Microsoft Web Browser Automation using C#

Sample Image - mshtml_automation.jpg

Introduction

The Microsoft Web Browser COM control adds browsing, document, viewing, and downloading capabilities to your applications. Parsing and rendering of HTML documents in the WebBrowser control is handled by the MSHTML component which is an Active Document Dynamic HTML (DHTML) Object Model hosting ActiveX Controls and script languages. The WebBrowser control merely acts as a container for the MSHTML component and implements navigations and related functions. MSHTML can be automated using IDispatch and IConnectionPointContainer-style automation interfaces. These interfaces enable a host to automate MSHTML through the object model.

Note

If you are not using the Visual Studio .NET IDE; use Windows Forms ActiveX Control Importer (Aximp.exe) to convert type definitions in a COM type library for an ActiveX control into a Windows Forms control. For instance: to generate the interop DLL's for the ActiveX browser component using the command line run aximp ..\system32\shdocvw.dll relative to your system32 path. Compilation of a form that uses the AxSHDocVw.AxWebBrowser class would be as follows: csc /r:SHDocVw.dll,AxSHDocVw.dll YourForm.cs.

Using the code

Simple Automation scenario:

In order to automate this task, first add a Microsoft Web Browser object to an empty C# Windows application. In the Visual Studio .NET IDE, this is done by using the "Customize Toolbox..." context menu (on the Toolbox), pick "Microsoft Web Browser" from the COM components list. This will add an "Explorer" control in the "General" section of the Toolbox.

//
// navigate to google on Form load
//
private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    object loc = "<A href="http://www.google.com/">http://www.google.com/</A>";
    object null_obj_str = "";
    System.Object null_obj = 0;
    this.axWebBrowser1.Navigate2(ref loc , ref null_obj, 
          ref null_obj, ref null_obj_str, ref null_obj_str);
}

Next open the solution explorer and add a reference to the Microsoft HTML Object Library (MSHTML) from the COM components list and implement the following code.

//
// Global variable Task used to prevent recursive code executions.
// 

using mshtml;

private int Task = 1; // global

private void axWebBrowser1_DocumentComplete(object sender, 
         AxSHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_DocumentCompleteEvent e)

{
switch(Task)
    {
        case 1:

            HTMLDocument myDoc = new HTMLDocumentClass();
            myDoc = (HTMLDocument) axWebBrowser1.Document;

            // a quick look at the google html source reveals: 
            // <INPUT maxLength="256" size="55" name="q">
            //
            HTMLInputElement otxtSearchBox = 
               (HTMLInputElement) myDoc.all.item("q", 0);

            otxtSearchBox.value = "intel corp";

            // google html source for the I'm Feeling Lucky Button:
            // <INPUT type=submit value="I'm Feeling Lucky" name=btnI>
            //
            HTMLInputElement btnSearch = 
               (HTMLInputElement) myDoc.all.item("btnI", 0);
            btnSearch.click();

            Task++;
            break;

        case 2:

            // continuation of automated tasks...
            break;
    }
}

References

MSDN

History

Version 1.0 - November 16th 2003 - Original Submission
Version 1.1 - November 17th 2003 - Modified axWebBrowser event

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

Alexander Kent

Kentdome LLC

United States

Member

Biography in progress Wink | ;-)

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simulate keystrokes for a website

Member 7950688

5:00 25 May '12

This article is very helpful. But I have a task to login to a Siebel CRM website, navigate the website and download some reports by submitting some parameters. I need to simulate these steps. My question is can this be done from a C# application? And what libraries are required. Pal
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My vote of 5

sach!!

2:27 27 Jul '11

That really helped me a lot!! Thanks for a simple explanation as well.
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My Vote of 5

Umesh. A Bhat

18:45 14 Jul '11

Excellent piece of code from Alexander (the Kent)
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Very well done!

Omar Gamil

22:24 13 Jul '11

Very useful! Thanks Alexander, been looking for something like this for a while Take 5
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uses in Web application

arinhere

18:13 13 Jan '11

Hello,

Is there any way to use this in web application....I tried to use it in my web application..my target to fill a web form on another URL dynamically, but it shows "Exception of type 'System.Windows.Forms.AxHost+InvalidActiveXStateException' was thrown asp.net" on the following line

this.axWebBrowser1.Navigate2(ref loc, ref null_obj, ref null_obj, ref null_obj_str, ref null_obj_str);

my code snippet is the following...please suggest

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using MSHTML;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Threading;
using AxSHDocVw;
using System.Windows.Forms;
 

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    
    //ClsdataConnection cnn = new ClsdataConnection();
    private AxSHDocVw.AxWebBrowser axWebBrowser1;
    private int Task = 1; // global
    private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null;
 
    private void InitializeComponent()
    {
        this.axWebBrowser1 = new AxSHDocVw.AxWebBrowser();
 
        ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)
                                       (this.axWebBrowser1)).BeginInit();
        axWebBrowser1.SuspendLayout();
        this.axWebBrowser1.Anchor =
         ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)
          ((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top
                | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom)
                | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left)
                | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right)));
        this.axWebBrowser1.Enabled = true;
        this.axWebBrowser1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 72);
        this.axWebBrowser1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(360, 232);
        this.axWebBrowser1.TabIndex = 0;
    }
 
