Web Browser Control Questions

[rjbudz]

Hi all,

I'm writing an app to interact with web pages in VB6. I figure it would be easier to interact with the Web Browser Control in a form rather than working with handles and SendKey.

I know the Web Browser Control is based on Internet Explorer 3.0, which is 4 versions ago. I also know the control uses the same history as the current version (actually the last time I checked was 6.x, but I've no reason to suspect otherwise) so I know there is interaction between the two.

The Question: Can I expect the Web Browser Control to have access and use of the 'modern' plug-ins (such as the latest Flash, for example)?

The pages I'll be interacting with are pretty much kept state-of-the-art.

If not, opinions please on whether VB 2005 will be a better choice. I know VB.NET like I know Aramaic, so there will be a steep learning curve which we'll all eventually need to take.

I realize I’m posting to the Classic Visual Basic forum, so I do expect some bias.

Thanks!!!

[Static]

The webbrowser control is IE6. so yes...

check the webbrowser link in my sig.. lots of goodies about what u want to do

[rjbudz]

IE6? REALLY? VB6 came out back in 1999. Is there an updated control I don’t know about??

I checked out the link, and it looks like I'll get plenty of help there. Please keep an eye on this thread, as I'll hit you up for more info as I go.

I appreciate you assist.

[Static]

I think the DLL is updated each time u updated IE (not IE7 though)

[rjbudz]

Yeah, that makes sense. I checked ieframe.dll (the Web Browser Control component from Project->Components...) and it's dated 10/17/2006. I didn't think to look at it prior to you mentioning the updates.

Did MS do updates to IE6 that late? Could it be IE7, or do you know for sure MS stopped using ieframe.dll for the newest version?

Either way, I’m glad it isn’t version 3!

[Static]

IE7 is different and screws up the webbrowser control.. if u want to use IE7 then search the forums.. i think there is a workaround here somewhere

[rjbudz]

Oh, that's quite alright.

If I did that, I'd lose functionality I’m learning about in your tutorials. I have no problem not using the latest versions provided by Redmond. I'm still using VB6, right?

[rjbudz]

Using the Web Control:

1) Can the server detect whether or not the browser is set to NOT download images (that is: faster page download by not downloading graphics)?

2) When a page is downloaded, can I get the source of the page (HTML) prior to all the graphics downloading?

Assuming the server CAN detect my browser setting for not downloading images, what I want to be able to do is : Get the source HTML, strip out the image addresses and write the page to an ‘ about:blank’ page, thereby avoiding the longer download time for the graphics.

Can it be done? And, if so, how?

[Static]

the server cant detect that.. i think IE just disables them.

i have tried many ways to do it in code and there is no way around it. the best is to just set IE to not show images.

[rjbudz]

Thanks. The reason I'm asking:

My wife visits a site quite regularly, which we'll call for future reference, XYZ. (search engine bots- don'tcha know.) She claims that the server at XYZ can detect if the browser is set not to show images, as she is then disqualified for getting an unfair advantage over people too stupid to do the same.

I know things like browser type, version, etc. can be obtained via javascript/vbscript, and the pages then act accordingly. Could this be the way it's done? Would the javascript/vbscript show up in the HTML source, so I can bypass it.

Do you know where I can get a list of all the things such code can determine about my web browser object?

[Static]

Ok.. well i was wrong.. you could use the onload event of an image to send a signal to the server that its loaded. so I guess, yeah it can be detected.

what about using IRLDownloadtoFIle API then stripping the HTML then loading it?

[rjbudz]

IRLDownloadtoFIle API.

Not surprisingly, I've not heard of it. I found info on it and I’m reading up. It looks like it may do the job.

BTW, do you hang out here on weekends? I'll be beating on this thing tomorrow and/or Sunday as well.

[Static]

Nope... just during work LOL!!

[rjbudz]

WHAT! You don't work on the weekend???

You MUST be hourly!!! LOL!

[rjbudz]

Ok, I've worked out the API call. I can download the source (HTML) code from the webpage, strip out any reference to gif, png, jpg, swf, then display the resulting code in an about:blank page (so I'm never downloading the original page into a browser).

Now the big question: When I grabbed this page from the server, did anything transpire that would give away that I just snagged this page? I mean, is using the API and loading directly into the browser different? How might I test it to be sure?

[rjbudz]

Is there an API that will do the same job as URLDownloadToFile, but load the data to a variable instead of a file? To use this API I need to write the file then open it to get my data. I works, but seems pretty inefficent.