WPF WebBrowser Recent Pages - c#

Just wondering if there is a way to access the recent pages visited in the WPF WebBrowser. It obviously keeps track of the pages, as evidenced by by the Go[Forward/Back] functions. I am planning on making a database to keep track of it, but I didn't want to do extra work if it was pointless to do so. I am guessing those details are purposely hidden to the user.

No I don't think that's possible, there's just the GoForward/GoBack methods to use. The history in the WebBrowser control seems to be tied into Windows (so opening a URL in your WebBrowser adds it to IE history and vice-versa), I guess that's why they've restricted access to it. Writing your own way to keep track may be a bit of duplicated effort, but it's the way to go in this case.

Navigation control is handled by the NavigationService class and it appears that there is only a "Next" and "Previous" functionality supported.
I don't see any direct way of getting access to the whole chain of visited pages.

Related

windows phone skipping frames in navigation

I have an app where you could go through in views like;
play -> normal or custom -> select map -> summary -> start
I would like to make a shortcut option from play to summary, but I also want navigation back to select map page with the back button functionality.
So the normal workflow p->noc->sm->summary but I want to implement p->sm with the noc<-sm<-summary back functionality too (with the windows phone back button).
I saw how can I delete items from the backstack, but google not helped me how can I navigate through a couple of windows without showing that to the user.
Am I need to override the back button or there is a "better" way to do that?
It's a WP8 project.
Edit:
I didnt need the exact codesnippet for this just a design concept in this patform. (just for the is it duplicated guy)
My normal or custom and select map page should be randomized when I do the shortcut, both of these pages has a "button" which can randomize those settings, I just want a swipe->press->swipe->press->swipe actions shortened to a button press without loosing the 'post modification after randomized' feature.
After I read your comments I think I will handle the back button all of the mentioned views so the backstack will not be getting inconsistent at any state. If I understand well I can tell it in every page what is the "backed" page.
You can't inject pages into the backstack. You can override the back button and do a forward navigation with the animations you would normally do when going backward (and then remove the page you just came from off the stack), but honestly, this all gets complicated and for good reason. One of the few hard truths of Windows Phone design is that you shouldn't mess with the backstack.
Instead, I would rethink your flow. It seems like your second page is a setting of some sort (Normal or Custom). If that is changeable, maybe make a button that can float a modal popup on top of the page and move things around according to the new decision.
Looking again at your flow, it seems like several of the pages may be settings. Can you combine those into one page, maybe on a pivot or panorama? That way making changes is just a swipe away.
Regardless, while it is possible to do what you are looking to achieve, I would look long and hard at whether it is actually the best experience for your users.

usercontrol vs iframe, limitations and known problems

If this is too hypothetical and needs to be somewhere else, please let me know.
I have a project that needs specific gridviews to appear on multiple pages. Instead of copying and pasting the gridviews on each of the pages I thought creating a user control for each specific gridview or create a page for each gridview and then use iframes would be my best options.
I have not used either extensively so I am looking to the SO community's experience, are there known problems with using user controls and/or iframes when it comes to:
validation
communication between user control/iframe and parent page
ajax/updatepanels containing user control/iframe
thanks in advance
Since a gridview is essentially a user control (that's very flexible), I would first explore doing this with neither of your options. If possible, use the standard gridview and let your data layer do most the work. However, assuming you already know that... but your requirements require one or the other of your options, here are things to consider.
An iframe is easy to implement but unless your need is really simplistic in terms of user interaction, the user control will be the most flexible. Another downside to an iframe is it's size (you're essentially loading two pages). The downside of user controls are the upfront time in building them.
Based on your criterion:
1. validation - can do with either option but you'll have more flexibility with a user control
2. communication between user control/iframe and parent page - much easier with user control unless query string parms will do the trick
3. ajax/updatepanels containing user control/iframe - again user control

How to display multiple pages under tabs similar to a Browser tab retaining loaded pages

