How to get MFC CHtmlView to run HTML5 and CSS3

[Mike Pliam]

MFC CHtmlView is a beautiful and flexible interface for building desktop apps testing out *.html files locally. However, the current version only uses Internet Explorer which does not recognize HTML5. I would like to use CHtmlView to employ Chrome, or some other means to read the most recent markup language and scripts. I have searched the web and have only come up with somewhat expensive solutions like WebKit. There are also some arcane vsix (Visual Studio Extensions) out there, but I don't trust them as they are not upfront about costs. I have also tried .NET with the same result, only the Internet Explorer is deployed. Surely there must be some way to get MFC CHtmlView to recognize HTML5 - but how? I look forward to your suggestions. Thanks.

[Arjay]

MFC CHtmlView is a beautiful and flexible interface for building desktop apps testing out *.html files locally. However, the current version only uses Internet Explorer which does not recognize HTML5. I would like to use CHtmlView to employ Chrome, or some other means to read the most recent markup language and scripts. I have searched the web and have only come up with somewhat expensive solutions like WebKit. There are also some arcane vsix (Visual Studio Extensions) out there, but I don't trust them as they are not upfront about costs. I have also tried .NET with the same result, only the Internet Explorer is deployed. Surely there must be some way to get MFC CHtmlView to recognize HTML5 - but how? I look forward to your suggestions. Thanks.

What version of IE? What OS are you testing on?

[Mike Pliam]

Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 (64-bit)

[Arjay]

Pretty sure IE 11 supports html5. Have you tried opening html5 content directly in the ie 11 browser? Do you have the ie=edge setting in the html? Specifically:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">

[Mike Pliam]

I don't think so.

See: http://www.html5report.com/topics/ht...some-html5.htm

When I build a web browser app using C# and try to point it to a simple html5 / java script game (which runs just fine on my Win 7 Chrome browser), I receive the following message:

Script Error

An error has occurred in the script on this page

Line 0
Char: 0
Error: Script error
Code: 0
URL: http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis...t.js#pubid=ra-
4da9ad3813b404b5

Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?

Answer Yes and the same error message reoccurs. Answer No and the local directory listing that contains the game appears int the main browser window. Clicking on that same game html5 brings up the Chrome browser (my default browser) which runs the game as it should be run.

I have been very pleased with development on Win7 and don't wish to upgrade. Clearly, only Chrome on Win7 handles html5.

I have tried to attach the simple game script for your own experimentation.

[Mike Pliam]

Upon further investigation I have determined that it is CHtmlView that is the problem, not the operating system and not Internet Explorer 11 (which at least on Win7 doesnt support html5 among other modern scripts). I was surprised to find that Chrome runs the sprite-animation even on Win2K. I wonder if there is something in the CHtmlView code that sets the browser to Internet Explorer rather than to Chrome. Question really is, is there any way to change CHtmlView's default browser? MS documentation on .NET WebBrowser indicates that the control is "hosted by Internet Explorer". I'm not sure what that means exactly, but it doesn't sound good if one wanted to use a more modern browser.

[Arjay]

Mike, see https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef

[Igor Vartanov]

I'm not sure what that means exactly, but it doesn't sound good if one wanted to use a more modern browser.

I'm not sure what exactly you're not sure of, but it sounds perfectly natural when some vendor's development platform forces you to stick with the vendor's environment. This is what they call investment protection. You step aside, you're on your own. Why would MS feel like being obliged to do a favor to Google or anybody else?

In your case it's not like CHtmlView is sitting on an abstract web engine, letting you painlessly juggle with engines underneath. Just think for a moment, it would require the engines to provide a sort of uniformed API to dock the app level. Now can I ask you whether you sure that FF, Chrome, Safari and IE have anything common in that aspect? Why would they do?

[Mike Pliam]

Good point Igor. Nevertheless, there is some demand in the C++ community to be able to program a Chrome-like browser using Visual Studio. After wasting a significant amount of time researching this, thanks to Arjay, I discovered Cef which purports to facilitate such a project. I have been able to get Cef to work in C# but my C++ 64-bit efforts have been fraught with frustration. The following post gives details on exactly how to accomplish the latter.

Building the 64-bit version of Chromium Embedded Framework on Windows
http://mariusbancila.ro/blog/2016/05...comment-386144

In all my years of cookbook programming, I have never encountered as complex and convoluted set of instructions as those provided in the above reference. At this point, I'm ready to abandon the idea and move on to other projects.

[2kaud]

In all my years of cookbook programming, I have never encountered as complex and convoluted set of instructions as those provided in the above reference. At this point, I'm ready to abandon the idea and move on to other projects.

To paraphrase,

They cannot be serious!

[Arjay]

I happen to know the author. If you find these instructions confusing, imagine how it was for him to try to put it into words?

[2kaud]

I happen to know the author. If you find these instructions confusing, imagine how it was for him to try to put it into words?

The stuff of nightmares!

[Igor Vartanov]

Good point Igor. Nevertheless, there is some demand in the C++ community to be able to program a Chrome-like browser using Visual Studio.

With the demand you take a step aside. And as I said, you're on your own. As I understood you didn't like the result. The fact is that framework products like MFC accumulate a huge effort of high quality engineers. The effort that finally makes the ugly awkward complex things look easy and slick. But whatever the community demand were, big corporate things always remain corporate-centric. And community is to either live with that or put the same huge effort of high quality engineers into open source to achieve a comparable result of marrying an ugly awkward complex beast to a beauty.

[Mike Pliam]

Perhaps if someone could help me with the final step that I have alluded to I might make a beauty of the beast.
Building the 64-bit version of Chromium Embedded Framework on Windows
http://mariusbancila.ro/blog/2016/05...comment-386144

[Arjay]

What version of Visual Studio are you using?