API

October 19, 2018About 11 min

API

webview.active_window

webview.active_window()

Get an instance of the currently active window

webview.create_window

webview.create_window(title, url=None, html=None, js_api=None, width=800, height=600,
                      x=None, y=None, screen=None, resizable=True, fullscreen=False,
                      min_size=(200, 100), hidden=False, frameless=False,
                      easy_drag=True, shadow=False, focus=True, minimized=False, maximized=False,
                      on_top=False, confirm_close=False, background_color='#FFFFFF',
                      transparent=False, text_select=False, zoomable=False,
                      draggable=False, server=http.BottleServer, server_args={},
                      localization=None)

Create a new pywebview window and returns its instance. Can be used to create multiple windows (except Android). Window is not shown until the GUI loop is started. If the function is invoked during the GUI loop, the window is displayed immediately.

title - Window title
url - URL to load. If the URL does not have a protocol prefix, it is resolved as a path relative to the application entry point. Alternatively a WSGI server object can be passed to start a local web server.
html - HTML code to load. If both URL and HTML are specified, HTML takes precedence.
js_api - Expose a python object to the Javascript domain of the current pywebview window. Methods of the js_api object can be invoked from Javascript by calling window.pywebview.api.<methodname>(<parameters>) functions. Exposed function return a promise that return once function returns. Only basic Python objects (like int, str, dict, ...) can be returned to Javascript.
width - Window width. Default is 800px.
height - Window height. Default is 600px.
x - Window x coordinate. Default is centered.
y - Window y coordinate. Default is centered.
screen - Screen to display window on. screen is a screen instance returned by webview.screens.
resizable - Whether window can be resized. Default is True
fullscreen - Start in fullscreen mode. Default is False
min_size - a (width, height) tuple that specifies a minimum window size. Default is 200x100
hidden - Create a window hidden by default. Default is False
frameless - Create a frameless window. Default is False.
easy_drag - Easy drag mode for frameless windows. Window can be moved by dragging any point. Default is True. Note that easy_drag has no effect with normal windows. To control dragging on an element basis, see drag area for details.
shadow - Add window shadow. Default is False. Windows only.
focus - Create a non-focusable window if False. Default is True.
minimized - Display window minimized
maximized - Display window maximized
on_top - Set window to be always on top of other windows. Default is False.
confirm_close - Whether to display a window close confirmation dialog. Default is False
background_color - Background color of the window displayed before WebView is loaded. Specified as a hex color. Default is white.
transparent - Create a transparent window. Not supported on Windows. Default is False. Note that this setting does not hide or make window chrome transparent. To hide window chrome set frameless to True.
text_select - Enables document text selection. Default is False. To control text selection on per element basis, use user-select CSS property.
zoomable - Enable document zooming. Default is False
draggable - Enable image and link object dragging. Default is False server=http.BottleServer, server_args
vibrancy - Enable window vibrancy. Default is False. macOS only.
server - A custom WSGI server instance for this window. Defaults to BottleServer.
server_args - Dictionary of arguments to pass through to the server instantiation
localization - pass a localization dictionary for per window localization.

webview.start

webview.start(func=None, args=None, localization={}, gui=None, debug=False,
              http_server=False, http_port=None, user_agent=None, private_mode=True,
              storage_path=None, menu=[], server=http.BottleServer, ssl=False,
              server_args={}, icon=None):

Start a GUI loop and display previously created windows. This function must be called from a main thread.

func - function to invoke upon starting the GUI loop.
args - function arguments. Can be either a single value or a tuple of values.
localization - a dictionary with localized strings. Default strings and their keys are defined in localization.py
gui - force a specific GUI. Allowed values are cef, qt or gtk depending on a platform. See Web Engine for details.
debug - enable debug mode. See Debugging for details.
http_server - enable built-in HTTP server for absolute local paths. For relative paths HTTP server is started automatically and cannot be disabled. For each window, a separate HTTP server is spawned. This option is ignored for non-local URLs.
http_port - specify a port number for the HTTP server. By default port is randomized.
user_agent - change user agent string.
private_mode - Control whether cookies and other persistant objects are stored between session. By default private mode is on and nothing is stored between sessions.
storage_path - An optional location on hard drive where to store persistant objects like cookies and local storage. By default ~/.pywebview is used on *nix systems and %APPDATA%\pywebview on Windows.
menu - Pass a list of Menu objects to create an application menu. See this example for usage details.
server - A custom WSGI server instance. Defaults to BottleServer.
ssl - If using the default BottleServer (and for now the GTK backend), will use SSL encryption between the webview and the internal server. You need to have cryptography pip dependency installed in order to use ssl. It is not installed by default.
server_args - Dictionary of arguments to pass through to the server instantiation
icon - path to application icon. Available only for GTK / QT. For other platforms icon should be specified via a bundler.

