I found this email in my inbox today:
“Hi Mauricio,I came across a reference to your blog at :http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1286746/c-open-link-in-new-tab-webbrowser-control
I have been studying your writings on extending the WebBrowser control, and verified that the extended web code you wrote for C# compiles and works fine in VS 2010 beta, against FrameWork 4.0.
Many thanks for the valuble code and writing !
I am "stuck" on how to read the contents of an IE browser page when the page is displaying a local file, like the contents of the Favorites folder.
All my attempts to get at the Document or DomDocument by casting it to the usual mshtml.dll interfaces fail.
I am NOT asking you to answer my question, or respond, but if you ever get interested in blogging about this aspect of use of IE, I think many people would be interested.
I have done a lot of research on the net, and posted my own question on StackOverFlow : so far not one real pointer, and, possibly, this is not "doable" (?) : maybe what you are seeing when IE shows a file contents is a kind of "virtual explorer" view that is not parseable.
best, Bill xxxxxx”
And I decided to take at look at it to see if I could be of any help and I found out that it is easy and doable.
So I find an useful link by Andreas M. if you want to look at it.
In general My Favorites, Desktop, etc are special folder. So they need a trick to be able to access them.
Take the code from my ExtendedWebBrowser sample published in http://blogs.artinsoft.net/mrojas/archive/2009/05/01/opening-popup-in-a-newwindow.aspx
and http://blogs.artinsoft.net/mrojas/archive/2009/08/07/newwindow3.aspx and
1. Add a reference to %windir%\system32\shell32.dll
2. Add a new property to the ExtendedWebBrowser like:
/// <summary>
/// Returns the shell folderview object displayed in the webbrowser control.
/// </summary>
public Shell32.IShellFolderViewDual2 FolderView
{
get
{
return ((SHDocVw.WebBrowser)base.ActiveXInstance).Document
as Shell32.IShellFolderViewDual2;
}
}
And now you can access the special folder from your code. As Bill mentioned, that “page” or “special page” is not real HTML and not parseable but you can examine its contents for example you can do something like:
/// <summary>
/// Button 1_ click
/// </summary>
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Shell32.IShellFolderViewDual2 specialFolder = this.extendedWebBrowser1.FolderView;
string folderName = specialFolder.Folder.Title;
string parentFolder = specialFolder.Folder.ParentFolder.Title;
foreach (Shell32.ShellFolderItem f in specialFolder.Folder.Items())
{
if (f.IsFolder)
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Folder:" + f.Name);
else
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("File:" + f.Name);
} // foreach
} // button1_Click(sender, e)
To be able to catch popup windows and open them in your own window you
have to manage WebBrowser events like NewWindow2.
But how do you do that in WPF?
Well it isn’t really that difficult. These are the steps that you have to follow:
1. Add a COM reference to a reference to %windir%\system32\shdocvw.dll
2. Add a new CodeFile to your project. Lets say CodeFile1.cs And put this code:
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
[ComImport, InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
[Guid("6d5140c1-7436-11ce-8034-00aa006009fa")]
internal interface IServiceProvider
{
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IUnknown)]
object QueryService(ref Guid guidService, ref Guid riid);
}
3. To make an easy example. Lets assume we have a very simple window like:
And in that form we need some code like this:
private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Guid SID_SWebBrowserApp =
new Guid("0002DF05-0000-0000-C000-000000000046");
IServiceProvider serviceProvider =
(IServiceProvider)myWebBrowser.Document; //<—It seams that you need to
// navigate first to initialize this
Guid serviceGuid = SID_SWebBrowserApp;
Guid iid = typeof(SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2).GUID;
//Here we will get a reference to the IWebBrowser2 interface
SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2 myWebBrowser2 =
(SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2)
serviceProvider.QueryService(ref serviceGuid, ref iid); //To hook events we just need to do these casts
SHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents_Event wbEvents =
(SHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents_Event)myWebBrowser2;
SHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_Event wbEvents2 =
(SHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_Event)myWebBrowser2; //Adding event handlers is now very simple
wbEvents.NewWindow +=
new SHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents_NewWindowEventHandler(wbEvents_NewWindow); wbEvents2.NewWindow2 +=
new SHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_NewWindow2EventHandler(wbEvents2_NewWindow2);
}
void wbEvents2_NewWindow2(ref object ppDisp, ref bool Cancel)
{
//If you want make popup windows to open in your own window
// you need to assign the ppDisp to the .Application of
// the WebBrowser in your window
Window1 wnd = new Window1();
wnd.Show();
//Just navigate to make sure .Document is initilialized
wnd.myWebBrowser.Navigate(new Uri("about:blank"));
Guid SID_SWebBrowserApp = new Guid("0002DF05-0000-0000-C000-000000000046");
IServiceProvider serviceProvider = (IServiceProvider)wnd.myWebBrowser.Document;
Guid serviceGuid = SID_SWebBrowserApp;
Guid iid = typeof(SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2).GUID;
SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2 myWebBrowser2 = (SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2)serviceProvider.QueryService(ref serviceGuid, ref iid);
ppDisp = myWebBrowser2.Application;
}
void wbEvents_NewWindow(string URL, int Flags, string TargetFrameName, ref object PostData, string Headers, ref bool Processed)
{
MessageBox.Show(URL);
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
myWebBrowser.Navigate(new Uri("file://D:/MyProjects/ExtendedBrowserExample_v2/test0.htm"));
}
Now you can manage your popupwindows:
You can download the test application from HERE
Recently an user of the ExtendedBrowser v2 commented that he needed access to the NewWindow3 event.
