Re: Web browser control & printing - C# Discussion Boards

Web browser control & printing

24-Nov-03 8:52

As with most control events in Windows Forms, the sender parameter is the control that raised the event:

public class MyControl : UserControl
{
  public MyControl()
  {
    InitializeComponents(); // Designer method, not defined in this example
    foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
      c.GotFocus += new EventHandler(this.Control_GotFocus);
  }
  private void Control_GotFocus(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
    // "sender" is the control that raised GotFocus event.
    Control c = sender as Control;
    DoSomething(c);
  }
}

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.21
GCS/G/MU d- s: a- C++++ UL@ P++(+++) L+(--) E--- W+++ N++ o+ K? w++++ O- M(+) V? PS-- PE Y++ PGP++ t++@ 5 X+++ R+@ tv+ b(-)>b++ DI++++ D+ G e++>+++ h---* r+++ y+++
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

Alex Korchemniy24-Nov-03 6:43

24-Nov-03 6:43

I'm using the IE web browser control. Do printing by executing the print command. I need to be able to get and set the page settings like margins, orientation, and header/footers. How do I access this?

Heath Stewart24-Nov-03 7:50

24-Nov-03 7:50

You could try passing OLECMDEXECOPT_PROMPTUSER as the nCmdExecOpt parameter to IOleCommandTarget::Exec, or the cmdexecopt parameter to IWebBrowser2::ExecWB. As far as passing values to the *pvaIn in IWebBrowser2::ExecWB, see the documentation for the IDM_PRINT command. The pvaIn argument is discussed there.

Note, too, that while I'm using C++ conventions above, the same is true in C# when you define either the IOleCommandTarget or IWebBrowser2 interface (or reference them from the Microsoft.mshtml.dll assembly) and cast them from your WebBrowser control.

Alex Korchemniy24-Nov-03 8:20

24-Nov-03 8:20

Well I looked and the pvaIn doesn't look too promising:

****
VARIANT of type VT_BSTR, VT_I2, or VT_ARRAY.

If pvaIn is a VARIANT of type VT_BSTR, pvaIn specifies the path to a custom print template.

If pvaIn is a VARIANT of type VT_I2, pvaIn can be set with the flags PRINT_DONTBOTHERUSER(0x01) and PRINT_WAITFORCOMPLETION(0x02) defined in mshtmhst.h. If 0 is specified, then the default behavior (show print dialog and do not wait for completion) occurs unless otherwise defined by the nCmdExecOpt parameter.

If pvaIn is a VARIANT of type VT_ARRAY, pvaIn specifies a SAFEARRAY containing (in the following order) a header BSTR, a footer BSTR, the address of an IStream pointer for a Microsoft® Outlook® Express header document, an alternate URL BSTR used for MSHTML in Outlook Express, and a DWORD containing flags.

Can be set to NULL to use the Microsoft Internet Explorer default print template.
****

It doesn't look like you can access the page margins, etc. from here. I was hoping maybe there was another object that you could get to. Looking through the sutff it doesn't look too flexible to me. There is something with printing templates in there, but in my case i can't you printing templates I need the application to specify the settings at runtime. (The settings have to be serialized to a db.)

Heath Stewart24-Nov-03 8:48

24-Nov-03 8:48

Besides prompting the user (the first option I mentioned previously), there's not really an easy way to do this apparently. If nothing else, you could use a print template (perhaps extract it to a temporary location, like the user's TEMP directory, and pass the string). We do something similar in our application. Just use in-line styles to control the margins, header, and footer.

You could, however, temporarily modify the registry since these values are in the registry. You should be mindful to put the previous values back, however. See the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PageSetup.

You could also try asking in the microsoft.public.inetexplorer.ie4.printing newsgroup. Scan the headers first as there might already be a solution.

Alex Korchemniy24-Nov-03 9:15

24-Nov-03 9:15

I guess you are right. I've been searching and print templates are about the only thing that I can do.

You mensioned inline styles. What code would I include in an HTML document to specify what margins to use...

Thanks for the registry tip - I also needed that one. LOL. Its like you read my mind.

Heath Stewart24-Nov-03 9:51

24-Nov-03 9:51

You can either link one or more stylesheets (in the case of print preview templates, this is often a hastle), or you can use an inline <style> element (in the <head>, or in style attributes that almost all elements share:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>My Page</title>
    <style>
    body { margin: .5in; font-family: verdana,sans serif; }
    p { font-size: 10pt; } /* default for all P tags */
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Regular sentance with the 10pt font size from above.</p>
    <p style="font-size: 8pt;">Smaller example sentance with inline style.</p>
  </body>
<html>

See Cascading Style Sheets[^] in the MSDN Library for more details.

Of course, using the inline styles with elements won't make much sense besides your header and footer, but you can use the <style> element to control the body's margins.

Alex Korchemniy24-Nov-03 10:59

Extending System.Collections.Hashtable

24-Nov-03 10:59

I already knew about how to do it that way. See - IE adds those margins relative to the page setup margins. I was wondering if you can tell it what margins to use - absolute not relative.

