How do I access an html DOM in Firefox without using Mozilla's IE Control?

[Lab Copy]

Given:
I have vb6 sp5 on XP Pro 32 bit sp2.
I do not want to use IE's webbrowser or its derived variations (MozillaControlxxx.exe). This IS a given.
I can see lots of tools in Firefox which seem to indicate that there is usually an html DOM available.

Potential:
If there is an html DOM available in Firefox, then I should be able to access it from VB6.

Question:
How do I access an html DOM in Firefox so that I can fill in a form in Firefox?

Another Given:
Impossible is not a valid answer.

[Schmidt]

Browser-Components will run in your own Process (hence you can influence the DOM per Inprocess-calls to these Componets/Libraries).
But you ruled them out.

Seems what you want, is to interact with the DOM in a *foreign* Process (Firefox.exe) -
and the only way to do that (without true hacking) is, to "get your own component into the Firefox-Process".

And yes, there is an official way to do that, you know...
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2014...fox-extension/

Olaf

[dilettante]

Of course there is a DOM, there has to be or JavaScript has no API to leverage.

But it can be made up of foreign technology in a foreign browser, and Firefox is about as foreign as software comes. It ignores most of the power of Windows in exchange for portability to minority OSs.

Maybe see Embedding Mozilla. Good luck with that. It may be completely obsolete now.

[westconn1]

have you looked at using selenium in your vb6?

[Lab Copy]

Browser-Components will run in your own Process (hence you can influence the DOM per Inprocess-calls to these Componets/Libraries).
But you ruled them out.

Seems what you want, is to interact with the DOM in a *foreign* Process (Firefox.exe) -
and the only way to do that (without true hacking) is, to "get your own component into the Firefox-Process".

And yes, there is an official way to do that, you know...
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2014...fox-extension/

Olaf

Not sufficient to help. I do not feel like I can handle this process.

[Lab Copy]

Of course there is a DOM, there has to be or JavaScript has no API to leverage.

But it can be made up of foreign technology in a foreign browser, and Firefox is about as foreign as software comes. It ignores most of the power of Windows in exchange for portability to minority OSs.

Maybe see Embedding Mozilla. Good luck with that. It may be completely obsolete now.

Maybe. Looks tempting. I will look into this. Not a sufficient answer for resolution at this time.

"Of course there is a DOM" is not an acceptable response.

I asked for: "How do I access an html DOM in Firefox so that I can fill in a form in Firefox?"

Maybe I need to say it more simply: "How do I fill in a form in Firefox?" I already specified using vb6 sp5 on XP Pro 32 bit sp2.

[Lab Copy]

Browser-Components will run in your own Process (hence you can influence the DOM per Inprocess-calls to these Componets/Libraries).
But you ruled them out.

Seems what you want, is to interact with the DOM in a *foreign* Process (Firefox.exe) -
and the only way to do that (without true hacking) is, to "get your own component into the Firefox-Process".

And yes, there is an official way to do that, you know...
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2014...fox-extension/

Olaf

Maybe "true hacking" might be an option. I would consider this if I had help with it.

This seems to be a promising potential.

[Lab Copy]

have you looked at using selenium in your vb6?

Selenium. Maybe. I looked at this different times before, but I do not know how to use it and I am pushed for time. So far I have found that VB6 is extraordinarily powerful without 3rd party add-ons. I am going with VB6 if I can.

[Lab Copy]

Browser-Components will run in your own Process (hence you can influence the DOM per Inprocess-calls to these Componets/Libraries).
But you ruled them out.

Seems what you want, is to interact with the DOM in a *foreign* Process (Firefox.exe) -
and the only way to do that (without true hacking) is, to "get your own component into the Firefox-Process".

And yes, there is an official way to do that, you know...
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2014...fox-extension/

Olaf

I did not rule out all browser components, just any that have been derived from IE's "webbrowser" component.

If you know of others, I am at this time, interested.

Thanks.

[Lab Copy]

There were some nice ideas given, but since I do not know how to do some things, they were to vague for me to use at this time.

I have been considering opening a page with some JavaScript or else in extension to the URL.
I have checked the following and I would like to help understanding the results.
Please.


This works

https://www.google.com/?q=hello
https://www.google.com/search?q=hello

http://www.metacrawler.com/?q=hello
http://www.metacrawler.com/search?q=hello

http://www.bing.com/?q=hello
http://www.bing.com/search?q=hello

---

This does not work

https://www.hotbot.com/?q=hello
https://www.hotbot.com/search?q=hello

---

This works (same site, with search)
https://www.ask.com/search?q=hello

This does not work (same site, without search)
https://www.ask.com/?q=hello

---

This does not work
http://www.globalspec.com/?query=hello

Some work and some do not. I need some help with this.

Thanks for all the responses so far.

[Lab Copy]

None of the detailed answers, herein, worked for me.

[westconn1]

I looked at this different times before, but I do not know how to use it and I am pushed for time.

i also have never used selenium, but if i had to do what you are looking at, it would be my choice, at least until i found it could not achieve the desired result

i am not even sure you could work with firefox using the findwindow and sendmessage win32 APIs, but may be worth a try

even downloading files, from some urls, using windows XP may be difficult now, as old internet explorer will no longer connect to the server, i have just had to work around that problem