabIndex = 1
$textbox1.Text = 'https://www.bing.com'
#
# webview
#
$webview.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(0, 49)
$webview.Name = 'webview'
$webview.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(619, 364)
$webview.TabIndex = 0
$webview.ZoomFactor = 1
$webview.add_SourceChanged($webview_SourceChanged)
$form1.ResumeLayout()
#endregion Generated Form Code
#----------------------------------------------
#Save the initial state of the form
$InitialFormWindowState = $form1.WindowState
#Init the OnLoad event to correct the initial state of the form
$form1.add_Load($Form_StateCorrection_Load)
#Clean up the control events
$form1.add_FormClosed($Form_Cleanup_FormClosed)
#Show the Form
return $form1.ShowDialog()
} #End Function
#Call the form
Show-test-WebView2Control_psf | Out-Null