A new stable branch of WebKitGTK 2.38.0 has been released, which is a port of the WebKit browser engine for the GTK platform. WebKitGTK allows you to utilize all features of WebKit through a GNOME-oriented programming interface based on GObject and can be used to integrate web content processing tools into any applications, from specialized HTML/CSS parsers to full-fledged web browsers. Among the known projects using WebKitGTK is the default GNOME browser (Epiphany). Previously, WebKitGTK was used in the Midori browser, but after the project was handed over to the Astian Foundation, the old version of Midori on WebKitGTK was abandoned, leading to the creation of a fundamentally different product with the same name Midori, based on the Electron and React platforms.
Key changes:
- A new style for media playback control buttons has been proposed.
- An API has been added to set CSP (Content-Security-Policy) for browser extensions.
- Support for external inspection systems provided by other browsers is now available (configuration is done using the WEBKIT_INSPECTOR_HTTP_SERVER environment variable).
- By default, the MediaSession API is enabled, allowing the use of the MPRIS interface for remote playback control.
- A PDF document viewer based on PDF.js has been added.
Based on WebKitGTK 2.38.0, the GNOME Web 43 (Epiphany) browser has been released, which adds support for extensions in the WebExtension format. The WebExtensions API allows the creation of extensions using standard web technologies and unifies the development of extensions for various browsers (WebExtensions is used in extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari). The WebExtension API is not yet fully implemented, but this support is already enough to run some popular extensions.
Other improvements:
- The support for self-sufficient web applications in the PWA (Progressive Web Apps) format has been revamped, with a D-Bus provider implemented for such applications.
- Refactoring has begun for the transition to GTK 4.
- Support for the ‘view-source:’ URI scheme has been added.
- The reader mode design has been improved.
- A menu item has been added for taking screenshots.
- An option has been added to the settings to disable search recommendations in web applications.
Source: opennet.ru
