The widget QWebView can be used to render webpages. QWebView uses the QtWebkit web browsing module. To show a website simply call the load(url) method.

QWebView puts a real webpage inside your PyQt window. It uses the QtWebKit module, so the page renders with the same engine as the rest of Qt.

You load a url with load() and you get the usual navigation functions.

QWebview suports navigational functions: forward(), back(), reload(), stop().

Note: QWebView only shows the webpage contents. Code for a python webbrowser below.

python webbrowser

In the example below we have a complete webbrowser. It supports tabs, basic navigation and a keyboard shortcut. It’s a minimal example that is extensible.

QtWebKit

The look and feel depends on your operating system, you can make it look like Mac or Windows if you want. Thsi is is all with Python PyQt.

# https://pythonprogramminglanguage.com/webkit-browser/
#!/usr/bin/python

from PyQt5.QtCore import *
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from PyQt5.QtWebKitWidgets import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import *
import sip
import sys

class tabdemo(QMainWindow):
   def __init__(self):
        super(tabdemo, self).__init__()
        self.setAttribute(Qt.WA_DeleteOnClose)
        self.tabs = QTabWidget()
        self.tabs.setTabsClosable(True)
        self.tabs.tabCloseRequested.connect(self.closeTab)
        self.tab1 = QWidget()
        self.tabWebView = []
        self.lNameLine = []
        self.tabs.addTab(self.tab1,"New Tab")
        self.tab1UI(self.tab1)      
        self.setWindowTitle("PyQt https://pythonprogramminglanguage.com")
        self.setCentralWidget(self.tabs)
        self.showMaximized()
        QShortcut(QKeySequence("Ctrl+T"), self, self.addTab)       

   def addTab(self):
      tab = QWidget()
      self.tabs.addTab(tab,"New Tab")
      self.tab1UI(tab)

      index = self.tabs.currentIndex()
      self.tabs.setCurrentIndex( index + 1 )
      #self.tabWebView[self.tabs.currentIndex()].load( QUrl('about:blank'))

   def goBack(self):
      index = self.tabs.currentIndex()
      self.tabWebView[index].back()

   def goNext(self):
      index = self.tabs.currentIndex()
      self.tabWebView[index].forward()

   def goRefresh(self):
      index = self.tabs.currentIndex()
      self.tabWebView[index].reload()

   def changePage(self):
        index = self.tabs.currentIndex()
        pageTitle = self.sender().title()[:15]
        self.tabs.setTabText(index, pageTitle);        
        self.lNameLine[self.tabs.currentIndex()].setText(self.sender().url().url())

   def load_started(self):
       return

   def tab1UI(self,tabName):
        webView = QWebView()

        backButton = QPushButton("")
        backIcon = QIcon()
        backIcon.addPixmap(QPixmap("back.svg"))
        backButton.setIcon(backIcon)
        backButton.setFlat(True)

        nextButton = QPushButton("")
        nextIcon = QIcon()
        nextIcon.addPixmap(QPixmap("next.svg"))
        nextButton.setIcon(nextIcon)
        nextButton.setFlat(True)

        refreshButton = QPushButton("")
        refreshIcon = QIcon()
        refreshIcon.addPixmap(QPixmap("refresh.svg"))
        refreshButton.setIcon(refreshIcon)
        refreshButton.setFlat(True)

        backButton.clicked.connect(self.goBack)
        nextButton.clicked.connect(self.goNext)
        refreshButton.clicked.connect(self.goRefresh)

        self.newTabButton = QPushButton("+")
        self.destroyTabButton = QPushButton("-")
        self.tabWidget = QTabWidget()

        nameLine = QLineEdit()
        nameLine.returnPressed.connect(self.requestUri)

        tabGrid = QGridLayout()

        tabGrid.setContentsMargins(0,0,0,0)

        navigationFrame = QWidget()
        navigationFrame.setMaximumHeight(32)

        navigationGrid = QGridLayout(navigationFrame)
        navigationGrid.setSpacing(0)
        navigationGrid.setContentsMargins(0,0,0,0)
        navigationGrid.addWidget(backButton,0,1)
        navigationGrid.addWidget(nextButton,0,2)
        navigationGrid.addWidget(refreshButton,0,3)
        navigationGrid.addWidget(nameLine,0,4)      

        tabGrid.addWidget(navigationFrame)

        webView = QWebView()
        htmlhead = "<head><style>body{ background-color: #fff; }</style></head><body></body>";
        webView.setHtml(htmlhead)

        #webView.loadProgress.connect(self.loading)
        webView.loadFinished.connect(self.changePage)

        frame = QFrame()
        frame.setFrameStyle(QFrame.Panel)

        gridLayout = QGridLayout(frame);
        #gridLayout.setObjectName(QStringLiteral("gridLayout"));
        gridLayout.setContentsMargins(0, 0, 0, 0);
        gridLayout.addWidget(webView, 0, 0, 1, 1);
        frame.setLayout(gridLayout)

        self.tabWebView.append(webView)
        self.tabWidget.setCurrentWidget(webView)        
        self.lNameLine.append(nameLine)
        tabGrid.addWidget(frame)
        tabName.setLayout(tabGrid)

   def tab2UI(self):
        vbox = QVBoxLayout()
        tbl1 = QTableWidget()
        tbl1.setRowCount(5)
        tbl1.setColumnCount(5)
        vbox.addWidget(tbl1)
        tbl1.setItem(0, 0, QTableWidgetItem("1")) # row, col
        self.tab2.setLayout(vbox)

   def requestUri(self):
       if self.tabs.currentIndex() != -1:

           urlText = self.lNameLine[self.tabs.currentIndex()].text()

           ########################## 
           # no protocol?
           if 'http' not in urlText:
               self.lNameLine[self.tabs.currentIndex()].setText( 'https://' + urlText)

           url = QUrl(self.lNameLine[self.tabs.currentIndex()].text())

           print(self.tabs.currentIndex())
           if url.isValid():
               self.tabWebView[self.tabs.currentIndex()].load(url)
           else:
               print("Url not valid")
       else:
           print("No tabs open, open one first.")

   def closeTab(self,tabId):
       print(tabId)
       del self.lNameLine[tabId]
       del self.tabWebView[tabId]
       self.tabs.removeTab(tabId)  

def main():
   app = QApplication(sys.argv)
   ex = tabdemo()
   ex.show()
   sys.exit(app.exec_())

if __name__ == '__main__':
   main()

What QWebView gives you

  • load(url) opens a page.
  • back(), forward(), reload() and stop() handle history.
  • setUrl(text) reads the address bar and url() gives the current address.
  • setZoomFactor(1.5) makes the page bigger or smaller.
  • setJavaScriptEnabled(True) turns on javascript, many sites need it.
  • titleChanged lets you put the page title in your own window title.

For a plain browser you also want a QLineEdit for the address and a few buttons that call the navigation methods.

Reading helps, writing fixes it. PyChallenge has exercises on this and you can try them right now.