databind the Source property of the WebBrowser in WPF

Solution 1:

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}"/>

Solution 2:

I've amended Todd's excellent answer a little to produce a version that copes with either strings or Uris from the Binding source:

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

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

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

    public static void BindableSourcePropertyChanged(DependencyObject o, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        WebBrowser browser = o as WebBrowser;
        if (browser == null) return;

        Uri uri = null;

        if (e.NewValue is string )
        {
            var uriString = e.NewValue as string;
            uri = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(uriString) ? null : new Uri(uriString);
        }
        else if (e.NewValue is Uri)
        {
            uri = e.NewValue as Uri;
        }

        browser.Source = uri;
    }

Solution 3:

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

Solution 4:

Cool idea Todd.

I have done similar with the RichTextBox.Selection.Text in Silverlight 4 now. Thanks for your post. Works fine.

public class RichTextBoxHelper
{
    public static readonly DependencyProperty BindableSelectionTextProperty =
       DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("BindableSelectionText", typeof(string), 
       typeof(RichTextBoxHelper), new PropertyMetadata(null, BindableSelectionTextPropertyChanged));

    public static string GetBindableSelectionText(DependencyObject obj)
    {
        return (string)obj.GetValue(BindableSelectionTextProperty);
    }

    public static void SetBindableSelectionText(DependencyObject obj, string value)
    {
        obj.SetValue(BindableSelectionTextProperty, value);
    }

    public static void BindableSelectionTextPropertyChanged(DependencyObject o, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        RichTextBox rtb = o as RichTextBox;
        if (rtb != null)
        {
            string text = e.NewValue as string;
            if (text != null)
                rtb.Selection.Text = text;
        }
    }
}    

Here is the Xaml-Code.

<RichTextBox IsReadOnly='False' TextWrapping='Wrap' utilities:RichTextBoxHelper.BindableSelectionText="{Binding Content}"/>