    //protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
    //{
    //    if (disposing)
    //    {
    //        if (components != null)
    //        {
    //            components.Dispose();
    //        }
    //    }
    //    base.Dispose(disposing);
    //    //base.Dispose(disposing);
    //}

 
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Thread webBrowseThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(PerformWebBrowseOp));
        webBrowseThread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
        webBrowseThread.Start();       
    }
 
    protected void PerformWebBrowseOp()
    {
        
        //axWebBrowser1.CreateControl();
        InitializeComponent();
        axWebBrowser1.NavigateComplete2 += new AxSHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_NavigateComplete2EventHandler(axWebBrowser1_NavigateComplete2);
 
        object loc = "http://www.google.com/";
        object null_obj_str = "";
        System.Object null_obj = 0;
 
        this.axWebBrowser1.Navigate2(ref loc, ref null_obj, ref null_obj, ref null_obj_str, ref null_obj_str);
    }
 
    private void axWebBrowser1_NavigateComplete2(object sender, AxSHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_NavigateComplete2Event e)
    {
         //Do Nothing
    }
 

    private void axWebBrowser1_DocumentComplete(object sender, AxSHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_DocumentCompleteEvent e)
    {
        switch (Task)
        {
            case 1:
 
                HTMLDocument myDoc = new HTMLDocumentClass();
                myDoc = (HTMLDocument)axWebBrowser1.Document;
 
                // a quick look at the google html source reveals: 
                // <INPUT maxLength="256" size="55" name="q">
                //
                HTMLInputElement otxtSearchBox = (HTMLInputElement)myDoc.all.item("q", 0);
 
                otxtSearchBox.value = "intel corp";
 
                // google html source for the I'm Feeling Lucky Button:
                // <INPUT type=submit value="I'm Feeling Lucky" name=btnI>
                //
                HTMLInputElement btnSearch = (HTMLInputElement)myDoc.all.item("btnI", 0);
                btnSearch.click();
 
                Task++;
                break;
 
            case 2:
 
                // continuation of automated tasks...
                break;
        }
    }
 
}

Thanks - Arin

Arin
Mail: arinhere@gmail.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2008/04/16/8399645.aspx

How to deploy such a program on end users' PC [modified]

milkyjing

5:53 3 Jan '11

First of all, thanks for giving us such an awesome demo on web automation Wink | ;)

My question is how to deploy it on a PC (to make it simple, assuming it has windows 7 installed as well as .NET 3.5).

I've tried the demo on such a computer, the result is that we can run the program but it stayed at the page of Google. Wink | ;)

Edit (Solution):

OK, after a long search in Google, I finally figure it out, that is, we need to copy Microsoft.mshtml.dll to the Demo's root directory! Wink | ;)

Refer to the thread: AxSHDocVw.AxWebBrowser breaks on Windows 2003 Server

p.s. the problem is that axWebBrowser DocumentComplete event doesn't trigger without Microsoft.mshtml.dll.

modified on Monday, January 3, 2011 10:26 PM

My vote of 4

oriono

23:46 30 Sep '10

very good job
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Execute jQuery

olibara

7:06 12 May '10

Hello Thanks for your very helpfull article Can I use your model to execute jQuery embedded in a page ? Or is there any other way to browse a page from cSharp, detect jQuery method and call them Or do I have to forget cSharp to do it ? What will be the better approach Thanks Olivier
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Thank You

Abinash Bishoyi

20:48 12 Jan '10

This article help me in complete one of my browser automation project. I think very soon I will article about my project.
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How to call function of HTML page

anhdungitvn

22:19 28 Oct '09

I have Button, but it haven't got name: `<button type="button" style="background:#e30613; color:#FFF; border:1px;" önclick="sendData(322, 1);">Send</button>` Now, i want to call: sendData(322, 1) What can i do? Please show me! Thanks!
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Re: How to call function of HTML page [modified]

zhao wei

14:55 9 May '10

var button = (HtmlButtonElement)
             (from IHTMLElement i in myDoc.all
             where i is HTMLButtonElement 
             && i.outerHTML.indexOf("önclick=\"sendData(322, 1);\"" != -1
             select i).FirstOrDefault();
button.click();

modified on Sunday, May 9, 2010 9:02 PM

Not in IE8 though

favazfarook

17:00 7 Aug '09

Hi,

Your sample is cool and i tried in IE7 no issue, but when moved IE8 the axBrowserControl's axBrowserControl_DocumentCompleted does not seems to fire, so i used the default WebBrowser which is in toolbox by default all the things are ok now the Documnet complete fires and so on. but i cannot seems to use the code

HTMLInputElement btnSearch =
(HTMLInputElement) myDoc.all.item("btnI", 0);
btnSearch.click();

since the HTMLInputElement is in MSHTML dll and i am not using it and cannot convert the webBrowser controls element to "HTMLInputElement" instead have to convert to "HTMLElement" but click is the issue

HtmlElement btnGo = (HtmlElement)objHTMLDoc.All["login_button_box"];
btnGo.Click(); // this is not allowed
//btnGo.RaiseEvent("click"); //tried this too have some issue

Also i am able to set the Text boxes with values but cannot seems to CLICK a button

Can you help mein this senario

Thanks in advance

When you hold a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

How do I delay until AJAX is finished processing the page?

