Documentation for BHOs and Toolbars

Documentation for BHOs and Toolbars

• CyberPl

  This is good feedback, thanks. We're working to clean up the IEAddons site, and to ensure that the Developer Tools in particular get lots more love.

  You may find some of the content here: http://www.enhanceie.com/ie/dev.asp worthwhile.

  Thanks

  Eric

  
  

• DOSrelic

  I consider a lack of documentation on developing for IE7 to be a specific issue. Neither the 'it should work like it did' nor  'suck and see' approach really encourage developers.

  The lack of substantial information and code examples for developers on the IEAddon site is also extremely disappointing. I have to be honest, as much as I'm into developing with MS technologies, so far I really don't get the impression that MS care about IE addon developers.

  For example, on the IEAddon site, theres a section called "Developer Tools", listing such necessities as:

  • Free SMS - send free SMS alerts
  • Virtual Earth - Bus Tracker - track a bus in seattle
  • FetalCalculator - calculate important dates fora  feotus
  • Trackword - a fun game

  They hardly rank up there with the Firebug and Web Developer Toolbar Firefox extensions. And why isn't Fiddler listed

  Incidentally, the 'IE developer' site appears to be heavily entirely targeted to web content developers, not addon/application developers. A discreet section would be nice.

  
  

• magikalpnoi

  Hi John,

  I need notification when a tab becomes active, during tabswitching. That is, either the handle to the Tabwindowclass or its child windows of that particular tab or, any information about WeBrowser object of that tab. How do I get this

  Thanks,

  Mojo

  
  

• Virat

  Hi Frank,

  Toolbars and BHOs designed to work with IE6 should continue to work fine in IE7. However we have seen a number of issues such as extensions that do not marshal calls across threads (which is recommended practice) may have worked in IE6 but do not work correctly in IE7 where the threading model is affected by the tabs implementation. Protected mode under Windows Vista may also affect extensions and you can read about that at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/default.aspx pull=/library/en-us/ietechcol/dnwebgen/protectedmode.asp

  If you are having speicfic issues please let us know.

  Thanks
  -Dave

  
  
  

• Tom McAnnally

  Dave,

  I created a toolbar for my BHO a few years back. It is based on the code from this project:

  http://www.codeproject.com/wtl/toolband.asp

  Under IE7, and when using multiple tabs, I sometimes get an error when closing a tab. At this time, I believe the error is related to this method (which is contained in the source code for the toolband project):

  CBandToolBarCtrl::~CBandToolBarCtrl()
  {
  // Don't forget to UnSubclass the rebar otherwise IE could crash
  m_RebarContainer.UnsubclassWindow();

  if (::IsWindow(m_hWnd))
  DestroyWindow();
  }
  

  I am not an expert at subclassing windows, or message reflection, etc. Could the changes made in IE7 to support multiple tabs be related to my problem

  Is there a better code sample for IE7 toolbars

  Thanks,

  Frank

  
  

• Martin Rajotte

  Hi Doug,

  Thanks for the feedback. Improved documentation is something we are actively working on. If you are have quesitons then this is the place to ask.

  Thanks
  -Dave

  
  
  

• FelipeLopez

  In IE7, the IWebBrowser2::HWND property returns a handle to the top-most application window, not the WebBrowser control in the individual tab. If you're looking for documentation, you'll have to wait a few more weeks. It's on the way, I assure you.

  In the meantime, I will try to give you what I know from memory (I'm at home, and don't have my notes handy):

  #include <shlguid.h>

  IServiceProvider* psp;
  hr = pwb2->QueryInterface(IID_IServiceProvider, (void**)psp);
  if (SUCCEEDED(hr) && psp) {
  IOleWindow* pow;
  hr = psp->QueryService(SID_SShellBrowser, IID_IOleWindow, (void**)pow);
  if (SUCCEEDED(hr) && pow) {
  HWND hwnd;
  hr = pow->GetWindow(&hwnd);
  if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) {
  //*** use it, save it, whatever
  }
  pow->Release();
  }
  psp->Release();
  }

  If anyone else can verify this, please let me know. Otherwise, I will post a follow-up next week.

  HTH.

  
  
  

• Larry Smith

  And thanks, Mojo, for validating the code snippet. Sorry 'bout those mistakes--it was late on Friday night...
  
  

• Rodolfo Navarro

  one window != one loaded document
  each frame and iframe is also a document
  
  

• Hoon1234

  Hi, I have a BHO that works fine in IE6. Among other things, it:

  • implements IOleObjectWithSite::SetSite() to get notified of being loaded
  • does a QI on the site object to get the IWebBrowser2 interface of the browser
  • listens to the OnDocumentComplete event of the browser
  • calls IWebBrowser2::get_HWND to get the current window handle (I want to do a RegisterDropTarget later on)
  • calls IWebBrowser2::get_Document to get the loaded document (I want to do a ICustomDoc::SetUIHandler later on)

  All of this assumes one IE = one window = one loaded document. Now, I need some help in finding the window handle and the document of the HTML inside the 'current' tab. Could you tell me where I can find the documentation for those changes Should I ask here, or is there a microsoft.public newsgroup

  Thanks,

  Casper

  
  

• DOSrelic

  Hi John,

  This piece of code is very useful. Thank you. I copy the verified code below, since your original code has some minor errors. This gives the handle of TabWindowClass.

  IServiceProvider* psp;

  HRESULT hr = pwb2->QueryInterface(IID_IServiceProvider,(void**)&psp);

  if( SUCCEEDED(hr) && psp )

  {

  IOleWindow* pow;

  psp->QueryService(SID_SShellBrowser,IID_IOleWindow, (void**)&pow);

  if( SUCCEEDED(hr) && pow)

  {

  HWND hWnd = NULL;

  hr = pow->GetWindow( &hWnd );

  if( SUCCEEDED(hr) && hWnd )

  {

  //hWnd is the handle of TabWindowClass

  }

  pow->Release();

  }

  psp->Release();

  }

  I have a question. I need notification when a tab becomes active, during tabswitching. That is, either the handle to the Tabwindowclass or its child windows of that particular tab or, any information about WeBrowser object of that tab. How do I get this

  Thanks,

  Mojo

  
  

• Pramod Gurunath - MSFT

  Sorry, I oversimplified a bit too much. Yes, in IE6 you can have frames with their own document. But if I have the 'main' window and document, I can find my way from there.

  In IE7, the main window has several 'TabWindowClass' childwindows, with a ShDocView window underneath. My BHO wants to know which tab window fired the OnDocumentComplete event.

  Still, the real question is, in IE7 behavior must have changed for things like IWebBrowser2 - where can I find documentation / help on that

  Casper

  
  

• paso

  You can explore it in OleView :)
  
  

• Fabriciom

  Thanks John and Mojo - that was exactly what I was looking for.

  Casper

  
  
• Documentation for BHOs and Toolbars