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Problem with axwebbrowser control - cant access innerhtml or any elements

I have an axwebbrowser control in a form. I navigate to a page. I am interested in getting the html from that page into a string variable. For some reason, I cant use mypagedata = browser.Document.body.innerHTML like i would if it was a SHDocVw.InternetExplorer object. In fact, any attempt to access similar elements always seem to result in the system crashing - not only that but I cant even get an error message most of the time (no source code available for current location).

Looking for a solution to get this data into a variable. Also any documentation this object might be helpful.

M_o_n_t_y

Hi KRose,

This worked for me:

Private Sub cmdAnalyze_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdAnalyze.Click

Dim oDoc As mshtml.HTMLDocument = AxWebBrowser1.Document
MsgBox(oDoc.body.innerHTML)

End Sub

Let me know if that doesn't work for you...

-Monty

M_o_n_t_y

Oh yeah, I needed a reference to the Microsoft.mshtml .Net assembly (Under Project --> Add reference --> .Net tab).

-Monty

krose777

ASKER

i get a "null reference exception". If i inspect the object in a watch window and type in odoc.body.innerhtml, I get "referenced object Body has a value of nothing". Why would this be the case?

Other than that, i like the looks of this solution - if I can get it to work. I like that the document methods/properties/etc are exposed, whereas whenever im accessing similar elements with an internet explorer com object its always late binding and the debugger doesnt check for spelling errors, etc. Im assuming i can use this as a wrapper for SHDocVw.InternetExplorer too? I will experiment.

M_o_n_t_y

Sorry, you've got to load the document first and wait until the DocumentLoaded event fires on the browser. This code should be a little clearer: (create two buttons, one called cmdLoad and one called cmdAnalyze):

Private Sub cmdLoad_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdLoad.Click
cmdAnalyze.Enabled = False
AxWebBrowser1.Navigate("https://www.experts-exchange.com")
End Sub

Private Sub AxWebBrowser1_DocumentComplete(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As AxSHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_DocumentCompleteEvent) Handles AxWebBrowser1.DocumentComplete
cmdAnalyze.Enabled = True
End Sub

Private Sub cmdAnalyze_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdAnalyze.Click
Dim oDoc As mshtml.HTMLDocument = AxWebBrowser1.Document
MsgBox(oDoc.body.innerHTML)
End Sub

krose777

ASKER

cant get that bit of code to work. The documentcomplete event never fires. Wont:

While Browser.Busy
Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents()
End While

or some other browser.property work ?

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M_o_n_t_y

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krose777

ASKER

Monty -
I dont know why but i could never get yours to work properly - I was experimenting and this seems to work for some unknown reason:

While Browser.Busy Or Not (Browser.ReadyState = SHDocVw.tagREADYSTATE.READYSTATE_COMPLETE)
Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents()
End While

i was just checking for browser.busy, but that was unreliable for some reason. Thank you for the help.