The NewWindow3 event is raised when a new window is to be created. It extends NewWindow2 with additional information about the new window.
Syntax
Private Sub object_NewWindow3( _
ByRef ppDisp As Object, _
ByRef Cancel As Boolean, _
ByVal dwFlags As Long, _
ByVal bstrUrlContext As String, _
ByVal bstrUrl As String)
Parameters
object Object expression that resolves to the objects in the Applies To list. ppDisp Object expression that, optionally, receives a new, hidden WebBrowser or InternetExplorer object with no URL loaded. Cancel A Boolean value that determines whether the current navigation should be canceled. true Cancel the navigation. false Do not cancel the navigation. dwFlags The flags from the NWMFenumeration that pertain to the new window.
typedef enum NWMF
{
NWMF_UNLOADING = 0x00000001,
NWMF_USERINITED = 0x00000002,
NWMF_FIRST = 0x00000004,
NWMF_OVERRIDEKEY = 0x00000008,
NWMF_SHOWHELP = 0x00000010,
NWMF_HTMLDIALOG = 0x00000020,
NWMF_FROMDIALOGCHILD = 0x00000040,
NWMF_USERREQUESTED = 0x00000080,
NWMF_USERALLOWED = 0x00000100,
NWMF_FORCEWINDOW = 0x00010000,
NWMF_FORCETAB = 0x00020000,
NWMF_SUGGESTWINDOW = 0x00040000,
NWMF_SUGGESTTAB = 0x00080000,
NWMF_INACTIVETAB = 0x00100000
} NWMF;
bstrUrlContext The URL of the page that is opening the new window. bstrUrlThe URL that is opened in the new window.
Please notice:
Note The NewWindow3 event is only fired when a new instance of Internet Explorer is about to be created. Calling showModalDialog or showModelessDialog does not trigger an event because they are not new instances of Internet Explorer. They are implemented as MSHTML host windows, which allows them to render and display HTML content but not hyperlinks between documents.
You can download from here
DOWNLOAD CODE HERE v3_1
ExtendedBrowserExampleVBNET.zip (92.56 kb)
Well recently Kingsley has point me to a lot of useful links to improve the ExtendedWebBrowser. However he found another detail. When in Javascript you do something like a:
window.open(‘url’,’window’,’width=200;height=300’);
Those width and height settings were not being considered in the new window. I researched for I while until I found this great link:
So basicly I follow the sugested code and added logic in my EventSink class:
public void WindowSetLeft(int Left)
{
///Should I calculate any diff?
_Browser.Parent.Left = Left;
}
public void WindowSetTop(int Top)
{
_Browser.Parent.Top = Top;
}
public void WindowSetWidth(int Width)
{
int diff = 0;
diff = _Browser.Parent.Width - _Browser.Width;
_Browser.Parent.Width = diff + Width;
}
public void WindowSetHeight(int Height)
{
int diff = 0;
diff = _Browser.Parent.Height - _Browser.Height;
_Browser.Parent.Height = diff + Height;
}So now when the window opens it takes the specified width, heigth, left and top.
