Control a Web Browser From Within a Java Programm

Noramlly, more than two way you can use a web browser with your Java programm.

1.Fire commands to invoke a web browser with Java runtime support.

// cmd = ‘rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler http://…’
cmd = WIN_PATH + ” ” + WIN_FLAG + ” ” + url;
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);

See the API Spec of Java for Process, and Java Tip 66 of the Resources section for more information.

2. Use a wrapped browser control

2.1 Use Jacob, the open source COM wrapper. e.g.,

protected void openIExplorer(){
comp = new ActiveXComponent( “InternetExplorer.Application” );
comp.setProperty( “Visible”, new Variant(true) );
comp.invoke( “Navigate”, new Variant[]{ new Variant((String)comboFilename.getSelectedItem()) } );

2.2 Use browser wrapper provided by SWT.

import org.eclipse.swt.browser.Browser;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.CloseWindowListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.LocationAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.LocationEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.OpenWindowListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.ProgressEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.ProgressListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.StatusTextEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.StatusTextListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.VisibilityWindowAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.browser.WindowEvent;

3. or any other ways I havn’t figured out…

Resources:

1. Java Tip 66: Control browsers from your Java application
2. JavaTM 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 API Specification
3. The JACOB Project: A JAva-COM Bridge
4. SWT Browser
5. Package org.eclipse.swt.browser
6. Developer Forums java to invoke IExplore?
   

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