C# webbrowser Ajax call

Question

I am using a webbrowser control embeded in C# WPF .NET4 app. Whenever I press manually the button in a form, the browser hangs on "Your request is being processed" message and nothing happens. If I do the same in full IE browser the page is processed normally producing the results. What I am missing? Thanks The code behind the button is the following

<a onclick="startSearch();" href="javascript:void(-1);" name="btnNext" class="btn floatLe noClear btnSubmit btnRight"> 
<span>Continue</span> 
</a>

Noseratio · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-28 09:15:26Z

WebBrowser control (both WPF and WinForms versions) behaves in many ways differently from the full IE. You may want to implement Feature Control to bring its behavior as close to IE as possible (particularly, FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION). Hopefully, the problem will then be gone. Here is some code:

private void SetBrowserFeatureControlKey(string feature, string appName, uint value)
{
    using (var key = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey(
        String.Concat(@"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\", feature), 
        RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadWriteSubTree))
    {
        key.SetValue(appName, (UInt32)value, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
    }
}

For example:

private void SetBrowserFeatureControl()
{
    // http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330720(v=vs.85).aspx

    // FeatureControl settings are per-process
    var fileName = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName);

    // make the control is not running inside Visual Studio Designer
    if (String.Compare(fileName, "devenv.exe", true) == 0 || String.Compare(fileName, "XDesProc.exe", true) == 0) 
        return;

    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION", fileName, GetBrowserEmulationMode()); // Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE10 Standards mode.
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_AJAX_CONNECTIONEVENTS", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_ENABLE_CLIPCHILDREN_OPTIMIZATION", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_MANAGE_SCRIPT_CIRCULAR_REFS", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_DOMSTORAGE ", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_GPU_RENDERING ", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_IVIEWOBJECTDRAW_DMLT9_WITH_GDI  ", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_NINPUT_LEGACYMODE", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_DISABLE_LEGACY_COMPRESSION", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_LOCALMACHINE_LOCKDOWN", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_BLOCK_LMZ_OBJECT", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_BLOCK_LMZ_SCRIPT", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_DISABLE_NAVIGATION_SOUNDS", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_SCRIPTURL_MITIGATION", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_SPELLCHECKING", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_STATUS_BAR_THROTTLING", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_TABBED_BROWSING", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_VALIDATE_NAVIGATE_URL", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_WEBOC_DOCUMENT_ZOOM", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_WEBOC_POPUPMANAGEMENT", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_WEBOC_MOVESIZECHILD", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_ADDON_MANAGEMENT", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_WEBSOCKET", fileName, 1);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_WINDOW_RESTRICTIONS ", fileName, 0);
    SetBrowserFeatureControlKey("FEATURE_XMLHTTP", fileName, 1);
}

private UInt32 GetBrowserEmulationMode()
{
    int browserVersion = 7;
    using (var ieKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer",
        RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadSubTree,
        System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryRights.QueryValues))
    {
        var version = ieKey.GetValue("svcVersion");
        if (null == version)
        {
            version = ieKey.GetValue("Version");
            if (null == version)
                throw new ApplicationException("Microsoft Internet Explorer is required!");
        }
        int.TryParse(version.ToString().Split('.')[0], out browserVersion);
    }

    UInt32 mode = 10000; // Internet Explorer 10. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE10 Standards mode. Default value for Internet Explorer 10.
    switch (browserVersion)
    {
        case 7:
            mode = 7000; // Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE7 Standards mode. Default value for applications hosting the WebBrowser Control.
            break;
        case 8:
            mode = 8000; // Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE8 mode. Default value for Internet Explorer 8
            break;
        case 9:
            mode = 9000; // Internet Explorer 9. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE9 mode. Default value for Internet Explorer 9.
            break;
        default:
            // use IE10 mode by default
            break;
    }

    return mode;
}

You should come up with your own set of features and register them before WebBrowser has initialized, e.g., in the main form constructor:

public MainWindow()
{
    SetBrowserFeatureControl();

    InitializeComponent();
//...
}

thank you, I'll use it as a reference if I encounter similar questions :) — Noseratio, Aug 20 at 12:46
@Jim, I've added a check for "XDesProc.exe" (VS XAML Designer process), you may want to update your code too. — Noseratio, Aug 20 at 15:17
I am not sure if I can continue this thread, but the page I am working on has also an Ajax Popup window which again is not showing in IE embedded browser, but in out of application it works fine? — Jim, Aug 21 at 10:30

C# webbrowser Ajax call

1 Answer