As always
HERE IS THE UPDATED CODE
I had previously posted an extended version of the WebBrowser Control. This code posted in Opening Popup in a NewWindow and NewWindow2 Events in the C# WebBrowserControl, dealt with some issues when you want to have a form with a WebBrowser and in the enclosed page you have a Javascript code like:
window.open(“ <some url to a page”)
But recently another problem arised. What if you have a Javascript snippet like:
window.close()
OMG!!! Why haven’t I thought about it. Well Kelder wrote me about this problem and he also sent me some of his\her research results:
Solution (Add WebBrowser as unmanaged code): blogs.msdn.com/jpsanders/archive/2008/04/23/window-close-freezes-net-2-0-webbrowser-control-in-windows-form-application.aspx
Solution (Add WebBrowser using WM_NOTIFYPARENT override):blogs.msdn.com/jpsanders/archive/2007/05/25/how-to-close-the-form-hosting-the-webbrowser-control-when-scripting-calls-window-close-in-the-net-framework-version-2-0.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/jpsanders/archive/2007/05/25/how-to-close-the-form-hosting-the-webbrowser-control-when-scripting-calls-window-close-in-the-net-framework-version-2-0.aspx
Solution (Implementation not detailed): social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/winforms/thread/1199c004-9eb2-400d-a118-6e06bca9f1f0/
Proposes changing pop-up links to WebBrowser navigate: dotnetninja.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/prevent-opening-new-window-from-webbrowser-control/Close
problem observed (no solution):www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/ExtendedWebBrowser.aspx
It seams to me that the better solution is to use jpsanders solution, so I created an ExtendWebBrowser_v2 (the following is the modified fragment):
//Extend the WebBrowser control
public class ExtendedWebBrowser : WebBrowser
{
// Define constants from winuser.h
private const int WM_PARENTNOTIFY = 0x210;
private const int WM_DESTROY = 2;
AxHost.ConnectionPointCookie cookie;
WebBrowserExtendedEvents events;
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
switch (m.Msg)
{
case WM_PARENTNOTIFY:
if (!DesignMode)
{
if (m.WParam.ToInt32() == WM_DESTROY)
{
Message newMsg = new Message();
newMsg.Msg = WM_DESTROY;
// Tell whoever cares we are closing
Form parent = this.Parent as Form;
if (parent!=null)
parent.Close();
}
}
DefWndProc(ref m);
break;
default:
base.WndProc(ref m);
break;
}
}
The problem that might arise with this solution is that the parent might not be a Form but an user control, etc. For a more general aproach I think I should send a WM_DESTROY directly to the parent, but for most cases it works. I’m attaching the code and a sample page called test0.htm. I hope this helps and rembember you can always donate to programming geeks jejejejeje just kidding
HERE IS THE CODE
In a previous post, i had published an “Extended Version” of the WebBrowser control
that gave you access to events like the NewWindow2.
This event that is not public in the common WebBrowser control allows you to intercept
the NewWindow event but gives you the posibility to setup the the ppDisp property witch sets
a pointer to the WebBrowser where the new window will be open.
So i setup a small example using this “ExtendedBrowser”.
I created a simple page (well really it was my wife, I know about transport-layer, C++, bits etc, but I never remember HTML syntax):
<html>
<body>
<H1> This is sample page to test opening a pop up in a new form </H1>
<input type="button" onclick="window.open('test0.htm')"/>
</body>
</html>
And created a simple form like in the following picture:
Instead of using a WebBrowser control i just used an ExtendedWebBrowser from my previous post.
And added code like:
private void extendedWebBrowser1_NewWindow2(object sender, NewWindow2EventArgs e)
{
//Intercepting this event will allow us to create a new form in which
//we will open the new webpage, to do that we must set the ppDisp property
//of the NewWindow2EventArgs
FormWithExtendedBrowser form1 = new FormWithExtendedBrowser();
form1.Show();
e.PPDisp = form1.extendedWebBrowser1.Application;
}
When I run the code , it now opens the pop up in my form:
But test if for yourself! :) HERE IS THE CODE
The WebBrowser control for .NET is just a wrapper for the IE ActiveX control. However this wrapper does not expose all the events that the IE ActiveX control exposes.
For example the ActiveX control has a NewWindow2 that you can use to intercept when a new window is gonna be created and you can even use the ppDisp variable to give a pointer to an IE ActiveX instance where you want the new window to be displayed.
So, our solution was to extend the WebBrowser control to make some of those events public.
In general the solution is the following:
- Create a new Class for your Event that extend any of the basic EventArgs classes.
