[webkit-dev] Fwd: Q: Webkit on Windows without COM registration (as wrapped DLL only?)

[Brent Fulgham]

Whoops!  Forgot to cc the list.  Might be of general interest.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brent Fulgham <bfulgham at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: [webkit-dev] Q: Webkit on Windows without COM
registration (as wrapped DLL only?)
To: Thomas Brodt <thomas.brodt at porabo.ch>


Hi Thomas,

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 9:01 AM, Thomas Brodt <thomas.brodt at porabo.ch> wrote:
>>> One way to use Webkit on windows is the COM component which exposes
>>> some COM Interfaces that can be used to drive Webkit (I use Brent
>>> Fulgham's cairo based port without the Apple DLLs). This approach
>>> seems to work quite well as far as may experiments went. However,
>>> this COM solution requires that webkit.dll is registered with the
>>> Windows OS. This may be an issue in managed environments where
>>> restricted users cannot register the DLL after copying it in the
>>> application directory, so COM won't work for them. Or if several
>>> copies of Webkit in different version for different deployed
>>> applications are installed on a system, this may lead to problems,
>>> because only one path can be registered for the COM component.

I'm pleased that you have managed to get the Windows/Cairo build up
and running.  Seems like more and more people are managing to build
and run it, which means the merging to the main WebKit system is going
well.

Recently (well, several months ago) the COM usage was changed so that
you no longer register the DLL.  Assuming you link the DLL properly
(and there has been some confusion about this on IRC), you should be
able to invoke the COM objects inside your application without
WebKit.dll having to be registered at all.  The GUID's are bound into
the program during the manifest linking phase, and everything just
works.  In fact, this is how the WinLauncher works with WebKit.

Hope this helps,

-Brent