Web widget is quite unstable in Qt5. Maybe use rich text editor widget instead.

Retarget stale issues to backlog.

Web widget is quite unstable in Qt5.

Were you thinking about a particular problem ?

@sjh267 should work on the remaining of the Extension Manager issue, this should help identify and address remaining issues.

Maybe use rich text editor widget instead.

If we have a static HTML page without collapsible element or javascript, it should be possible.

Otherwise, QML could be used.

WebWidget problems:

• Extension manager's web widget takes 5-15 second to start (I don't know if this would apply to the welcome module as well).
• I could not find an easy way to get notified when the user clicks a link.
• Modules that use web widget are completely broken (SceneViews, DataStore).
• Sometimes error messages are displayed on application, originating from web widget.
• Web widget significantly increases complexity of building Qt and increases package size.

Overall, I feel that web browsers have become monsters - complete standalone operating systems. They are just too big and complex to be embedded them into applications. Google or Microsoft should worry about building and deploying them (they can do a much better job in optimizing hardware acceleration, deliver security updates, etc.). We could just show the default web browser in a separate window for extension manager, on-line help, data store, etc. I don't think it is necessary to use a webpage to render scene views, plotting, or welcome module.

I appreciate lassoan's point of view on this - QtWebEngine has been much more trouble than expected. But I do think there's a lot of value both current and future in being able to seamlessly use web technologies in slicer even if there are currently some issues. The main reason to bundle QtWebEngine with Slicer is to have a consistent cross-platform behavior which is never going to happen if we rely on vendor provided browsers.

I like seamless web technology integration, but there are already many seams and the as web browser performance, tightness of security, new features are developed at extreme speed, I don't see a chance that a niche use case such as embedded web browser can be maintained for too long. My impression is that applications are forced into run in a web browser and not vice versa.

Of course we don't know what will happen, but minimizing our dependency on having an embedded browser is a safe bet. If we need web integration maybe we should follow the mainstream and look into how Slicer could run in/from a web browser.