I'll just do the registry hack. Smile | :)

Thanks

Thomas Gondorf24-Nov-03 5:27

Thomas Gondorf

24-Nov-03 5:27

Hi,

I am new to C# and trying to create an extended Class Library that extends Hashtable.

I have created a new class like this:

'public class SerializeableHashtable: System.Collections.Hashtable'

In a method called Load i load a Hashtable object from file and try to set it to SerializeableHashtable like this:

public System.Collections.Hashtable LoadHashtableForSample()
{
System.Collections.Hashtable table = new System.Collections.Hashtable();
return table;
}

public void Load()
{
this = LoadHashtableForSample(); // fails because this is readonly
base = LoadHashtableForSample(); // fails because it is not the right context for base ?!?
}

Both of the things i try in Load fails. So the big question is: How can i assign the Hashtable object to SerializeableHashtable? (In C++ it works using the this pointer ...)

Thanks a lot in advance

Thomas

jparsons24-Nov-03 6:00

jparsons

24-Nov-03 6:00

Thomas Gondorf wrote:
Both of the things i try in Load fails. So the big question is: How can i assign the Hashtable object to SerializeableHashtable? (In C++ it works using the this pointer ...)

You can't. SerializableHashtable is a child of Hashtable. You cannot assign a parent object to a reference pointing to the child. Also you cannot (without shooting yourself in the foot) do this in C++.

Suppose you had a method (FooBar) in SerializableHashtable which doesn't exist in Hashtable. If you were allowed to assign a Hashtable object to a SerializableHashtable reference, what would happen if you called FooBar?

It is possible for you to assign a SerializableHashtable object to a Hashtable reference.

Jared
jparsons@jparsons.org
www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte477n

Heath Stewart24-Nov-03 7:07

24-Nov-03 7:07

But he can cast it to a SerializableHashtable.

jparsons24-Nov-03 12:20

jparsons

24-Nov-03 12:20

Only if the object is a SerializableHashtable. Otherwise he will get an exception thrown

Jared
jparsons@jparsons.org
www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte477n

Heath Stewart24-Nov-03 15:52

24-Nov-03 15:52

Yeah, of course, or any other class derived from Hashtable.

Interface? Abstract? DLL? Component? please help

Thomas Gondorf24-Nov-03 21:51

Thomas Gondorf

24-Nov-03 21:51

So, i throw this idea away and store the Hashtable Object in a member of SerializeableHashtable. That will work ... Thanks a lot for your help

sammyh24-Nov-03 5:23

sammyh

24-Nov-03 5:23

I am creating an app, that needs numerous "drivers"

the "drivers" are simple components that will accept a string, parse it and change some data in the main app.

I want to be able to load all of the drivers from a directory at run-time. So I can just place a new one in the directory and run the app without re-compiling.

Could someone please point me in the right direction. I am assuming each would go into their own DLL and be based on either an interface or a base class. But I still can't see the big picture and how they would load at run-time, or how they would fit into the main app.

Thank you very much for any help.

Re: Interface? Abstract? DLL? Component? please help

Heath Stewart24-Nov-03 7:25

www.itbooksearch.com.Huge IT ebook resources,You need not amazon any more. Each $4.

24-Nov-03 7:25

Interfaces or abstract classes are a start, but you really need a way to resolve the Type as well. This usually entails having a custom configuration section in your .config file that registers the Type associated with a particular operation, sort of how a Type to create for the <httpHandlers> section is associated with HTTP verbs and a path from which files that need to be handled are associated with the IHttpHandler or IHttpHandlerFactory.

To make it easier, you should include yourl libraries either in your application's private path (the app's directory or any directory specified in your .config file under the configuration/runtime/assemblyBinding/probing section inside the privatePath attribute. For a good example, see the ASP.NET Web Matrix (a Microsoft employee-driven, free ASP.NET designer) at http://www.asp.net/[^].

There are also several good articles available here on CP about that cover this (though many use a proprietary configuration file, while I find using the .config file that is common to all runtime applications better). You just need to do a search. Smile | :)

Anonymous24-Nov-03 2:04

Anonymous

24-Nov-03 2:04

It is amazing!

drag & drop image from IE

trythat24-Nov-03 1:48

trythat

24-Nov-03 1:48

I can drag & drop a image to a PictureBox(PB) by getting the filename and loading it that way, but I can't seem to be able to drag a image from IE and then drop it to my PB, it looks as though the image goes/is in my temp folder and sometimes its 0 len.

What I really want to either be able to load it as above, or have and image and send it elsewhere first.

Do I have to resort to cut/paste the image that way?

Plus I've looked at a few books and googled for hours, I'm using net 1.1 and I thought I could only have the copy cursor show when I was trying to copy an image, but the code I've seen doesn't seem to make the 'no entry' cursor show at all, anyone else experenced this?

Re: drag & drop image from IE

Heath Stewart24-Nov-03 4:47