Examples

webview.screens

webview.screens

Return a list of available displays (as Screen objects) with the primary display as the first element of the list.

Examples

Simple window

webview.settings

webview.settings = {
  'ALLOW_DOWNLOADS': False,
  'ALLOW_FILE_URLS': True,
  'OPEN_EXTERNAL_LINKS_IN_BROWSER': True,
  'OPEN_DEVTOOLS_IN_DEBUG': True,
  'REMOTE_DEBUGGING_PORT': None
}

Additional options that override default behaviour of pywebview to address popular feature requests.

ALLOW_DOWNLOADS Allow file downloads. Disabled by default.
ALLOW_FILE_URLS Enable file:// urls. Disabled by default.
OPEN_EXTERNAL_LINKS_IN_BROWSER. Open target=_blank link in an external browser. Enabled by default.
OPEN_DEVTOOLS_IN_DEBUG Open devtools automatically in debug mode. Enabled by default.
REMOTE_DEBUGGING_PORT Enable remote debugging when using edgechromium. Disabled by default.

Examples

File downloads

webview.token

webview.token

A CSRF token property unique to the session. The same token is exposed as window.pywebview.token. See Security for usage details.

webview.dom

webview.dom.DOMEventHandler

DOMEventHandler(callback, prevent_default=False, stop_propagation=False, stop_immediate_propagation=False, debounce=0)

A container for an event handler used to control propagation or default behaviour of the event. If debounce is greater than zero, Python event handler is debounced by a specified number of milliseconds. This can be useful for events like dragover and mouseover that generate a constant stream of events resulting in poor performance.

Examples

element.events.click += DOMEventHandler(on_click, prevent_default=True, stop_propagation=True, stop_immediate_propagation=True)
element.events.mouseover += DOMEventHandler(on_click, debounce=500)

webview.dom.ManipulationMode

Enum that sets the position of a manipulated DOM element. Possible values are:

LastChild - element is inserted as a last child of the target
FirstChild - element is inserted as a firt child of the target
Before - element is inserted before the target
After - element is inserted after the target
Replace - element is inserted replacing the target

Used by element.append, element.copy, element.move and window.dom.create_element functions.

webview.Element

element.attributes

Get or modify element's attributes. attributes is a PropsDict dict-like object that implements most of dict functions. To add an attribute, you can simply assign a value to a key in attributes. Similarly, to remove an attribute, you can set its value to None.

Examples

element.attributes['id'] = 'container-id' # set element's id
element.attributes['data-flag'] = '1337'
element.attributes['id'] = None # remove element's id
del element.attributes['data-flag'] # remove element's data-flag attribute

element.classes

element.classes

Get or set element's classes. classes is a ClassList list-like object that implements a subset of list functions like append, remove and clear. Additionally it has a toggle function for toggling a class.

Examples

element.classes = ['container', 'red', 'dotted'] # overwrite element's classes
element.classes.remove('red') # remove red class
element.classes.add('blue') # add blue class
element.classes.toggle('dotted')

element.append

element.append(html, mode=webview.dom.ManipulationMode.LastChild)

Insert HTML content to the element as a last child. To control the position of the new element, use the mode parameter. See Manipulation mode for possible values.

element.blur

element.blur()

Blur element.

element.children

element.children

Get element's children elements. Returns a list of Element objects.

element.copy

element.copy(target=None, mode=webview.dom.ManipulationMode.LastChild, id=None)

Create a new copy of the element. target can be either another Element or a DOM selector string. If target is omitted, a copy is created in the current element's parent. To control the position of the new element, use the mode parameter. See Manipulation mode for possible values. The id parameter is stripped from the copy. Optionally you can set the id of the copy by specifying the id parameter.

element.empty

element.empty()

Empty element by removing all its children.

element.events

element.events

A container object of element's all DOM events, ie events.click, event.keydown. This container is dynamically populated and its contents depend on the events a node has. To subscribe to a DOM event, use the += syntax, e.g. element.events.click += callback. Similarly to remove an event listener use -=, eg. element.events.click -= callback. Callback can be either a function or an instance of DOMEventHandler if you need to control propagation of the event.

element.focus

element.focus()

Focus element.

element.focused

element.focused

Get whether the element is focused.

element.hide

element.hide()

Hide element by setting display: none.

element.id

element.id

Get or set element's id. None if id is not set.

element.move

element.move(target, mode=webview.dom.ManipulationMode.LastChild)

Move element to the target that can be either another Element or a DOM selector string. To control the position of the new element, use the mode parameter. See Manipulation mode for possible values.

