CefSharp WPF and MVVM?

Question

I am using CefSharp for WPF. I want to use it in MVVM architecture. Unfortunately there is a problem. In the view I have:

<ContentPresenter Content="{Binding Browser}"
                  HorizontalAlignment="Center"
                  VerticalAlignment="Center"/>

In ViewModel I put a new object into Browser:

var settings = new CefSharp.Settings
{
    PackLoadingDisabled = true,
}
if (CefSharp.CEF.Initialize(settings))
{
    int counter = 0;
    this.Browser = new WebView();
}

Unfortunately I cannot Load any URL at any point after that. It says Browser not initialized and actually the IsBrowserInitialized property (in Browser) is false.

That is weird because in test app, not MVVM, where I used same code to instantiate the WebView it works. Only difference is that I programmatically added the Browser to a Grid as it was not MVVM.

Anyone got the CefSharp in WPF MVVM app? Any ideas?

Thanks

EDIT: I have noticed in test non-MVVM app, that the IsBrowserInitialized property is set to false until window constructor ends the job.

Answer 1

CefSharp version 1 is not very well suited for MVVM at the moment, unfortunately. Luckily, in CefSharp 3 I have tried to make it more "MVVM-aware" so you don't have to do a lot of hacks. See the CefSharp.Wpf.Example code there and you will (hopefully) see what I mean.

The way to get it working with CefSharp version 1.xx is to set up a PropertyChanged event handler. Once the IsBrowserInitialized property gets set to true, you can then do your work. Like this:

    webView.PropertyChanged += OnWebViewPropertyChanged;

    // ...

    private void OnWebViewPropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        switch (e.PropertyName)
        {
            case "IsBrowserInitialized":
                if (webView.IsBrowserInitialized)
                {
                    webView.Load("http://some/url");
                }
                break;
        }
    }