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Important changes in AntView 2.0

AntView 2.0 works against the most up-to-date API from WebView2 in April 2025 (currently version 1.0.3179.45). This opens up a lot of possibilities for us to work on features introduced by Microsoft after we released AntView 1.1. 

Let's start with the most important changes:

• The binary is no longer called AntView.ocx, it is now called AntView-2.0-x86.dll and AntView-2.0-x64.dll to identify 32 bit and 64 bit versions respectively.
• The interface GUID strings have changed so that you can install both AntView 1.x and AntView 2.x on the same machine, without version 2 interfering with an existing install or application using AntView 1.x. It is even possible to use both within the same application (but we haven't tested that extensively, so that scenario is unsupported for the moment).
• The names of interfaces have changed a bit in order to make it possible to use both AntView 1.x and AntView 2.x simultaneously on the same machine. AntViewAx.Antview is now called AntViewAx2.Antview and AntviewAx.TxWebErrorStatus is now AntviewAx2.TxWebErrorStatus, AntViewAx.AntViewDocument is AntViewAx2.AntViewDocument etcetera..
• The OnPermissionRequested parameter list was extended with the SavesInProfile parameter. If you use the OnPermissionRequested event in your code than you'll have to add code for that parameter.
• The dependency DLL's from Microsoft (WebView2Loader.dll) are now also the latest version (1.0.3179.45 instead of 1.0.1108.44). If you want to use AntView 1.x and AntView 2.x within the same application then it is important to use the latest loader version (1.0.3179.45).
• Now that AntView 2.0 has been released, AntView 1.1 has been switched to maintenance support. We will continue to support AntView 1.x, but in principle there will only be changes for bug fixes. All new features are going to go into the 2.x branch. We understand that not everybody will immediately change all their code over to the latest version, just because they can. It is important to know that you can continue to use the existing AntView 1.x version for your applications that have been deployed and continue to be able to get support for it.

Starting with AntView 2.0 you can view the details of your AntView configuration via the antview://about page URL.

• Support for Basic Authentication and Profile management has been added, see What's New in AntView 2.0.459
• Getting and setting of OuterHtml, see What's New in AntView 2.0.514
• For those who tested AntView in the past and now have an expired AntView license, we've got good news. AntView version 2.x installs its own trial code, so you can test without the nag popup coming up during the trial period.

Licensing

• The developer license code for 1.x also works on 2.0. As long as your subscription is active, you can use your license code to unlock the 2.x version(s) that are released within your subscription period.
• New licensing options have been introduced, besides the developer licenses that are per seat, there are now other licensing options such as: site licenses, enterprise licenses and embedded licenses. The embedded licenses are for HMI/SCADA/IoT hardware devices and these devices are licensed per host.
• Embedded licenses are also available as a license file that can be put in the same folder as the AntView DLL in order to unlock the control.

Upgrade tip

We discovered during tests of developers upgrading their code to use AntView version 2, that it is easy for a developer to miss upgrading all of their code. This then resulted in having an application to depend on both AntView 1.x as well as AntView 2.0. 

While that works, it only works when both versions of the control are installed! 

Obviously that won't always be the case on an end users system.

In order to make it easier to test and prevent this from happening at deployment time we have written a small utility called "RegisterAssistant" that makes it easy for you to temporarily disable/enable the various versions of the control.

We recommend that you temporarily disable AntView 1.x while testing your application with AntView 2.0. The reason for that is to not bump into a surprise when the user does not have AntView version 1.x installed. As can be expected, they would get a runtime error if your application is still trying to access the v1.x version of the control somewhere.

Another way to approach the same thing is to completely uninstall the AntView 1.x control.

The "RegisterAssistant" application can be found in the Windows start menu. There is a 32 bit as well as a 64 bit version.

Detailed changes since AntView 1.x

What's New in AntView 2.0.459

What's New in AntView 2.0.514

AntView - The MS Edge WebView2 ActiveX control Date last changed: 04/16/2025