- Add constructors and property accessor to the class
- Look at the IE Activex info and add the DWebBrowserEvents2 and IWebBrowser2 COM interfaces. We need them to make our hooks.
- Create a WebBrowserExtendedEvents extending System.Runtime.InteropServices.StandardOleMarshalObject and DWebBrowserEvents2. We need this class to intercept the ActiveX events. Add methos for all the events that you want to intercept.
- Extend the WebBrowser control overriding the CreateSink and DetachSink methods, here is where the WebBrowserExtendedEvents class is used to make the conneciton.
- Add EventHandler for all the events.
And thats all.Here is the code. Just add it to a file like ExtendedWebBrowser.cs
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
//First define a new EventArgs class to contain the newly exposed data
public class NewWindow2EventArgs : CancelEventArgs
{
object ppDisp;
public object PPDisp
{
get { return ppDisp; }
set { ppDisp = value; }
}
public NewWindow2EventArgs(ref object ppDisp, ref bool cancel)
: base()
{
this.ppDisp = ppDisp;
this.Cancel = cancel;
}
}
public class DocumentCompleteEventArgs : EventArgs
{
private object ppDisp;
private object url;
public object PPDisp
{
get { return ppDisp; }
set { ppDisp = value; }
}
public object Url
{
get { return url; }
set { url = value; }
}
public DocumentCompleteEventArgs(object ppDisp,object url)
{
this.ppDisp = ppDisp;
this.url = url;
}
}
public class CommandStateChangeEventArgs : EventArgs
{
private long command;
private bool enable;
public CommandStateChangeEventArgs(long command, ref bool enable)
{
this.command = command;
this.enable = enable;
}
public long Command
{
get { return command; }
set { command = value; }
}
public bool Enable
{
get { return enable; }
set { enable = value; }
}
}
//Extend the WebBrowser control
public class ExtendedWebBrowser : WebBrowser
{
AxHost.ConnectionPointCookie cookie;
WebBrowserExtendedEvents events;
//This method will be called to give you a chance to create your own event sink
protected override void CreateSink()
{
//MAKE SURE TO CALL THE BASE or the normal events won't fire
base.CreateSink();
events = new WebBrowserExtendedEvents(this);
cookie = new AxHost.ConnectionPointCookie(this.ActiveXInstance, events, typeof(DWebBrowserEvents2));
}
public object Application
{
get
{
IWebBrowser2 axWebBrowser = this.ActiveXInstance as IWebBrowser2;
if (axWebBrowser != null)
{
return axWebBrowser.Application;
}
else
return null;
}
}
protected override void DetachSink()
{
if (null != cookie)
{
cookie.Disconnect();
cookie = null;
}
base.DetachSink();
}
//This new event will fire for the NewWindow2
public event EventHandler<NewWindow2EventArgs> NewWindow2;
protected void OnNewWindow2(ref object ppDisp, ref bool cancel)
{
EventHandler<NewWindow2EventArgs> h = NewWindow2;
NewWindow2EventArgs args = new NewWindow2EventArgs(ref ppDisp, ref cancel);
if (null != h)
{
h(this, args);
}
//Pass the cancellation chosen back out to the events
//Pass the ppDisp chosen back out to the events
cancel = args.Cancel;
ppDisp = args.PPDisp;
}
//This new event will fire for the DocumentComplete
public event EventHandler<DocumentCompleteEventArgs> DocumentComplete;
protected void OnDocumentComplete(object ppDisp, object url)
{
EventHandler<DocumentCompleteEventArgs> h = DocumentComplete;
DocumentCompleteEventArgs args = new DocumentCompleteEventArgs( ppDisp, url);
if (null != h)
{
h(this, args);
}
//Pass the ppDisp chosen back out to the events
ppDisp = args.PPDisp;
//I think url is readonly
}
//This new event will fire for the DocumentComplete
public event EventHandler<CommandStateChangeEventArgs> CommandStateChange;
protected void OnCommandStateChange(long command, ref bool enable)
{
EventHandler<CommandStateChangeEventArgs> h = CommandStateChange;
CommandStateChangeEventArgs args = new CommandStateChangeEventArgs(command, ref enable);
if (null != h)
{
h(this, args);
}
}
