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I must be a heretic for wanting a C# browser with both NewWindow2 and GetElementsByTagName

You can't have your cake and eat it too, apparently.
I'm currently using the System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser in my application. The program currently depends on using the GetElementsByTagName function. I use it to gather up all the elements of a certain type (either "input"s or "textarea"s), so I can sort through them and return the value of a specific one. This is the code for that function (my WebBrowser is named web1):
// returns the value from a element.
public String FetchValue(String strTagType, String strName)
{
HtmlElementCollection elems;
HtmlDocument page = web1.Document.Window.Frames[1].Document;
elems = page.GetElementsByTagName(strTagType);
foreach (HtmlElement elem in elems)
{
if (elem.GetAttribute("name") == strName ||
elem.GetAttribute("ref") == strName)
{
if (elem.GetAttribute("value") != null)
{
return elem.GetAttribute("value");
}
}
}
return null;
}
(points to note: the webpage I need to pull from is in a frame, and depending on circumstances, the element's identifying name will be either in the name or the ref attribute)
All of that works like a dream with the System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser.
But what it is unable to do, is redirect the opening of a new window to remain in the application. Anything that opens in a new window shoots to the user's default browser, thus losing the session. This functionality can be easily fixed with the NewWindow2 event, which System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser doesn't have.
Now forgive me for being stunned at its absence. I have but recently ditched VB6 and moved on to C# (yes VB6, apparently I am employed under a rock), and in VB6, the WebBrowser possessed both the GetElementsByTagName function and the NewWindow2 event.
The AxSHDocVw.WebBrowser has a NewWindow2 event. It would be more than happy to help me route my new windows to where I need them. The code to do this in THAT WebBrowser is (frmNewWindow being a simple form containing only another WebBrowser called web2 (Dock set to Fill)):
private void web1_NewWindow2(
object sender,
AxSHDocVw.DWebBrowserEvents2_NewWindow2Event e)
{
frmNewWindow frmNW = new frmNewWindow();
e.ppDisp = frmNW.web2.Application;
frmNW.web2.RegisterAsBrowser = true;
frmNW.Visible = true;
}
I am unable to produce on my own a way to replicate that function with the underwhelming regular NewWindow event.
I am also unable to figure out how to replicate the FetchValue function I detailed above using the AxSHDocVw.WebBrowser. It appears to go about things in a totally different way and all my knowledge of how to do things is useless.
I know I'm a sick, twisted man for this bizarre fantasy of using these two things in a single application. But can you find it in your heart to help this foolish idealist?

I could no longer rely on the workaround, and had to abandon System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser. I needed NewWindow2.
I eventually figured out how to accomplish what I needed with the AxWebBrowser. My original post was asking for either a solution for NewWindow2 on the System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser, or an AxWebBrowser replacement for .GetElementsByTagName. The replacement requires about 4x as much code, but gets the job done. I thought it would be prudent to post my solution, for later Googlers with the same quandary. (also in case there's a better way to have done this)
IHTMLDocument2 webpage = (IHTMLDocument2)webbrowser.Document;
IHTMLFramesCollection2 allframes = webpage.frames;
IHTMLWindow2 targetframe = (IHTMLWindow2)allframes.item("name of target frame");
webpage = (IHTMLDocument2)targetframe.document;
IHTMLElementCollection elements = webpage.all.tags("target tagtype");
foreach (IHTMLElement element in elements)
{
if (elem.getAttribute("name") == strTargetElementName)
{
return element.getAttribute("value");
}
}
The webbrowser.Document is cast into an IHTMLDocument2, then the IHTMLDocument2's frames are put into a IHTMLFramesCollection2, then I cast the specific desired frame into an IHTMLWindow2 (you can choose frame by index # or name), then I cast the frame's .Document member into an IHTMLDocument2 (the originally used one, for convenience sake). From there, the IHTMLDocument2's .all.tags() method is functionally identical to the old WebBrowser.Document.GetElementsByTagName() method, except it requires an IHTMLElementCollection versus an HTMLElementCollection. Then, you can foreach the collection, the individual elements needing to be IHTMLElement, and use .getAttribute to retrieve the attributes. Note that the g is lowercase.

