Microsoft Access: Edge Browser Control is finally here :) (1 Viewer)

[isladogs]

Jon posted in one of those threads that he closed both threads and removed someone's name because of legal ofcom reasons, but I didn't see anything inappropriate in either threads other than an anonymous contributor.

Your comment implied that the anonymous contribution was inappropriate.

From the site owner's comments, he received a complaint from YKW which caused him to close the two threads and delete all references to that person. That was clear enough.
In the circumstances, none of us here have the right to know the exact details of what happened, whether involved in that thread or otherwise.

I hope @MsAccessNL will post a new thread when he is ready to publish his own code / example app.

 

[DickyP]

Ignoring the bits about inappropriate content this main thread has amused me somewhat. All that is happening is that something is being put back that was available in 'days-of-yore'. The IE browser OCX which disappeared at the start of the century worked beautifully and then was gone and if you could find it didn't work with 2003. Ditto were the media player OCX and the RTF OCX (this latter being 'real' RFT and not HTML like the current built-in offering)

 

[isladogs]

Also, up to around 2022 or thereabouts, you could also embed Excel, Word and PowerPoint objects into Access with almost zero effort. This functionality depended on the old viewers for those document types which MS has now deprecated.

However I think all of the recent posts (including mine) are off topic. The thread is meant to be about the Edge browser control.

 

[Edgar_]

Ignoring the bits about inappropriate content this main thread has amused me somewhat. All that is happening is that something is being put back that was available in 'days-of-yore'. The IE browser OCX which disappeared at the start of the century worked beautifully and then was gone and if you could find it didn't work with 2003. Ditto were the media player OCX and the RTF OCX (this latter being 'real' RFT and not HTML like the current built-in offering)

You can find the legacy web browser controls even in the newest versions of Access. However, web technologies have moved on and IE couldn't keep up.

Then, Google developed Chromium and a lot of folks forked it or worked on top of it, Microsoft included, and now a lot of browsers are based on it, Edge is Microsoft's take of Chromium. With the fast and growing amount of frameworks and huge dependency nightmare that all web apps are nowadays, IE just wouldn't stand a chance, so the move is pragmatic, but useful.

Based on my experience lurking forums, it really seems like very few ever used the web browser controls.

 

[Edgar_]

So using shell commands to externally open user's default web browsers is more common than using web browser controls?

No, I meant actually developing for the web browser control making the contents of the control interact with the application.

 

[CJ_London]

I’ve used the old web control to do something simple - display images from a windows folder, then using code to drag them on to the main form. However couldn’t get it to work with the new web browser control

 

[RonPaii]

I use the new browser control to open the Autodesk Vault Thin Client allowing users to browse the Vault to select assembly models to import BOM. Programming the browser using Javascript and the ExecuteJavascript function. The following code logs into the vault using a read only username and password. Very much like building up a SQL string.

Me.WebBrowser1.ExecuteJavascript _
"{var nativeInputValueSetter = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(window.HTMLInputElement.prototype, ""value"").set; " & _
"const $formObject = document.forms[0]; " & _
"const $usernameField = $formObject.elements[0]; " & _
       "nativeInputValueSetter.call($usernameField, '<TheLoginName>'); " & _
"let eventUN = new Event('input', { bubbles: true}); " & _
       "eventUN.simulated = true; " & _
       "$usernameField.dispatchEvent(eventUN); " & _
"const $passwordField = $formObject.elements[1]; " & _
       "nativeInputValueSetter.call($passwordField, '<TheLoginPassword>'); " & _
"let eventPW = new Event('input', { bubbles: true}); " & _
       "eventPW.simulated = true; " & _
       "$passwordField.dispatchEvent(eventPW); " & _
"const $loginButton = $formObject.elements[2]; " & _
       "$loginButton.click();}"

 

[DaveMD]

Hello everyone, I have been attempting to use the Edge Browser Control with dynamic HTML. This is ideal for my use case in using the Browser Control to generate modern UI and graphs through use of html/css/javascript. The issue I'm having is that while the Edge Browser Control works great to render the HTML dynamically, all subsequent calls to RetrieveJavascriptValue fail.

While this issue does not occur if using a local html file and Navigating to it, use of a local file is not ideal as it suffers from the 3 second loading lag and also creates unnecessary temp files on a user's drive.

To reproduce this issue:

• Create a Form and add the Edge Browser Control
• Set the ControlSource = "about:blank"
• Run the below code. The call to RetrieveJavascriptValue in PopulateBrowserDynamic times out every time.

I appreciate any ideas to resolve this issue.

