Feature#

Added in version 2.42.

class Feature(*args, **kwargs)#

Describes a web engine feature that may be toggled at runtime.

The WebKit web engine includes a set of features which may be toggled programmatically, each one represented by a Feature that provides information about it:

  • A unique “identifier”: get_identifier.

  • A “default value”, which indicates whether the option is enabled automatically: get_default_value.

  • Its “status”, which determines whether it should be considered user-settable and its development stage (see FeatureStatus for details): get_status.

  • A category, which may be used to group features together: get_category.

  • An optional short “name” which can be presented to an user: get_name.

  • An optional longer “detailed” description: get_details.

The lists of available features can be obtained with get_all_features, get_experimental_features, and get_development_features). As a rule of thumb, applications which may want to allow users (i.e. web developers) to test WebKit features should use the list of experimental features. Additionally, applications might want to expose development features when targeting technically inclined users for early testing of in-development features (i.e. in “technology preview” or “canary” builds).

Applications must not expose the list of all features to end users because they often lack descriptions and control parts of the web engine which are either intended to be used during development of WebKit itself, or in specific scenarios to tweak how WebKit integrates with the application.

Methods#

class Feature
get_category() → str#

Gets the category of the feature.

Applications which include user interface to toggle features may want to use the category to group related features together.

Added in version 2.42.

get_default_value() → bool#

Gets whether the feature is enabled by default.

The default value may be used by applications which include user interface to toggle features to restore its settings to their defaults. Note that whether a feature is actually enabled must be checked with get_feature_enabled.

Added in version 2.42.

get_details() → str | None#

Gets a description for the feature.

The detailed description should be considered an additional clarification on the purpose of the feature, to be used as complementary aid to be displayed along the feature name returned by get_name. The returned string is suitable to be displayed to end users, but it should not be relied upon being localized.

Note that some features may not have a detailed description, and NULL is returned in this case.

Added in version 2.42.

get_identifier() → str#

Gets a string that uniquely identifies the feature.

Added in version 2.42.

get_name() → str | None#

Gets a short name for the feature.

The returned string is suitable to be displayed to end users, but it should not be relied upon being localized.

Note that some features may not have a short name, and NULL is returned in this case.

Added in version 2.42.

get_status() → FeatureStatus#

Gets the status of the feature.

Added in version 2.42.