The WebBrowser control can handle the NewWindow event so that new popup windows will be opened in the WebBrowser.
private void webBrowser1_NewWindow(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
// navigate current window to the url
webBrowser1.Navigate(webBrowser1.StatusText);
// cancel the new window opening
e.Cancel = true;
}
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/csharpgeneral/thread/361b6655-3145-4371-b92c-051c223518f2/

The only solution to this I have seen was a good few years ago now, called csExWb2, now on Google code here.
It gives you an ExWebBrowser control, but with full-on access to all the interfaces and events offered by IE. I used it to get deep and dirty control of elements in a winforms-hosted html editor.
It may be a bit of a leap jumping straight into that, mind.

Emulating click based event on a web page

This link goes to an implementation of the imagination captcha imagination
The authors have themselves requested for people to make algorithms to try its efficiency against AI attacks.
Essentially the first page is asking for a mouse click anywhere on the image... My problem is that my algorithm comes up with the point (x,y) on the image but I want to emulate it real time on this link...
Can some one tell me how can i send the point values on this link and get back the message whether i was successful or not....
Essentially I am asking how can i emulate a mouse click on this link at the points that my algorithm gives using C#...
I am asking this only for studying the features of this captcha and its accuracy.
Thanks a lot

If you are able to execute JavaScript on that page directly, this code will do:
submitClick(document.getElementById("img").value, x, y, "tiled");
Otherwise, hit this url, substituting your own values for id, x, and y:
http://goldbach.cse.psu.edu/s/captcha/captcha_controller.php?id=87170&x=66&y=149&source=tiled
Parse the response - If your coordinates are correct, the response will contain "step 2". If not, the response will contain "step 1" and it will have a <div id="error">.

If you want to use their live site from code, I think you're talking about a screen scrape. I highly recommend looking into the HTML Agility Pack (available via nuget). This is going to allow you to read the DOM into your application and then interact with it however you please.

This could be a dumb answer but if you're trying to emulate a mouse click and find out if it's successful, why not use the Selenium Browser add-in to record your scripts / write' your own.
Then you can have a test suite to try against you're various different captchas.... hope this achieves what you're trying to do....

WebAii over at telerik has this feature. Here is some sample code i used at some point in the past customized for your situation. just put this in a class, left out the class container because it jacks up the formatting
protected static Manager _manager = null;
protected static Manager _manager = null;
protected Browser _main;
protected Find _find;
public WebAiiAutomater()
{
if (_manager != null)
{
foreach (var broswer in _manager.Browsers)
{
broswer.Close();
}
return;
}
var settings = new Settings(BrowserType.InternetExplorer, #"c:\log\") { ClientReadyTimeout = 60 * 1000 };
_manager = new Manager(settings);
_manager.Start();
_manager.LaunchNewBrowser();
_manager.ActiveBrowser.AutoWaitUntilReady = true;
_main = _manager.ActiveBrowser;
_find = _main.Find;
_main.NavigateTo(#"http://goldbach.cse.psu.edu/s/captcha/");
//start looping over your alogrithm trying different x,y coords against ClickImage(x,y
}
public bool ClickImage(int x, int y)
{
//var beginsearch = _find.ById("captcha_img"); //this should get you the image, but you don't need
_manager.Desktop.Mouse.Click(MouseClickType.LeftClick, x, y);
Thread.sleep(1000); //wait for postback - might be handled internally though
var errordiv = _find.ById("error");
return errordiv !=null;
}

c# API to use wordnet-what is better?

I am doing a web based chattebot system and my problems are these.
I need to get a particular user question and check for some specific keywords in it(for example take the nouns) and find for synonyms and well as do the spell check?
Therefore What is the best C# API for wordnet??
Well what I want to do is get a sentence from a textbox and use it for synonym and spell check and there is both c# ASP and standalone app APIs on the wrodnet site.What is the best way?
Can I do both spell check and synonym check using wordnet and the other c# API??
I would be grateful if you could give me some solutions.
Thanks a lot.