Private Sub WaitUntilBrowserReady()
    While Me.EdgeBrowser.ReadyState <> acComplete
        DoEvents
    Wend
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Call WaitUntilBrowserReady
    Call PopulateBrowserDynamic 
End Sub

' Function: Populates the Browser with dynamic HTML using Javascript (no local file or web address)
' Test Result: This successfully renders the html in the Browser Control, but RetrieveJavascript FAILS every time.
Private Sub PopulateBrowserDynamic()
    Dim html As String, js As String
    Dim title As String

    html = "<html><head><title>My Title Dynamic</title></head><body><h1>Hello World Dynamic</h1></body></html>"

    js = "document.open(); document.write('" & html & "'); document.close();"
    Call Me.EdgeBrowser.ExecuteJavascript(js)
    Call WaitUntilBrowserReady

    ' Attempt to retrieve title of web page

    ' The below times out and title is set to error message of
    ' "RetrieveJavascriptValue timed out. Please verify the JavaScript expression supplied is valid."
    title = Me.EdgeBrowser.RetrieveJavascriptValue("document.title")
    MsgBox title
End Sub

 

[DaveMD]

I can only conclude the above scenario in my previous post is due to a bug in the Edge Browser Control. I have used the older web browser control extensively with only dynamic html/css/javascript without issue, although at this point the old control does not support modern web standards. With the old web browser control now planned to be deprecated/removed from MS Access in June 2026 (based on a recent post on accessforever.org), any input is appreciated on the best way to report my previous post as a bug to the MS Access team for resolution.

 

[Edgar_]

I can only conclude the above scenario in my previous post is due to a bug in the Edge Browser Control. I have used the older web browser control extensively with only dynamic html/css/javascript without issue, although at this point the old control does not support modern web standards. With the old web browser control now planned to be deprecated/removed from MS Access in June 2026 (based on a recent post on accessforever.org), any input is appreciated on the best way to report my previous post as a bug to the MS Access team for resolution.

You should use a watch to check when the state is changing, the state can change for many reasons, so you should verify that it's not stuck trying to do something it can't do at that point. I can't replicate the issue as the Edge browser control is not available in my Access installation, but I've seen the problem multiple times in the legacy web browser control. You could also try setting the HTML content in other ways, like navigating to data/text; <html>...</html>, or setting the document when there is actually a document for about:blank, then modifying the document.

Many times, it's better just to put a html file in the temporary files like you were doing, for a few different reasons. Web browsers are some of the most complicated and convoluted pieces of software, so give it another chance. Use you debugger extensively.

 

[cheekybuddha]

I used to do similar dynamic html in the old version of the webbrowser control by first navigating to about:blank, and then writing to the DOM document of the loaded empty page.

So, no need for external html file and not relying on js to create the initial document.

Perhaps this technique might work here?

 

[CJ_London]

The problem i have with the new browser control is that when using it to display local files. updating the control source doesn’t always refresh what is displayed

 

[DaveMD]

@Edgar_ I have been using the debugger and confirm that the Edge Browser Control is in ReadyState acComplete before calling RetrieveJavascriptValue. The Browser perfectly renders the html/css/javascript using the dynamic injection method with ExecuteJavascript, it is just that calling RetrieveJavascriptValue does not seem to work at all if you are purely populating the control with dynamic content.

@cheekybuddha Using about:blank and then populating the control dynamically is exactly what I prefer to do and that was always the method I used with the old Browser Control without issue. The old Web Browser Control was a bit easier to work with dynamically as you could directly interact with the DOM through the VBA object model. For the Edge Browser Control, that is no longer possible and all direct interactions are done by using the ExecuteJavascript and RetrieveJavascriptValue VBA functions. I have gotten used to these methods, but I'm just running up against these issues with RetrieveJavascriptValue when using the control dynamically.

@CJ_London. I have encountered that same issue with trying to dynamically set the ControlSource and/or calling Navigate on the Edge Browser Control to load a local file dynamically. Besides the desire also not to save temp local files, the 3 second loading lag of local files into the Browser Control does not meet needs for loading time. I'm aware there is a workaround to speed that up, but it requires changing the HOST system file in Windows and I run in shared Terminal Server environments where that is not something IT is open to.

 

[Edgar_]

I have been using the debugger and confirm that the Edge Browser Control is in ReadyState acComplete before calling RetrieveJavascriptValue. The Browser perfectly renders the html/css/javascript using the dynamic injection method with ExecuteJavascript, it is just that calling RetrieveJavascriptValue does not seem to work at all if you are purely populating the control with dynamic content.

I cannot test it myself, so I cannot say for sure what you are encountering, but it seems like there is something off with how you are approaching it. Instead of waiting for the page to be fully ready, I would recommend testing for the existence of an element that is expected to render. In your case, testing for the presence of document or a part of it might be a better approach. Just because you can see its contents does not necessarily mean the program has reached a stage where it can interact with or manipulate them. Use your watch to monitor that too, besides the state. The state can change many times throughout dynamic content creation. You could add a listener too and have that listener react to the precise moment where you can manipulate the contents.