Trident/MSHTML/WebBrowser counterpart in metro

Question

I guess Metro IE 10 is also based on Trident too. My question is what is the metro component for app to utilizing this layout engine or any plan to support in the future?

Answer 1

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it may be the 'WebView' control. You can find it in the Toolbox.

Answer 2

WebView is the closest for Xaml.  It is an HTML viewer though, not a fully functional browser control.  If you want extensive HTML support you would be better off writing your Metro style app in HTML & Javascript rather than in Xaml.

--Rob

Answer 3

Thanks J. We had looked at WebView, but as Rob said, it is more a viewer than a browser control. We have very limited way to customize it.

Thanks Rob,

What we want to do is a browser-like application on metro, based on certain layout engine like Trident. Did you mean that this can be done going JS/HTML approach? This would be a great news. I'm quite a newbie to JS/HTML. Could you please give a little bit more details?

Thanks.

Answer 4

Hi Ciger,

I'll move this to the HTML/JavaScript forum to discuss the capabilities of that UI stack.

--Rob

Answer 5

Hi Ciger,

What are you trying to do with the HTML you want to display?  Where is the HTML coming from and how did you want to manipulate it?

-Jeff

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Jeff Sanders (MSFT)

Answer 6

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the response.

Generally we are trying to render a bunch of HTML files in local disc those mostly compliant with HTML5. One example of our manipulation is that when user click a video link in the page, we'd like to chime in and get the video decrypted. And then pass forward the decrypted video to the HTML engine in some kind of active stream (if possible).

Thanks.

Answer 7

Hi Ciger,

It will be extremely difficult to build your own browser in Metro.  You may not have to depending on what you intend to do.  I cannot give you an action plan in a forum post but I can get you started!  My first thought is to render your HTML as fragments (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452768.aspx).  This will give you some pretty nice capabilities.  This article will also show you how to capture things like clicking on a hyper-link and cancelling that to do something different.

Here are some samples that will get you started as well: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/site/search?query=fragment&f%5B0%5D.Value=fragment&f%5B0%5D.Type=SearchText&ac=8

-Jeff

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Jeff Sanders (MSFT)

Answer 8

Very helpful hints and reference. I was not aware of "fragments". We'll start thinking of that approach.

 

Thanks Jeff.