Initializing CefSharp inside of a third-party application causes a crash

[dave-lewis73]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched both open and closed issues

CefSharp Version

112.2.270

Operating System

Windows 10

Architecture

x86

.Net Version

.NET 4.5

Implementation

WinForms

Reproduction Steps

I have been developing an extension to ArcMap (a third party mapping application) and have been using CefSharp as my web browser within the extension, since I can't get the out-of-the-box WebBrowser in Visual Studio 2015 to work consistently. I have four web browser controls that I have on a WinForm that each have a link to a different web map (URL). Everything works fine on my development machine, but the parent application (ArcMap) is crashing on each machine that I have deployed the solution to. It appears to happen immediately when I start up the extension, which is where CefSharp is initialized. I am calling Cef.InitializeAsync(new CefSettings()). As an fyi, the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable has been installed on the machines.

Expected behavior

I would expect that CefSharp would initialize properly and that I would see four web maps (one in each of my CefSharp browsers.

Actual behavior

The parent application (ArcMap) crashes on deployed machines when attempting to initialize CefSharp with no displayed error message.

Regression?

I have not tested in a previous version of CefSharp.

Known Workarounds

None.

Does this problem also occur in the CEF Sample Application

Not Tested

Other information

None.

[aimcosoftware]

Check Windows logs for any errors, but you've almost certainly not deployed something.

[dave-lewis73]

The Windows logs do not indicate any issues. As an fyi, I have downloaded the test app and executed it on one of the deployment machines with no problem. That said, I compared the files that are bundled with the test app and those that I am deploying and nothing is missing. I am deploying all of the files that are bundled with the test app.

[aimcosoftware]

I have downloaded the test app and executed it on one of the deployment machines with no problem

Surely that says that it's not CEFSharp/CEF at fault?

[amaitland]

Converted to discussion as this seems more like a support request than an actual bug that needs fixing.

Operating System
Windows 10

Are all your target machines also using Windows 10?

.NET 4.5

CefSharp hasn't supported .Net 4.5 for quite a few years. Are you using .Net 4.5.2?

Everything works fine on my development machine, but the parent application (ArcMap) is crashing on each machine that I have deployed the solution to. It appears to happen immediately when I start up the extension, which is where CefSharp is initialized.

If it works within ArcMap on your dev machine then it's very unlikely what you are seeing is a bug in CefSharp.

There are a few important things to remember though:

• Only a single CEF version can be loaded per process. If another extension is already using CefSharp then you'd need to match their version or host the browser in a different process.
• CefSharp is written in VC++ which only supports running on the Default AppDomain. Some plugin systems like to load dlls in different AppDomains which will result in an exception.

the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable has been installed on the machines.

Have you installed the correct architecture? You'd need to make sure the x86 version was installed.

The Windows logs do not indicate any issues

Check the CEF log file also. https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp/wiki/Trouble-Shooting#log-file
Make sure to set LogFile to somewhere writable.

Does ArcMap have some sort of log file? Without an error message/exception it's pretty much impossible to know what's going on.