WebKit .NET

Building WebKit .NET

0. Requirements

Before you begin, make sure that your system meets the requirements.

1. Obtaining WebKit .NET Source

You can either download the most recent source release from the project download page, or check out the latest source from GitHub.

If you downloaded the source package, extract it to a folder somewhere on your local machine, for example D:/webkitdotnet.

2. Obtaining WebKit

In order to build and use WebKit .NET, you must have a compiled WebKit library available. There are a number of different ways you can obtain this:

  • Download the latest WebKit .NET binary release from the project download page. This includes the Cairo build of the WebKit library and all of it dependencies.
  • Build WebKit yourself from source.
  • Download a WebKit nightly build. Note that these are builds of the Apple port and as such require a number of libraries that are not freely redistributable. They are however included with Safari. A brief guide to using these nightly builds with WebKit .NET can be found here.

When you have aquired a suitable binary, copy WebKit.dll and it's various dependencies into webkitdotnet/webkit. Note that if you downloaded the binary package, make sure you do NOT copy WebKitBrowser.dll, WebKitBrowser.dll.manifest or WebKitBrowserTest.exe into this directory.

3. Building

Open webkitdotnet/WebKit.NET.sln in Visual Studio 2008, or equivalent, and select 'Build -> Build Solution' from the menu. If you wish to try the test web browser application, right-click the WebKitBrowserTest project in the Solution Explorer and select 'Set as Startup Project', then select 'Debug -> Start Without Debugging' from the menu.

The compiled library can be found in a subdirectory of webkitdotnet/bin.