PR: Make QtWebEngine Optional

[hmaarrfk]

Description of Changes

I've been involved with packaging on conda-forge for the last few years and unfortunately the situation for packaging QtWebEngine hasn't really improved.

I think Spyder is a REALLY important tool for those starting off with python and being able to co-install it in modern environments is also a really great asset.

However, ensuring that qt-webengine is updated is a constant challenge and we are having a hard time keeping up especially on windows and OSX.

I would really like to continue to recommend Spyder to users, but if there isn't a clear path toward compatibility with qt6 (for which we don't have the webengine plugin) it makes it a really hard sell.

The following patch would effectively silently disable the plugins that require WebEngine.

One modification I would like to propose is the addition of a flag for each plugin like:

REQUIRES_WEBENGINE

That way, plugins beyond help could declare themselves as requiring webengine and the main application would be able to disable them intelligently

• Wrote at least one-line docstrings (for any new functions)
• Added unit test(s) covering the changes (if testable)

• Included a screenshot or animation (if affecting the UI, see Licecap)

The main visual difference is that by default the help tab no longer shows up:

Example showing matplotlib still working:

Issue(s) Resolved

Xref: conda-forge/qt-main-feedstock#49 (comment)

Affirmation

By submitting this Pull Request or typing my (user)name below,
I affirm the Developer Certificate of Origin
with respect to all commits and content included in this PR,
and understand I am releasing the same under Spyder's MIT (Expat) license.

I certify the above statement is true and correct: Mark Harfouche

[hmaarrfk]

One thing I would like to do, is to run the tests to ensure that this continues working. I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to add an other CI job, but I can look into it if you want.

[ccordoba12]

Hey @hmaarrfk, nice to see you here and thanks for all your contributions during the last days! You said:

I think Spyder is a REALLY important tool for those starting off with python and being able to co-install it in modern environments is also a really great asset.

First of all, thanks a lot for your kind words. In what feels to be a Jupyter monoculture of GUIs to do scientific programming in Python, we really value them. And second, thanks for helping us to move forward to support Qt6.

However, ensuring that qt-webengine is updated is a constant challenge and we are having a hard time keeping up especially on windows and OSX.

Is this also a problem for Qt5?

I would really like to continue to recommend Spyder to users, but if there isn't a clear path toward compatibility with qt6 (for which we don't have the webengine plugin) it makes it a really hard sell.

That's a very good point and I agree with you.

One modification I would like to propose is the addition of a flag for each plugin like:

REQUIRES_WEBENGINE

That way, plugins beyond help could declare themselves as requiring webengine and the main application would be able to disable them intelligently

I really like this idea. Would you be ok with implementing it as part of this PR? If not, this is (of course) the right first step in that direction, so we'd merge it first and implement your suggestion in a follow up PR.

[ccordoba12]

Some small suggestions for you, otherwise looks good to me.

[hmaarrfk]

However, ensuring that qt-webengine is updated is a constant challenge and we are having a hard time keeping up especially on windows and OSX.

Is this also a problem for Qt5?

Generally yes.... the only reason that things have been "prompt" to update on the qt-webengine side is that Qt vendors so many of the dependencies. Its also what parts of webengine engine are depended on for users of conda-forge. Building "everything" is not a feasible target.

One modification I would like to propose is the addition of a flag for each plugin like:

REQUIRES_WEBENGINE

I really like this idea. Would you be ok with implementing it as part of this PR? If not, this is (of course) the right first step in that direction, so we'd merge it first and implement your suggestion in a follow up PR.

If you can choose the name of the attribute, then I can implement it this weekend.

Thank you for the rest of the review, I'll take a look at it "soon"

[ccordoba12]

If you can choose the name of the attribute, then I can implement it this weekend.

I prefer REQUIRE_WEB_WIDGETS to make it easier to understand for people not familiar with Qt.

[hmaarrfk]

I feel like the plugin code should be more resilient in general to missing dependencies:

1. pygithub not installed
2. asyncssh
3. yarl: /home/mark/git/spyder/spyder/plugins/remoteclient/api/jupyterhub/init.py
4. aiohttp /home/mark/git/spyder/spyder/plugins/remoteclient/api/jupyterhub/init.py

I mostly bring this up because maybe you don't that added property?

[pep8speaks]

Hello @hmaarrfk! Thanks for updating this PR. We checked the lines you've touched for PEP 8 issues, and found:

There are currently no PEP 8 issues detected in this Pull Request. Cheers! 🍻

Comment last updated at 2024-06-27 21:00:55 UTC

[mrclary]

@ccordoba12, would the help plugin require qt-webengine if it only rendered plain text? I'm wondering if there could be some fallback solution in the absence of qt-webengine that could still leave the help plugin operable.

[ccordoba12]

I mostly bring this up because maybe you don't that added property?

@hmaarrfk, we did. You can check our lastet setup.py (or meta.yaml in Conda-forge) and you'll see them declared there.

I think this problem only happens in development mode because in that case Spyder is not installed properly. So, you can run it in an env that doesn't contain all dependencies required in master.

A possible fix would be to do a required (not optional) deps check at startup in development mode and inform users if some are missing. @mrclary, do you have a bit of free time to implement that?

would the help plugin require qt-webengine if it only rendered plain text? I'm wondering if there could be some fallback solution in the absence of qt-webengine that could still leave the help plugin operable.

@mrclary, no, it doesn't. But I think the Help's UI would look like a bug if we'd only display its plain text mode. However, we can talk about that in a follow-up issue and decide what to do about that.

[hmaarrfk]

I think this problem only happens in development mode because in that case Spyder is not installed properly. So, you can run it in an env that doesn't contain all dependencies required in master.

yeah i get it.

I mostly was surprised to see the new features!!!! congrats!

[mrclary]

A possible fix would be to do a required (not optional) deps check at startup in development mode and inform users if some are missing. @mrclary, do you have a bit of free time to implement that?

Shouldn't that already be reported on startup, regardless of DEV?

spyder/spyder/plugins/application/plugin.py

Line 134 in 01140e1

container.compute_dependencies()