PluginWebView - Make skin using web technology

[Yincognito]

Well, tested and it seems it doesn't really work. In fact to be precise, it doesn't work at all, I couldn1t even activate none of the skins included into the PluginWebViewExample package. What was extremely weird was that when tried to activate a skin, after a few seconds I got the following message on the screen:

Message.png

Don't really know what does this mean. It's quite weird in my opinion and have no idea what to do with this. Has anyone an idea?

Yes, I know what it means: it's the message that the plugin developer uses to download the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime (or its "Evergreen Bootstrapper" as it is called) from the internet, in case the WebView2 RunTime isn't yet installed on the computer used to run the skin. It's basically a dialog box to download this dependency (similar to dependencies in other cases, e.g. Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables, etc.), without which one cannot make use of the WebView2 plugin.

The text of the message is a bit of a "scary joke" by the plugin developer, but it's safe, as far as I know. So, in short, the computer you ran the skin on didn't have the Edge WebView2 "runtime redistributable" installed, thus the WebView2 skins could not produce the expected outcome, that's all.

[balala]

Yes, I know what it means: it's the message that the plugin developer uses to download the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime (or its "Evergreen Bootstrapper" as it is called) from the internet, in case the WebView2 RunTime isn't yet installed on the computer used to run the skin. It's basically a dialog box to download this dependency (similar to dependencies in other cases, e.g. Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables, etc.), without which one cannot make use of the WebView2 plugin.

Alright, I see, thanks for the information. WebView2 RunTime most probably indeed isn't installed yet. Don't know right now, because as said the computer running Windows 7 is on my workside and I don't have access right now, but tomorrow I'm gonna try to install it, if I can. However right now the package is not available it seems. When clicking the Download the WebView2 Runtime link on the linked MS site (under the Understanding the options at the Runtime download page section), I get a This page isn’t working right now message. The Evergreen Standalone Installer, under the Offline deployment section is also not available right now, so what should I have to install?

The text of the message is a bit of a "scary joke" by the plugin developer, but it's safe, as far as I know. So, in short, the computer you ran the skin on didn't have the Edge WebView2 "runtime redistributable" installed, thus the WebView2 skins could not produce the expected outcome, that's all.

I didn't worry too much, however the message was indeed more or less weird.

[Yincognito]

However right now the package is not available it seems. When clicking the Download the WebView2 Runtime link on the linked MS site (under the Understanding the options at the Runtime download page section), I get a This page isn’t working right now message. The Evergreen Standalone Installer, under the Offline deployment section is also not available right now, so what should I have to install?

Yes, I get that too - it seems to be unavailable for the moment. Not sure how long this will last, but probably tomorrow you'll have better chances. What I can tell you is that it worked without any issues at other times in the past (I already have both the online and the offline versions of the installer, i.e. a 2 MB and a 125 MB executable saved on my computer, but of course the offline one is too big to post here), so maybe what we experience is just a temporary technical difficulty. Or maybe they're preparing the page for the new version (109, I think) which won't work on Win7 anymore at the end of this month, I don't know.

Alright, got an idea: here is the Sofpedia link, you can download it from there. It would be best to do this tomorrow as well where you work and download the offline installer, in case the Microsoft page still won't work (though I find it unlikely) by then.

[balala]

Alright, got an idea: here is the Sofpedia link, you can download it from there. It would be best to do this tomorrow as well where you work and download the offline installer, in case the Microsoft page still won't work (though I find it unlikely) by then.

Alright, thanks for the link, I downloaded the file now. Tomorrow will try it out and will come back with the result.

[RonXTCdaBass]

Hello again!

nice to see so much action here ^^

i´ve tested the x86 version of the WebView2 package and then i had the same Message window to load the file from the darknet

so i uninstalled again, cleared the folders and registry and re-installed the 64bit Version. No Error Messages.
but still nothing to see in the skins.

all my Browsers shows all correct.
-> Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables, etc. all installed and other programs which use this, are working.

so i think really it will not work at Win7 anymore.

I have tried another skin from this Forum -

TwitchChat_Rainmeter_1.1.rmskin

but this let instant crash the rainmeter app after i filled in my data.

okay, it was an idea but it seems no way without upgrade my system to win10...

from my side, many thanks to all who wanna help!
I'm curious if there might be another possibility for Win7 users ^^ to show websites or parts of, in rainmeter.

