Resource/Misc

Further blurring the boundary between native, and web-app development – enter Microsoft Webview2

As more and more apps become cloud-based there is a near seamless transition between desktop and mobile devices. Microsoft has been hard at work on this transition, and the coding challenges it presents for developers.  Enter Edge Webview2, which is only one component of Microsoft’s much larger Project Reunion. Project Reunion is an initiative to modernize and evolve Windows Application and Webapp development with a new set of unified tools and API’s.

So, what does webview2 do? Simply put, it allows you to add web content, HTML, CSS, Javascipt, etc. into your native applications. Native apps for each OS; Windows, Mac, IOS, Android, etc., each have differing coding languages and requirements. But Webview2 allows developers to use consolidated language base, coding for the web, and have a native application use that code – on any platform. It is easy to see why Microsoft would want to enable simplifying things in this way now that the O365 suite has essentially become a set of hybrid apps (they run on desktop, but require internet access for components of their functionality – or the same app can run, with almost 100% features, as a web app).

On the obvious side, why is there a “2” in the name? Because there is already a “Webview.” The question is, how is Webview2 different from Webview?  Webview2 is Chromium based (vs. a more proprietary Windows based language).  Chromium  is an industry-standard for code and development. The part that made the “new” Microsoft Edge web browser new, is that it is now based on Chromium (basically Microsoft stopped its proprietary code language development and used the industry standard and open source Chromium language).  Microsoft does make it clear that Webview2 does not mean Microsoft Edge needs to be installed. But Microsoft Edge is what renders all Webview2 content, so even if it is not installed as a web browser, it is running behind the scenes, albeit with a little more stealth, running anything utilizing Webview2. For software development with the goal of developing both native and webapps, and native apps that are cross platform, Webview2 makes that effort far less daunting.

So why the timing of this blog post now? Because Microsoft started pushing out the runtime to Windows PC’s starting April 1^st and it has now been released for general availability. So Webview2 is now open to all developers.  If you want to get into more of the technical documentation, look at the Overview and Roadmap for detailed information.

For PowerPoint, we don’t have a list of any features that are specifically Webview2 coded. I imagine many of the new features, those that are available in PowerPoint for Web, but not the desktop version are leveraging this new coding option. It will definitely make it easier for the Microsoft team in maintaining functionality and feature set parity across platforms without having to develop everything from the ground up, two, three or five times. Stay tuned, because even if we do not directly see Webview2, no matter what platform we are using PowerPoint on, we certainly will be using features that are leveraging the features Webview2 enables.

Josh @ TLC

Listen to episode 122 of The Presentation Podcast for details on our give away of 5 passes to the Present to Succeed Conference! Present to Succeed is a virtual conference, April 14-16, 2021 with a line up of fantastic presenters. You have until Friday, March 12 to enter (and you can enter as often as you’d like!). Winners announced March 16 on episode 123.

https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/121/

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! Troy, Nolan, and Sandy do a deep dive into PowerPoint’s Backstage talking about what features, options and functionality is there, as well as tips, tricks and discovering new things there they did not know about! 

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – or search The Presentation Podcast for “The PowerPoint Backstage Experience” or go directly to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/110

TLC Creative Services has had another successful online conference! This event we provided the presenter Virtual Broadcast Studio to capture and live stream 43 sessions. Our design team assured presenters and their presentations where displayed on a conference branded backplate. Each session had live content switching, session countdown timers, custom presenter intro stinger videos, and more (all produced by the TLC Creative team).

It was a great conference, but it was really worth it when we receive emails like this fantastic note from a very experienced presenter who has not slowed down on the virtual event world – thanks Mike!

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! The Presentation Summit was a virtual event this year, and a success. Troy, Nolan and Sandy have an opportunity to talk with the Presentation Summit Director, Rick Altman and the Presentation Summit Director of Events, Sheila McGurin the month after the conference. We talk about remote presenting, some of the Presentation Summit statistics, recapping some of our experiences at this year’s virtual conference, and hearing the plans for next years conference.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – or search The Presentation Podcast for “The Presentation Summit” or go directly to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/109

Last week (August 24), Windows celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Windows 95 operating system. To celebrate, they released this great video highlighting the evolution of the Windows operating system from 95 to now – how many of the icon styles do you recognize and remember?

Read more about the anniversary here.

The 18th annual Presentation Summit was a virtual event this year due to the pandemic – but it was as informative, fun, and creative as ever! I may be biased, but one of my favorite presentations was Lori’s “Backstage Pass.” She did an amazing job showing some of our favorite animations and slide effects.

And of course, the audience loved it too. Here’s just a few of the comments from her live presentation:

Troy @ TLC

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! The Presentation Summit annual event went virtual for 2020. And a virtual event did not prevent us from coordinating a large group gathered around our virtual table to talk presentations, PowerPoint, and the experience of being at the Presentation Summit. Join this large 15+ person group conversation recorded at the 2020 Presentation Summit!

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – or search The Presentation Podcast for “The Presentation Summit” or go directly to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/108

This year the Presentation Summit was a virtual conference, which meant missing time spent among friends and talking about presentations with hundreds of people. However, traditionally I post a picture of me presenting, so here it is…a photo of someone’s computer screen during my presentation “7 Presentation Hacks” (with Nolan, who was the host of my session). It was a fantastic virtual conference with an amazing amount of personal connection opportunities.

Troy @ TLC