databind the Source property of the WebBrowser in WPF

user_32772 0
Viewed 58178

Does anyone know how to databind the .Source property of the WebBrowser in WPF ( 3.5SP1 )? I have a listview that I want to have a small WebBrowser on the left, and content on the right, and to databind the source of each WebBrowser with the URI in each object bound to the list item.

This is what I have as a proof of concept so far, but the "<WebBrowser Source="{Binding Path=WebAddress}"" does not compile.

<DataTemplate x:Key="dealerLocatorLayout" DataType="DealerLocatorAddress">                
    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
         <!--Web Control Here-->
        <WebBrowser Source="{Binding Path=WebAddress}"
            ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled" 
            ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled" 
            Width="300"
            Height="200"
            />
        <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                <Label Content="{Binding Path=CompanyName}" FontWeight="Bold" Foreground="Blue" />
                <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=DisplayName}" FontWeight="Bold" />
            </StackPanel>
            <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Street[0]}" />
            <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Street[1]}" />
            <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=PhoneNumber}"/>
            <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=FaxNumber}"/>
            <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Email}"/>
            <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=WebAddress}"/>
        </StackPanel>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
data-binding browser xaml wpf c#
6 Answers

The problem is that WebBrowser.Source is not a DependencyProperty. One workaround would be to use some AttachedProperty magic to enable this ability.

public static class WebBrowserUtility
{
    public static readonly DependencyProperty BindableSourceProperty =
        DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("BindableSource", typeof(string), typeof(WebBrowserUtility), new UIPropertyMetadata(null, BindableSourcePropertyChanged));

    public static string GetBindableSource(DependencyObject obj)
    {
        return (string) obj.GetValue(BindableSourceProperty);
    }

    public static void SetBindableSource(DependencyObject obj, string value)
    {
        obj.SetValue(BindableSourceProperty, value);
    }

    public static void BindableSourcePropertyChanged(DependencyObject o, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        WebBrowser browser = o as WebBrowser;
        if (browser != null)
        {
            string uri = e.NewValue as string;
            browser.Source = !String.IsNullOrEmpty(uri) ? new Uri(uri) : null;
        }
    }

}

Then in your xaml do:

<WebBrowser ns:WebBrowserUtility.BindableSource="{Binding WebAddress}"/>
Todd_308330

I wrote a wrapper usercontrol, which makes use of the DependencyProperties:

XAML:

<UserControl x:Class="HtmlBox">
    <WebBrowser x:Name="browser" />
</UserControl>

C#:

public static readonly DependencyProperty HtmlTextProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("HtmlText", typeof(string), typeof(HtmlBox));

public string HtmlText {
    get { return (string)GetValue(HtmlTextProperty); }
    set { SetValue(HtmlTextProperty, value); }
}

protected override void OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) {
    base.OnPropertyChanged(e);
    if (e.Property == HtmlTextProperty) {
        DoBrowse();
    }
}
 private void DoBrowse() {
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(HtmlText)) {
        browser.NavigateToString(HtmlText);
    }
}

and use it like so:

<Controls:HtmlBox HtmlText="{Binding MyHtml}"  />

The only trouble with this one is that the WebBrowser control is not "pure" wpf... it is actually just a wrapper for a win32 component. This means that the control won't respect the z-index, and will always overlay other element (eg: in a scrollviewer this might cause some trouble) more info about these win32-wpf issues on MSDN

user_1204800
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