Member 1382160

12:31 29 Jul '09

Hi, I have a problem where the page is generated via ajax so when I try to find controls on the page the reference is null because they do not exist until AJAX creates them? Thank
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Re: How do I delay until AJAX is finished processing the page?

binhvtt

16:54 15 Sep '10

You can use this logic to detect load page complete

private void browser_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            if (_browser.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
            {
                return;
            }
            if ((e.Url.AbsolutePath == "blank" || e.Url.AbsolutePath == "about:blank") || (e.Url != _browser.Url))
            {
                return;
            }
            _loadcomplete = true;

javascript

mnte

20:57 28 May '09

Hi, I have a problem. I want to navigate to page http://www.me.com/; I use AxWebBrowser. when it throw event DocumentComplete I click continue. now I have problem without solution :/ I fill login and pass, and click Log In it's do nothing --------------------------- I think it is js problem How to solve it?? Thanks for any advise
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How can I load new pages, starting this process over with each one...

trinityAngie

3:45 14 May '09

I want to have a loop that loads a new page from a string array
of several website addresses.

here is where I collect the web addresses I want to load in a loop
and then load one at a time and get information off their page:

c = 0;
cc = 0;
foreach (Match match in collection)
{
GroupCollection groups = match.Groups;
strArrayWWWcargoShipNames[c] = string.Format("{1}",groups["word"].Value,groups[0].Value,groups[1].Value);
if (strArrayWWWcargoShipNames[c] != "http://www.google.com")
{
if (strArrayWWWcargoShipNames[c] != "http://www.mozilla.com")
{
if (strArrayWWWcargoShipNames[c] != "http://www.easycounter.com")
{
strArrayWWWcargoShipNamesCleaned1[cc] = strArrayWWWcargoShipNames[c];
cc++;
}

}
}

c++;

}

this doesn't work...I think I'm not handling the readystate or something:

object loc2 = strArrayWWWcargoShipNamesCleaned1[cc];
object null_obj_str2 = "";
System.Object null_obj2 = 0;
this.axWebBrowser1.Navigate2(ref loc2, ref null_obj2, ref null_obj2, ref null_obj_str2, ref null_obj_str2);

mshtml.HTMLDocumentClass doc2 = (mshtml.HTMLDocumentClass)this.axWebBrowser1.Document;

Your help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Trint

How to determine when navigation is completed

Ming Liu

16:47 9 May '09

I have been trying to automate WebBrowser since long time and the biggest challenge to me is how to determine when navigation is completed. For simple web site, DocumentComplete event is good enough, which is very simple to do. However, for a complex web site, it is difficult to do. Anybody have better idea? miliu
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	2.00/5 (1 vote)

Good add-on to this article

winmagic2004

9:04 13 Jan '09

Hi, guys look at this article http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/automatingwebbrowsing.aspx
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How ot import mshtml and SHDocvw?

YBONG

14:18 16 Dec '08

Hi, I cant find any reference in the library which namesapce is mshtml. Please advice me how I can import this namspace to the library. Thanks. Regards, YB
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	2.25/5 (4 votes)

web automation

ahmed_hosni1988

15:26 5 Dec '08

i want to know how to give the value to textarea by using mshtml
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	2.50/5 (4 votes)

Re: web automation

amertak

7:43 19 Apr '09

It's very simple.

First, I got a collection of textarea elements

IHTMLElementCollection TextAreaElemets = objDoc.getElementsByTagName("textarea");

After is the most important part, that I covert IHTMLElement to IHTMLTextAreaElement
I use foreach to go throw the collection.
After use TextAreaElement is not hard.

Of course, yo must control your wanted textarea by name tag Smile | :)

foreach (IHTMLElement Element in TextAreaElemets)
              {
                  IHTMLTextAreaElement TextAreaElement = Element as IHTMLTextAreaElement;
                  
                  TextAreaElement.value = "My value";
              }

How to click a javascript object or button?

lalspo

17:15 7 Nov '08

How do i click a dynamic javascript button or object like adsense in a web page?
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	3.00/5 (2 votes)

Re: How to click a javascript object or button?

YBONG

14:25 16 Dec '08

hi Lalspo, Not sure whether this is the solution that you want. I just found a solution for pressing "Enter" Key. use SendKeys.Send("\r"); to query "enter". I m also still finding the solution on how to click the button on the website. Regards, YB
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	1.17/5 (3 votes)

Re: How to click a javascript object or button?

anhdungitvn

22:52 28 Oct '09

I have Problem. I have Button, but it haven't got name: <button type="button" style="background:#e30613; color:#FFF; border:1px;" önclick="sendData(322, 1);">Send</button> Now, i want to call: sendData(322, 1) What can i do? Please show me! Thanks!
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	2.00/5 (1 vote)