If you can I would use the WPF built in spell checker, just add a reference to PresentationFramework in your ASP.NET project and you can programmatically create a WPF text box to use for spell check etc.
List<string> getSuggestions(string text)
{
System.Windows.Controls.TextBox wpfTextBox = new System.Windows.Controls.TextBox();
wpfTextBox.AcceptsReturn = true;
wpfTextBox.AcceptsTab = true;
wpfTextBox.SpellCheck.IsEnabled = true;
wpfTextBox.Text = text;
int index = 0;
List<string> suggestions = new List<string>();
while ((index = wpfTextBox.GetNextSpellingErrorCharacterIndex(index, System.Windows.Documents.LogicalDirection.Forward)) != -1)
{
string currentError = wpfTextBox.Text.Substring(index, wpfTextBox.GetSpellingErrorLength(index));
suggestions.Add(currentError);
foreach (string suggestion in wpfTextBox.GetSpellingError(index).Suggestions)
{
suggestions.Add(suggestion);
}
}
return suggestions;
}

Of the API's listed here: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/wordnet/related-projects/#.NET,
Matt Gerber's ( http://ptl.sys.virginia.edu/ptl/members/matthew-gerber/software#WordNet_API ) is the best.
It's not a great API, but it works okay and it was a good start for what I needed.
I've also not tried Proxem's Antelope yet as it seemed more like a heavyweight app then a simple API. It may be much more robust though, and the parsing engine could be very useful for what you are doing.

How can I send input to Visual Studio using Windows API

I am trying to develop a util (using system-hook) for that works like an expander (user selects some text and presses a hotkey and it is expands). It should work with Visual Studio.
I want to implement this using Windows API because I want to develop an app that works globally with any application (whether you're using VS, or wordpad, you should get the same functionality).
I've been able to do this successfully with notepad, wordpad, etc. using EM_ GETSEL and EM_REPLACESEL messages. But these APIs are not working with Visual Studio, or ms word.
What APIs should I use to be able to
1. Detect what text is selected.
2. Send input to the editor.
I am programming in C#. If you must know what I am trying to do... I am trying to make a universal port of ZenCoding that works on any editor. So all help will be appreciated.

For part 2 you could try using Windows Input Simulator which is an open source project I've just released to Codeplex to wrap the Win32 SendInput. Instead of SendKeys which just simulates text input, you can actually simulate real key strokes and complex chords to the active window.
In your case, if the user can perform the task with the Keyboard, this project will help you, otherwise you'd need to find another solution.
Hope this helps.

Why don't you use a System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys class for simulating keyboard input from user?
You can use:
SendKeys.SendWait("^C"); //CTRL+C
var selectedText = Clipboard.GetText();
var newText = Replace(selectedText);
SendKEys.SendWait("^V"); //CTRL+V

You can use WPF's Automation functionality, encapsulated in these two namespaces:
System.Windows.Automation
System.Windows.Automation.Provider
As an example, this is a method for finding an automation target element (e.g. a typical win control):
public static AutomationElement FindElement(AutomationElement context, PropertyCondition[] conditions)
{
// if no conditions, there's no search to do: just return the context, will be used as target
if (conditions == null)
{
return (context);
}
// create the condition to find
System.Windows.Automation.Condition condition = null;
if (conditions.Length <= 0)
{
throw (new ArgumentException("No conditions specified"));
}
else if (conditions.Length == 1)
{
condition = conditions[0];
}
else
{
AndCondition ac = new AndCondition(conditions);
condition = ac;
}
// find the element
CacheRequest creq = new CacheRequest();
creq.TreeFilter = Automation.ControlViewCondition;
using (creq.Activate())
{
AutomationElement e = AutomationContext(context);
AutomationElement target = e.FindFirst(TreeScope.Subtree, condition);
return (target);
}
}

Whatever you try, be absolutely sure to try it, ASAP, with Visual Studio 2010 beta 2. The editor has largely been rewritten, and hacks that work with an earlier version should be tested again.

Reading timecode track data using the C# version of Quicktime

I'm using the .Net activeX component of Quicktime.
I would like to read the timecode track data contained in a QTMovie track.
I can already select my timecode track like this :
// Valid Quicktime movie
QTMovie movie;
QTUtils qtu = new QTUtils();
for (int i = 1; i <= movie.Tracks.Count; i++)
{
if (movie.Tracks[i].Type == qtu.StringToFourCharCode("tmcd"))
{
QTTrack tcTrack = movie.Tracks[i];
//
// Timecode data reading ?
//
}
Is there a way to extract the timecode data?
Thank you for your help!

I asked a very similar question regarding applescript and timecode. The workaround was to use another app, an open source, command line app called timecodereader available here. I'm not sure if it's cross platform, but you might be able to glean something from the sourc code.
HTH