//This class will capture events from the WebBrowser
public class WebBrowserExtendedEvents : System.Runtime.InteropServices.StandardOleMarshalObject, DWebBrowserEvents2
{
ExtendedWebBrowser _Browser;
public WebBrowserExtendedEvents(ExtendedWebBrowser browser)
{ _Browser = browser; }
//Implement whichever events you wish
public void NewWindow2(ref object pDisp, ref bool cancel)
{
_Browser.OnNewWindow2(ref pDisp, ref cancel);
}
//Implement whichever events you wish
public void DocumentComplete(object pDisp,ref object url)
{
_Browser.OnDocumentComplete( pDisp, url);
}
//Implement whichever events you wish
public void CommandStateChange(long command, bool enable)
{
_Browser.OnCommandStateChange( command, ref enable);
}
}
[ComImport, Guid("34A715A0-6587-11D0-924A-0020AFC7AC4D"), InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIDispatch), TypeLibType(TypeLibTypeFlags.FHidden)]
public interface DWebBrowserEvents2
{
[DispId(0x69)]
void CommandStateChange([In] long command, [In] bool enable);
[DispId(0x103)]
void DocumentComplete([In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IDispatch)] object pDisp, [In] ref object URL);
[DispId(0xfb)]
void NewWindow2([In, Out, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IDispatch)] ref object pDisp, [In, Out] ref bool cancel);
}
[ComImport, Guid("D30C1661-CDAF-11d0-8A3E-00C04FC9E26E"), TypeLibType(TypeLibTypeFlags.FOleAutomation | TypeLibTypeFlags.FDual | TypeLibTypeFlags.FHidden)]
public interface IWebBrowser2
{
[DispId(100)]
void GoBack();
[DispId(0x65)]
void GoForward();
[DispId(0x66)]
void GoHome();
[DispId(0x67)]
void GoSearch();
[DispId(0x68)]
void Navigate([In] string Url, [In] ref object flags, [In] ref object targetFrameName, [In] ref object postData, [In] ref object headers);
[DispId(-550)]
void Refresh();
[DispId(0x69)]
void Refresh2([In] ref object level);
[DispId(0x6a)]
void Stop();
[DispId(200)]
object Application { [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IDispatch)] get; }
[DispId(0xc9)]
object Parent { [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IDispatch)] get; }
[DispId(0xca)]
object Container { [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IDispatch)] get; }
[DispId(0xcb)]
object Document { [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IDispatch)] get; }
[DispId(0xcc)]
bool TopLevelContainer { get; }
[DispId(0xcd)]
string Type { get; }
[DispId(0xce)]
int Left { get; set; }
[DispId(0xcf)]
int Top { get; set; }
[DispId(0xd0)]
int Width { get; set; }
[DispId(0xd1)]
int Height { get; set; }
[DispId(210)]
string LocationName { get; }
[DispId(0xd3)]
string LocationURL { get; }
[DispId(0xd4)]
bool Busy { get; }
[DispId(300)]
void Quit();
[DispId(0x12d)]
void ClientToWindow(out int pcx, out int pcy);
[DispId(0x12e)]
void PutProperty([In] string property, [In] object vtValue);
[DispId(0x12f)]
object GetProperty([In] string property);
[DispId(0)]
string Name { get; }
[DispId(-515)]
int HWND { get; }
[DispId(400)]
string FullName { get; }
[DispId(0x191)]
string Path { get; }
[DispId(0x192)]
bool Visible { get; set; }
[DispId(0x193)]
bool StatusBar { get; set; }
[DispId(0x194)]
string StatusText { get; set; }
[DispId(0x195)]
int ToolBar { get; set; }
[DispId(0x196)]
bool MenuBar { get; set; }
[DispId(0x197)]
bool FullScreen { get; set; }
[DispId(500)]
void Navigate2([In] ref object URL, [In] ref object flags, [In] ref object targetFrameName, [In] ref object postData, [In] ref object headers);
[DispId(0x1f7)]
void ShowBrowserBar([In] ref object pvaClsid, [In] ref object pvarShow, [In] ref object pvarSize);
[DispId(-525)]
WebBrowserReadyState ReadyState { get; }
[DispId(550)]
bool Offline { get; set; }
[DispId(0x227)]
bool Silent { get; set; }
[DispId(0x228)]
bool RegisterAsBrowser { get; set; }
[DispId(0x229)]
bool RegisterAsDropTarget { get; set; }
[DispId(0x22a)]
bool TheaterMode { get; set; }
[DispId(0x22b)]
bool AddressBar { get; set; }
[DispId(0x22c)]
bool Resizable { get; set; }
}
}