Examples

DOM Manipulation

element.next

element.next

Get element's next sibling. None if no sibling is present.

element.off

element.off(event, callback)

Remove an event listener. Identical to element.event.event_name -= callback.

Examples

# these two are identical
element.off('click', callback_func)
element.events.click -= callback_func

DOM Events

element.on

element.on(event, callback)

Add an event listener to a DOM event. Callback can be either a function or an instance of DOMEventHandler if you need to control propagation of the event. Identical to element.event.event_name += callback.

Examples

# these two are identical
element.on('click', callback_func)
element.events.click += callback_func

DOM Events

element.parent

element.parent

Get element's parent Element or None if root element is reached.

element.previous

element.previous

Get element's previous sibling. None if no sibling is present.

element.remove

element.remove()

Remove element from DOM. Element object is not destroyed, but marked as removed. Trying to access any properties or invoke any functions of the element will result in a warning.

DOM Manipulation

element.show

element.show()

Show hidden element. If element was hidden with element.hide(), a previous display value is restored. Otherwise display: block is set.

DOM Manipulation

element.style

Get or modify element's styles. style is a PropsDict dict-like object that implements most of dict functions. To add a style declraration, you can simply assign a value to a key in attributes. Similarly, to reset a declaration, you can set its value to None.

Examples

element.style['width'] = '100px' # set element's width to 100px
element.style['display'] = 'flex' # set element's display property to flex
element.style['width'] = None # reset width to auto
del element.attributes['display'] # reset display property to block

element.tabindex

element.tabindex

Get or set element's tabindex.

element.tag

element.tag

Get element's tag name.

element.text

element.text

Get or set element's text content.

element.toggle

element.toggle()

Toggle element's visibility.

element.value

element.value

Get or set element's value. Applicable only to input elements that have a value.

element.visible

element.visible

Get whether the element is visible.

Used to create an application menu. See this example for usage details.

Menu(title, items=[]). Instantiate to create a menu that can be either top level menu or a nested menu. title is the title of the menu and items is a list of actions, separators or other menus.

MenuAction(title, function) Instantiate to create a menu item. title is the name of the item and function is a callback that should be called when menu action is clicked.

MenuSeparator() Instantiate to create a menu separator.

webview.Screen

Represents a display found on the systems. A list of Screen objects is returned by webview.screens property.

screen.height

screen.height

Get display height.

screen.width

screen.width

screen.x

screen.x

screen.y

screen.y

Get display width.

webview.Window

Represents a window that hosts webview. window object is returned by create_window function.

window.title

window.title

Get or set title of the window.

window.on_top

window.on_top

Get or set whether the window is always on top.

window.x

window.x

Get X coordinate of the top-left corrner of the window.

window.y

window.y

Get Y coordinate of the top-left corrner of the window.

window.width

window.width

Get width of the window

window.height

window.height

Get height of the window

window.clear_cookies

window.clear_cookies()

Clear all the cookies including HttpOnly ones.

Example

window.create_confirmation_dialog

window.create_confirmation_dialog(title, message)

Create a confirmation (Ok / Cancel) dialog.

window.create_file_dialog

window.create_file_dialog(dialog_type=OPEN_DIALOG, directory='', allow_multiple=False, save_filename='', file_types=())

Create an open file (webview.OPEN_DIALOG), open folder (webview.FOLDER_DIALOG) or save file (webview.SAVE_DIALOG) dialog.

Return a tuple of selected files, None if cancelled.

allow_multiple=True enables multiple selection.
directory Initial directory.
save_filename Default filename for save file dialog.
file_types A tuple of supported file type strings in the open file dialog. A file type string must follow this format "Description (*.ext1;*.ext2...)".

If the argument is not specified, then the "All files (*.*)" mask is used by default. The 'All files' string can be changed in the localization dictionary.

Examples

window.destroy

window.destroy()

Destroy the window.

