WebBrowser.DocumentText Property (System.Windows.Forms)

DocumentText Property

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

Other versions are also available for the following:

.NET Framework Class Library

WebBrowser..::.DocumentText Property

Gets or sets the HTML contents of the page displayed in the WebBrowser control.

Namespace: System.Windows.Forms
Assembly: System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

<BrowsableAttribute(False)> _
Public Property DocumentText As String

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As WebBrowser
Dim value As String

value = instance.DocumentText

instance.DocumentText = value

[BrowsableAttribute(false)]
public string DocumentText { get; set; }

Visual C++

[BrowsableAttribute(false)]
public:
property String^ DocumentText {
    String^ get ();
    void set (String^ value);
}

JScript

public function get DocumentText () : String
public function set DocumentText (value : String)

Property Value

Type: System..::.String
The HTML text of the displayed page, or the empty string ("") if no document is loaded.

Exceptions

Exception	Condition
ObjectDisposedException	This WebBrowser instance is no longer valid.
InvalidOperationException	A reference to an implementation of the IWebBrowser2 interface could not be retrieved from the underlying ActiveX WebBrowser control.

Remarks

Use this property when you want to manipulate the contents of an HTML page displayed in the WebBrowser control using string processing tools. You can use this property, for example, to load pages from a database or to analyze pages using regular expressions. When you set this property, the WebBrowser control automatically navigates to the about:blank URL before loading the specified text. This means that the Navigating, Navigated, and DocumentCompleted events occur when you set this property, and the value of the Url property is no longer meaningful.

Note:
This property contains the text of the current document, even if another document has been requested. If you set the value of this property and then immediately retrieve it again, the value retrieved may be different than the value set if the WebBrowser control has not had time to load the new content. You can retrieve the new value in a DocumentCompleted event handler. Alternatively, you can block the thread until the document is loaded by calling the Thread..::.Sleep method in a loop until the DocumentText property returns the value that you originally set it to.

Note:

This property contains the text of the current document, even if another document has been requested. If you set the value of this property and then immediately retrieve it again, the value retrieved may be different than the value set if the WebBrowser control has not had time to load the new content. You can retrieve the new value in a DocumentCompleted event handler. Alternatively, you can block the thread until the document is loaded by calling the Thread..::.Sleep method in a loop until the DocumentText property returns the value that you originally set it to.

To access the contents of a Web page as a Stream, use the DocumentStream property. You can also access the page contents using the HTML document object model (DOM) through the Document property.

Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows CE Platform Note:

The .NET Compact Framework does not support using DocumentText to get the content of a Web page, but you can use it to present HTML to your users, such as to provide links and a simple HTML form. For a code example, see How to: Use the WebBrowser Control in the .NET Compact Framework.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates how to use the DocumentText property to programmatically display document content of your choosing. This example requires that your form contains a WebBrowser control called webBrowser1.

Visual Basic

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) _
    Handles Me.Load

    webBrowser1.DocumentText = _
        "<html><body>Please enter your name:<br/>" & _
        "<input type='text' name='userName'/><br/>" & _
        "<a href='http://www.microsoft.com'>continue</a>" & _
        "</body></html>"

End Sub

Private Sub webBrowser1_Navigating( _
    ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As WebBrowserNavigatingEventArgs) _
    Handles webBrowser1.Navigating

    Dim document As System.Windows.Forms.HtmlDocument = _
        webBrowser1.Document
    If document IsNot Nothing And _
        document.All("userName") IsNot Nothing And _
        String.IsNullOrEmpty( _
        document.All("userName").GetAttribute("value")) Then

        e.Cancel = True
        MsgBox("You must enter your name before you can navigate to " & _
            e.Url.ToString())
    End If

End Sub

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    webBrowser1.DocumentText =
        "<html><body>Please enter your name:<br/>" +
        "<input type='text' name='userName'/><br/>" +
        "<a href='http://www.microsoft.com'>continue</a>" +
        "</body></html>";
    webBrowser1.Navigating += 
        new WebBrowserNavigatingEventHandler(webBrowser1_Navigating);
}

private void webBrowser1_Navigating(object sender, 
    WebBrowserNavigatingEventArgs e)
{
    System.Windows.Forms.HtmlDocument document =
        this.webBrowser1.Document;

    if (document != null && document.All["userName"] != null && 
        String.IsNullOrEmpty(
        document.All["userName"].GetAttribute("value")))
    {
        e.Cancel = true;
        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(
            "You must enter your name before you can navigate to " +
            e.Url.ToString());
    }
}

.NET Framework Security

SecurityPermission
for immediate callers to use this control. Demand value: LinkDemand; Named Permission Sets: FullTrust.

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0

Reference

WebBrowser Class

WebBrowser Members

System.Windows.Forms Namespace

Document

DocumentStream

DocumentCompleted

Other Resources

IWebBrowser2 Interface