[balala]

Well, let's hope balala will be able to test if the sample skins (e.g. the Youtube one, or others)

Unfortunately yesterday had no enough time to try installing the needed MS Edge WebView2 Runtime, due to some other tasks I had to work with, but finally today I tried it.
The computer didn't have indeed the software installed. When activated any skin of the example package (posted on the first post of this topic), same way as previously, I got the "Click OK to get one from the darkweb" message. Unlike before, now I clicked OK (previously didn't really want to click it). When I did this, the needed software started to be downloaded and installed. Was no need to look for the appropriate link, to install it manually or anything like this. Simply got it installed.
But that's all. None skin of the package couldn't be activated. In fact they were activated, but shown up nothing, remained empty. No error messages in log, nor result on screen, nothing. See how the activated weather skin is looking:

Screenshot weather.png

So, taking into account what has been said:

I´m using Win7 64bit, have installed the MS Edge and the Webview components but all tries to use this shown only empty borders.
no content.

I suppose this plugin doesn't really support Windows 7. Might be wrong (however I doubt, to be honest), but this is my guess.
Maybe the author of the plugin (khanhas) should come to tell us if I'm right. Waiting him, however he is not active on the forum for little bit more than a year, so don't know...

[RonXTCdaBass]

Unfortunately yesterday had no enough time to try installing the needed MS Edge WebView2 Runtime, due to some other tasks I had to work with, but finally today I tried it.
The computer didn't have indeed the software installed. When activated any skin of the example package (posted on the first post of this topic), same way as previously, I got the "Click OK to get one from the darkweb" message. Unlike before, now I clicked OK (previously didn't really want to click it). When I did this, the needed software started to be downloaded and installed. Was no need to look for the appropriate link, to install it manually or anything like this. Simply got it installed.
But that's all. None skin of the package couldn't be activated. In fact they were activated, but shown up nothing, remained empty. No error messages in log, nor result on screen, nothing. See how the activated weather skin is looking:

Screenshot weather.png

So, taking into account what has been said:

I suppose this plugin doesn't really support Windows 7. Might be wrong (however I doubt, to be honest), but this is my guess.
Maybe the author of the plugin (khanhas) should come to tell us if I'm right. Waiting him, however he is not active on the forum for little bit more than a year, so don't know...

this is 100% what i mean

[Active Colors]

Unfortunately yesterday had no enough time to try installing the needed MS Edge WebView2 Runtime, due to some other tasks I had to work with, but finally today I tried it.
The computer didn't have indeed the software installed. When activated any skin of the example package (posted on the first post of this topic), same way as previously, I got the "Click OK to get one from the darkweb" message. Unlike before, now I clicked OK (previously didn't really want to click it). When I did this, the needed software started to be downloaded and installed. Was no need to look for the appropriate link, to install it manually or anything like this. Simply got it installed.
But that's all. None skin of the package couldn't be activated. In fact they were activated, but shown up nothing, remained empty. No error messages in log, nor result on screen, nothing. See how the activated weather skin is looking:

Screenshot weather.png

So, taking into account what has been said:

I suppose this plugin doesn't really support Windows 7. Might be wrong (however I doubt, to be honest), but this is my guess.
Maybe the author of the plugin (khanhas) should come to tell us if I'm right. Waiting him, however he is not active on the forum for little bit more than a year, so don't know...

This used to work on my laptop with Win7. I am going to check it later.
By the way, I have recently got a new laptop and installed Win10 on it

[balala]

this is 100% what i mean

This used to work on my laptop with Win7. I am going to check it later.

Please do so and let us know. Am curios...

By the way, I have recently got a new laptop and installed Win10 on it

Very good. Even if it's looking good, Windows 7 is obsolete for now. Shouldn't have to be used anymore...

[Yincognito]

I suppose this plugin doesn't really support Windows 7. Might be wrong (however I doubt, to be honest), but this is my guess.

Hmm... I still believe it's not the plugin at fault here, since it's just an implementation to make use of the WebView2 technology. My impression is that it's either WebView2 itself, or, like alluded earlier, some other dependency needed to have it all working. I experienced this type of "silent failure" in other cases as well (not related to this), and properly setting up other areas of the "Windows macrosystem" fixed things then. Nice job trying though!

This used to work on my laptop with Win7. I am going to check it later.
By the way, I have recently got a new laptop and installed Win10 on it

Excellent, we're curious on how that will go. I have a friend that used to have Win7 and he could have tested this too, but I convinced him to move to Win10 some time ago, so I can't ask him to try it anymore (well, it would actually be me who would to be honest, via TeamViewer and such, since he's not really into Rainmeter skins or plugins).