Example

window.evaluate_js

window.evaluate_js(script, callback=None)

Execute Javascript code. The last evaluated expression is returned. If callback function is supplied, then promises are resolved and the callback function is called with the result as a parameter. Javascript types are converted to Python types, eg. JS objects to dicts, arrays to lists, undefined to None. DOM nodes are serialized using custom serialization. Functions are omitted and circular references are converted to the [Circular Reference] string literal. webview.error.JavascriptException is thrown if executed codes raises an error. r-strings is a recommended way to load Javascript. Note that the evaluate_js employs eval, which will fail if unsafe-eval CSP is set. Alternatively you may use window.run_js(code) that executes Javascript code as is without returning a result.

window.expose

Expose a Python function or functions to JS API. Functions are exposed as window.pywebview.api.func_name

Example

window.get_cookies

window.get_cookies()

Return a list of all the cookies set for the current website (as SimpleCookie).

window.get_current_url

window.get_current_url()

Return the current URL. None if no url is loaded.

Example

window.get_elements

window.get_elements(selector)

DEPRECATED. Use window.dom.get_elements instead.

Example

window.hide

window.hide()

Hide the window.

Example

window.load_css

window.load_css(css)

Load CSS as a string.

Example

window.load_html

window.load_html(content, base_uri=base_uri())

Load HTML code. Base URL for resolving relative URLs is set to the directory the program is launched from. Note that you cannot use hashbang anchors when HTML is loaded this way.

Example

window.load_url

window.load_url(url)

Load a new URL.

Example

window.maximize

window.maximize()

Maximize window.

Example

window.minimize

window.minimize()

Minimize window.

Example

window.move

window.move(x, y)

Move window to a new position.

Example

window.native

window.native.Handle # get application window handle on Windows

Get a native window object. This can be useful for applying custom styling to the window. Object type depends on the platform

System.Windows.Form - Windows AppKit.NSWindow - macOS Gtk.ApplicationWindow - GTK QMainWindow - QT kivy.uix.widget.Widget - Android

The native property is available after the before_show event is fired.

You can also each platform's WebView object via window.native.webview. WebView's types are as follows.

Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2 - Windows / EdgeChromium System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser - Windows / MSHTML WebKit.WKWebView - macOS gi.repository.WebKit2.WebView - GTK QtWebEngineWidgets.QWebEngineView / QtWebKitWidgets.QWebView- QT android.webkit.WebView - Android

window.resize

window.resize(width, height, fix_point=FixPoint.NORTH | FixPoint.WEST)

Resize window. Optional parameter fix_point specifies in respect to which point the window is resized. The parameter accepts values of the webview.window.FixPoint enum (NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST)

Example

window.restore

window.restore()

Restore minimized window.

Example

window.run_js

window.run_js('document.body.style.color = "deepred"')

Execute Javascript as is without wrapping it in eval and helper code. This function does not return a result.

Example

window.set_title

window.set_title(title)

DEPRECATED. Use window.title instead. Change the title of the window.

Example

window.show

window.show()

Show the window if it is hidden. Has no effect otherwise

Example

window.toggle_fullscreen

window.toggle_fullscreen()

Toggle fullscreen mode on the active monitor.

Example

window.dom.body

window.body

Get document's body as an Element object

window.dom.create_element

window.create_element(html, parent=None, mode=webview.dom.ManipulationMode.LastChild)

Insert HTML content and returns the Element of the root object. parent can be either another Element or a DOM selector string. If parent is omited, created DOM is attached to document's body. To control the position of the new element, use the mode parameter. See Manipulation mode for possible values.

window.dom.document

window.document

Get window.document of the loaded page as an Element object

window.dom.get_element

window.get_element(selector: str)

Get a first Element matching the selector. None if not found.

window.dom.get_elements

window.get_elements(selector: str)

Get a list of Element objects matching the selector.

window.dom.window

Get DOM document's window window as an Element object

Window events

Window object exposes various lifecycle and window management events. To subscribe to an event, use the += syntax, e.g., window.events.loaded += func. Duplicate subscriptions are ignored, and the function is invoked only once for duplicate subscribers. To unsubscribe, use the -= syntax, e.g., window.events.loaded -= func. To access the window object from the event handler, supply the window parameter as the first positional argument of the handler. Most window events are asynchronous, and event handlers are executed in separate threads. The before_show and before_load events are synchronous and block the main thread until handled.

<div class='pywebview-drag-region'>Now window can be moved by dragging this DIV.</div>

The magic class name can be overriden by re-assigning the webview.DRAG_REGION_SELECTOR constant.

Example