[RESOLVED] Using the Gecko Web Browser control to display textbox input as HTML in VB

[cowboycoding]

Hi!
I'd like to use the GeckoWebBrowser control to display HTML code that I type (or paste) into a TextBox. Here is the (nonworking) code I have:

GeckoWebBrowser1.Text = textBox1.Text()

All help greatly appreciated!

[stepdragon]

You could try saving the contents of the textbox to a temporary file, and then navigating to that file.

[cowboycoding]

Thank you, but it would be to inefficient for my purposes. I set that code in the keypress event do it could be viewed in realtime.

[stepdragon]

I wouldn't do it that way anyways... At very least, I would have a timer going, and each time you hit a key it resets a counter to lets say 10. so that you can type multiple characters and it will display it once you pause for a second.

I would venture to say (no testing mind you, just a guess) that it would take more time for the page to render than saving a simple text file... and I also think it wouldn't be necessary to raise a navigate event on each keypress. That's just going to slow down the user's experience rather than offer a live preview. Like I said, I think waiting half a second after the most recent keystroke would be more than enough. and then you'd be able to safely do a save / load.

[cowboycoding]

Wouldn't it consume more resources saving a new text file every time you typed a letter?

[stepdragon]

I wouldn't do it that way anyways... At very least, I would have a timer going, and each time you hit a key it resets a counter to lets say 10. so that you can type multiple characters and it will display it once you pause for a second.

I would venture to say (no testing mind you, just a guess) that it would take more time for the page to render than saving a simple text file... and I also think it wouldn't be necessary to raise a navigate event on each keypress. That's just going to slow down the user's experience rather than offer a live preview. Like I said, I think waiting half a second after the most recent keystroke would be more than enough. and then you'd be able to safely do a save / load.

I did offer a solution to that. Albeit timers aren't the best choice. In a perfect world having a seperate thread keeping track of that would be ideal. But a well thought out backgroundworker could get it done as well.

Yes it would slow down your program if you saved the file every time you typed a letter, but so would attempting to display a webpage... If you lessen the number of times it is displayed (every keypress is a bit excessive) you can use a more robust method of displaying. in this example the one that we know works.

[cowboycoding]

Would you mind giving me a good example for that? Thanks for your help!

[stepdragon]

Ok, here's the code. It uses a timer to only update once the user pauses for a short amount of time. Also note that I don't have the same browser control you have, so I used the default webbrowser control. Just replace that navigate line with whatever your browser uses to navigate with. I have tested this and it works.

Public Class Form1
 
    Dim InputCounter As Integer = 20
    Dim TextContent As String = ""
 
    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
        InputCounter -= 1
 
        If InputCounter <= 0 Then
            If TextContent <> TextBox1.Text Then
                Dim objWriter As New System.IO.StreamWriter(Application.StartupPath & "\test.html")
                objWriter.Write(TextBox1.Text)
                objWriter.Close()
 
                WebBrowser1.Navigate(Application.StartupPath & "\test.html")
 
                TextContent = TextBox1.Text
            End If
        End If
 
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged
        InputCounter = 20
    End Sub
 
End Class

[cowboycoding]

Thanks so much!

[cowboycoding]

Thanks again! I'll try that.
Is there a way to save stuff in the users documents folder so I don't have to do administrator stuff?

[stepdragon]

        If InputCounter <= 0 Then
            If TextContent <> TextBox1.Text Then
                Dim objWriter As New System.IO.StreamWriter(Application.StartupPath & "\test.html")
                objWriter.Write(TextBox1.Text)
                objWriter.Close()
 
                WebBrowser1.Navigate(Application.StartupPath & "\test.html")
 
                TextContent = TextBox1.Text
            End If
        End If

Just replace the Highlighted Text with "Your\Chosen\Path\And.File". It would also be a good idea to hold that in its own variable so that you can change both of them by changing the variable. It was poor writing on my part for doing it that way.

[cowboycoding]

I guess I am saying is there a way to save it in the users Appdata folder. Example: C:\Users\--Here is where I have the problem--\AppData\Local

[stepdragon]

First result in google yields:

My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.CurrentUserApplicationData

[cowboycoding]

Thanks very much! Should have googled that before asking.