We have an application where we have a single level navigation menu with some heavy-duty pages on each link. The user can switch back and forth between these pages frequently to obtain information that he needs.
Once the page gets generated, it wouldn't change for the session. However, the page is specific to the user, hence we cant cache it.
I was trying to come up with a solution where we generate the page once, and keep it hidden in the background until its link is clicked, but haven't been able to get my head around this.
One of the ways I thought was to have multiple div tags (one for each page) on one page and keep toggling the visibility as the links are pressed, but that would end up making this single page very heavy. Someone also suggested using iFrames, but I am not really comfortable using the iFrames much and I'm not even sure, if it would be any helpful either.
Can you guys please suggest a few approaches to tackle the issue?
update: Just to clarify, we are fine with keeping the pages separate and navigate across using a standard menu bar. We were just looking for ways to optimize the performance as we know that the pages once generated wouldn't change and there should be some way to tap that benefit.
You can use Ajax tab control for this purpose
Try taking a look at this MSDN article which specifically tackles the issue of how to user-level cache. Also, it might be more manageable to break each tab into a user control. That way your ASP.NET page has just the tab control and 1 user control for each section under the tab. It makes managing tabs much easier.
EDIT:
What I would do in your case, since you say the data won't change for the user, is I would grab the static data from the database and then I would store that data in the Session cache. THe session cache is specific per user and you can try to retrieve the static data from there instead of repetitively calling the database.
Check out the ASP Multiview control. Just remember that even though the different views are hidden when not active, their viewstate is still being sent back and forth. Can be a benefit if you need to check control values across views though.

Dynamically creating asp.net with c# pages

I am struggling with finding clear answers to dynamically creating the same page over and over. The questions and samples I have found seem to be all over the board on this topic. I have studied the life cycle and still seem to not have a clear answer as to where code should go.
I have a master page and a content page. All the content in the content area needs to be dynamically created (text boxes, ddl's, page tabs, buttons/onclick etc.).
After a user fills in data and clicks a submit button, I need to read the values off the form and rebuild the page completely again (not add/remove controls to current content).
My question is then.
Where do I put my code to build the page?
Will this area allow me to use IsPostBack so I can rebuild content with Request.Form values?
Will my buttons _Click events work?
Are there any working samples out there you could direct me to?
Thank you very much for the feedback...
I don't know all the answers to your questions, but I hope this may get you started. When dynamically generating the UI through code, this happens in Init. Controls dynamically loaded on Init is key because between init and load, on postback, viewstate is loaded for these controls.
This means you need, on every postback, recreate the page as is to match the previous control tree, then deconstruct it after init and recreate the new UI, if something is supposed to change UI wise. This is because it validates the tree structure to determine its the same UI. Now, if you don't need viewstate, this may not be as much of an issue. I haven't verified this without viewstate to see if it behaves different.
It depends how dynamic you need it, whether you need viewstate (is a big factor).
HTH.
Try creating the controls in the page's PreInit method. "IsPostBack" should work and the click event handlers should work as well.
What you need is a web user control, see ASP.NET User Controls
Brian's advices are good and you should follow them.
This might not really answer your question but still I add it as an advice. I'm professionally creating ASP.net web applications at quite a large scale and from my experience I can say that too much "dynamics" is usually bad and should be avoided because it just introduces complexity. Normally you might want to expose UI parts into ASP.net UserControls or if you want to make them even more reusable (if that's a factor) then into ASP.net Server controls. Then you replace different of them dynamically rather than creating everything from scratch.

Tracking actions in a browser component

Im a c# developer and I believe that what I want to achieve is going to move out of the realms of some drop in .NET component so I am looking for advise on what I use externally which .NET can inter op with.
My requirements are to have an embedded web browser control in a WPF/Winforms applciation BUT I will also need to keep track of the following:
User interaction i.e. what pages they visit, forms submitted where they click etc.
DOM manipulation and traversing
I am guessing here but it seems that I might need to start looking at open source html/web browsers out there like WebKit etc. Is this the right track or is there anything currently available in the form of a control/COM object that I can use directly.
Cheers, Chris.
You should be able to accomplish point 1 using the webbrowser control in Visual Studio, but I dont think DOM manipulation is available, i do know you can traverse all the tags.
reference

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