How to Embed WebView2 Runtimes in .NET Framework Class Library With Fody Weavers

[protegesolutions]

I've read the two or three (closed) posts that mention the need to do this but they don't seem to resolve the issue.

We have a class library (consumed by third-party apps not under our control, and obviously a single file with embedded references) that previously used the WebBrowser control. That was a very simple, easy to use and deploy control that is now past its prime. But trying to employ WebView2 has been quite a struggle. Now we have it working but we can't get the runtimes to be included in the dll. (We would have settled for the WebView control but that has issues running under Admin rights, bizarrely.)

The library is .NET 4.6.2 (for as much backward compatibility in the .NET Framework as possible). We use Fody Weavers to include RestSharp, NLog, etc and have now added Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core, Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms and Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf.

We also have the Costura directive UseRuntimeReferencePaths='true' which I believe is required for .NET Framework projects.

But when I run the app test form - which consumes the library - I get a path error:

The path is not of a legal form.
at System.IO.Path.NormalizePath(String path, Boolean fullCheck, Int32 maxPathLength, Boolean expandShortPaths)
at System.IO.Path.InternalGetDirectoryName(String path)
at Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.CoreWebView2Environment.LoadWebView2LoaderDll()
at Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.CoreWebView2Environment.<CreateAsync>d__3.MoveNext()
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task)
at Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2.<InitCoreWebView2Async>d__23.MoveNext()

I've tried a few things to ensure that the runtimes are included such as embedding them as resources, to no avail.

This is a deal breaker for us if we can't get this working; we MUST have everything included in a single library/dll. So my question is, has anyone managed to do this? (Praying that the answer is, "Sure! Just do this ...".

[yunate]

Hi, @protegesolutions, thanks for your feedback!
The runtime of weview2 in .NET are （let's call it |runtime DLL|）:

• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.dll // optional WinForms application need this
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf.dll // optional WPF application need this
• WebView2Loader.dll

Could you help to check if |runtime DLL| all exist?

And about:
" I've tried a few things to ensure that the runtimes are included such as embedding them as resources; we MUST have everything included in a single library/dll".
Do you mean: You want to package |runtime DLL| into a resource, and when the application run, release them again?

This may be helpful: https://github.com/yunate/Temp

[protegesolutions]

Hi @yunate. Thanks for your reply.

Please also refer to #2645 where I've added a bit more about our situation.

In the original question here, I'm pretty sure, tho not 100% certain, that it is the WebView2Loader.dll references which are not being "found". (I referred to "runtimes" because the files are located in a folder called runtimes, emitted by the compiler.)

As I mention in the question, we were hoping to replace WebBrowser with WebView2 but the deployment (and other*) complications of the latter are making me nervous about fragility, portability, etc.

* We spent a couple of days receiving InvalidCastExceptions which we eventually tracked down to problems with the .csprog files, but that's another story. We just want something simple and bulletproof to handle a pop-up oAuth2 form within the library but I'm beginning to think that we simply have to move that functionality out of the library, which I can see could make more design sense, though it makes things more complicated for the consumer of the library.

[yunate]

• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.dll // optional WinForms application need this
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf.dll // optional WPF application need this
• WebView2Loader.dll

It would be better for the dynamic library above to be seem as dependency. This are used in compilation and should be packaged into application's installer.

The runtime that you confused are msedgewebview2.exe. EmbeddedBrowserWebView.dll and some other files (the dir is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeWebView\Application\103.0.1264.77). This must be installed on the target machines.
This is so-called runtime.