Web browser control emulation issue (FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION) - c++

Question

Using VS2013 I created a very simple web browser Control application that navigates to http://demos.dojotoolkit.org/demos/calendar/demo.html
When no FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION is set for this application in the registry the site functions correctly, When adding the application to this registry key (under HKLM) it is working till IE9 emulation but fails with IE10 and IE11 values (i have IE11 on my machine).
example:
FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION
myApp=9999 - works
myApp=10001 - doesn't work
doesn't work = month date picker is not working
Any suggestion what can be the problem?
Thanks,
Guy

Answer 1

Below is my WebBrowser playground application (in C#) which works well with your URL (http://demos.dojotoolkit.org/demos/calendar/demo.html).
Disabling FEATURE_NINPUT_LEGACY_MODE is what made the difference, I believe. There is a couple of other settings I enabled, as well. It also shows how to use HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of HKLM, so the app doesn't require admin rights.
using Microsoft.Win32;
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace WebBrowserApp
{
public partial class MainForm : Form
{
const int POLL_DELAY = 250;
WebBrowser _webBrowser;
// set WebBrowser features, more info: http://stackoverflow.com/a/18333982/1768303
static void SetWebBrowserFeatures()
{
// don't change the registry if running in-proc inside Visual Studio
if (LicenseManager.UsageMode != LicenseUsageMode.Runtime)
return;
var appName = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName);
var featureControlRegKey = #"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\";
Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION",
appName, GetBrowserEmulationMode(), RegistryValueKind.DWord);
// enable the features which are "On" for the full Internet Explorer browser
Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_ENABLE_CLIPCHILDREN_OPTIMIZATION",
appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_AJAX_CONNECTIONEVENTS",
appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_GPU_RENDERING",
appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_WEBOC_DOCUMENT_ZOOM",
appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_NINPUT_LEGACYMODE",
appName, 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
}
static UInt32 GetBrowserEmulationMode()
{
int browserVersion = 0;
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);
}
if (browserVersion < 7)
{
throw new ApplicationException("Unsupported version of Microsoft Internet Explorer!");
}
UInt32 mode = 11000; // Internet Explorer 11. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE11 Standards mode.
switch (browserVersion)
{
case 7:
mode = 7000; // Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE7 Standards mode.
break;
case 8:
mode = 8000; // Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE8 mode.
break;
case 9:
mode = 9000; // Internet Explorer 9. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE9 mode.
break;
case 10:
mode = 10000; // Internet Explorer 10.
break;
}
return mode;
}
// static constructor, runs first
static MainForm()
{
SetWebBrowserFeatures();
}
public MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
_webBrowser = new WebBrowser() { Dock = DockStyle.Fill };
this.Controls.Add(_webBrowser);
this.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(800, 600);
this.Load += MainForm_Load;
}
// start the task
async void MainForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
dynamic document = await LoadDynamicPage("http://demos.dojotoolkit.org/demos/calendar/demo.html",
CancellationToken.None);
MessageBox.Show(new { document.documentMode, document.compatMode }.ToString());
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}
}
// navigate and download
async Task<object> LoadDynamicPage(string url, CancellationToken token)
{
// navigate and await DocumentCompleted
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler handler = (s, arg) =>
tcs.TrySetResult(true);
using (token.Register(() => tcs.TrySetCanceled(), useSynchronizationContext: false))
{
this._webBrowser.DocumentCompleted += handler;
try
{
this._webBrowser.Navigate(url);
await tcs.Task; // wait for DocumentCompleted
}
finally
{
this._webBrowser.DocumentCompleted -= handler;
}
}
// get the root element
var documentElement = this._webBrowser.Document.GetElementsByTagName("html")[0];
// poll the current HTML for changes asynchronosly
var html = documentElement.OuterHtml;
while (true)
{
// wait asynchronously, this will throw if cancellation requested
await Task.Delay(POLL_DELAY, token);
// continue polling if the WebBrowser is still busy
if (this._webBrowser.IsBusy)
continue;
var htmlNow = documentElement.OuterHtml;
if (html == htmlNow)
break; // no changes detected, end the poll loop
html = htmlNow;
}
// consider the page fully rendered
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
return this._webBrowser.Document.DomDocument;
}
}
}

Answer 2

This works for me:
yourWebBrowser.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true;
Please review the following website for information on ScriptErrorsSuppressed
Excerpt from website:
Remarks
Set this property to false to debug Web pages that you display in the WebBrowser control. This is useful when you use the control to add Web-based controls and scripting code to your application. It is less useful when you use the control as a generic browser. When you have finished debugging your application, set this property to true to suppress script errors.
Note
When ScriptErrorsSuppressed is set to true, the WebBrowser control hides all its dialog boxes that originate from the underlying ActiveX control, not just script errors. Occasionally you might need to suppress script errors while displaying dialog boxes such as those used for browser security settings and user login. In this case, set ScriptErrorsSuppressed to false and suppress script errors in a handler for the HtmlWindow.Error event. For more information, see the code example in this topic.