WebBrowser certificates and pop-ups

[mentalhard]

I have embedded the WebBrowser control v.2.0 in Windows form and i've coded almost evertyhing that IE 6 supports (back, forward, refresh, options, properties, print ... ).

What i am struggling with is Support for the certificates and pop-ups.
When the dialog for certificates appears it refers to real Internet explorer and my Browser just hangs up. As for the pop-up windows i need that all popups be opened in a new tab in my browser. I have made the functions that creates tabpage i just need to catch that it's pop-up and call the function.

Thanks

 

[jmcilhinney]

You could handle the NewWindow event, although I'm not sure if that is raised if the window is opened by a script.

 

[mentalhard]

Ok i've tried with newWindow event but it seems like i am always refering the current url instead the url of the popup.

Private Sub browser_NewWindow(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs)
        e.Cancel = True 'prevent to jump in new window
        Me.AddTabPageAndBrowser() 'add a new tabpage
        Me.tabHolder.TabIndex = Me.tabHolder.TabPages.Count - 1
        currentBrowser.Url = CType(sender, WebBrowser).Url
End Sub

but it always opens the same uri again and again.

Thanks

 

[jmcilhinney]

Is the Navigating event raised before NewWindow? If so that will give you the new URL.

 

[mentalhard]

Hmmm it makes sense but i was really not able to find a way to process the URI to the new webBrowser instance.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jmcilhinney]

I asked a question. Perhaps you could answer that before asking for further assistance.

 

[mentalhard]

Well actually i am using addhandler statement to add the events to the WebBrowser (which is created in runtime) so i have no idea which event occurs first. Thanks.

 

[JohnH]

AddHandler statement doesn't have anything to do with the order which events occur. You can use code like this to debug events:

Private Sub WebBrowser1_Navigating(ByVal sender As Object, _
ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowserNavigatingEventArgs) Handles WebBrowser1.Navigating
    Console.WriteLine("Navigating " & Date.Now.ToString("ss fffffff"))
End Sub

Private Sub WebBrowser1_NewWindow(ByVal sender As Object, _
ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs) Handles WebBrowser1.NewWindow
    Console.WriteLine("NewWindow " & Date.Now.ToString("ss fffffff"))
End Sub

As you can see Navigating event doesn't occur in relation to NewWindow event at all.

From what I have found you can't get the information you want from the .Net 2.0 Webbrowser control, but a quick search revealed a workaround by Riquel Dongs post. To recite: add reference to COM library Microsoft Internet Controls, cast Webbrowser.ActiveXInstance to SHDocVw.WebBrowser, handle the NewWindow3 event of this object. Similarly:

Private Sub frmDiv_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
    WebBrowser1.GoHome()
    svd = DirectCast(Me.WebBrowser1.ActiveXInstance, SHDocVw.WebBrowser)
End Sub

Private WithEvents svd As SHDocVw.WebBrowser

Private Sub svd_NewWindow3(ByRef ppDisp As Object, ByRef Cancel As Boolean, ByVal dwFlags As UInteger, _
ByVal bstrUrlContext As String, ByVal bstrUrl As String) Handles svd.NewWindow3
    Cancel = True
    Me.Text = bstrUrl 'here's the url
End Sub

The Webbrowser control needs to navigate once to initialize ActiveXInstance before you can get the reference, it doesn't need to be a page, you can navigate to "about:blank" also first. If the control is visible it doesn't need navigating, so if Shown event could have been used.

 

[mentalhard]

I just tested it and it works like a charm. Thanks for the help John
If you don't mind i would ask for just one more try. Actually i did mention it in the oroginal post; how to make that installed and accepted certificates refer to the current WebBrowser instance insted to IE like it currently does. When i select the certificate and click OK nothing happens.
In IE and the same website with the same certificate works flawless.

Thanks

 

[mentalhard]

opps i think i celebrated too early.

it doesn't work properly for real popups only if you select "Open in a new window" from the context menu.

for example if you check http://www.geekpedia.com you will notice that when popup should appear you actually get an error :
Unterminated string constant

Thanks

 

[JohnH]

I didn't get a popup from that url, but you can do it like this:

Private Sub svd_NewWindow2(ByRef ppDisp As Object, ByRef Cancel As Boolean) Handles svd.NewWindow2
    Dim svd2 As SHDocVw.WebBrowser = WebBrowser2.ActiveXInstance
    svd2.RegisterAsBrowser = True
    ppDisp = svd2.Application
End Sub

WebBrowser2 is the browser control to receive the newwindow navigation, it have to be visible.

 

[mentalhard]

It makes sense but from some reason it doesn't work properly. Sometimes it is displayed in a new tabpage plus one IE window instance popups too.

I reproduced the problem making one very basic browser that is attached so please just check what i am doing wrong. It seems fine but still doesn't handle the popups very well. Also the webpages that requires certificates.

Please check that out. Very basic (just navigation and NewWindow2/3 events)

Thanks


EDIT: i was wondering why i cannot give you more reputations for your replies? It says: you must spread blah blah. Thanks!!!

 

[JohnH]

Use either Newwindow2 or 3 and don't cancel it. If you need to check the url to filter out some newwindows use 2 (and then use cancel to stop it).

You could also benefit from using the Navigate method of browser instead of the Url property and handling endless URI possibilities.

currentBrowser.Navigate(Me.txtURL.Text)

 

[mentalhard]

It makes sense to me .. thanks John i will try that right now.

By the way, did you consider the question about opening websites that require certificates. Usually what happens here is that when i select sucha website and i have needed certificate installed already the certificates window popups and i select an appropreate cert. but nothing happens. If i do the same through IE directly it works just fine. Means same website, same certificate and everthing is fine. WebBrowser control doesn't accept that. I am sure i need to take some actions in order to make it ...

Thanks

 

[JohnH]

I just logged into a secure site with a certificate and it worked out of the box with the WebBrowser control, like ordinary IE usage.