WebBrowser control in windows form application using C#

Question

Hello everyone. I am trying to create a form with webbrowser control. I am trying to open a local html file in the webbrowser control. I have the html file in Help_Print folder, so I am using the code below to specify the Url of the webbrowser.

wbPrint.Url = new Uri("file:///" + Application.StartupPath + "\\Help_Print\\help.html");

When the form shows the webbrowser control has an error "This program cannot display the webpage". I have checked the file and folder location.

But when I try this:

wbPrint.Url = new Uri("file:///" + Application.StartupPath + "/help.html");

after copying the html file to the application startup location it works properly.

Can anyone please explain why is this happening, as I want to keep all html file in a separate folder.

Answer 1

Don't use black-slashes in file urls. See the bizarre and unhappy story of file urls.

Answer 2

Hi! I found a solution to my problem even-though I am not sure why my previous code was not working. I changed two thing:

(i) I remove Uri, as I was suggested in answer to a different question of mine, that for local html files I am not required to use Uri. So here is the code that work.

        String sitePath = null;
        try
        {
            sitePath = Application.StartupPath + @"\Print_Help\help.html";
            wbHelp.Navigate(sitePath);
        }
        catch (Exception exp)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(exp.ToString() + "\nSite Path: " + sitePath);
            return false;
        }
        return true;

(ii) The other thing I did was to create the Print_Help folder manually. Previously it was created when I Build my Project as the html file was marked the property Copy to Output Directory as Copy Always.

I think the second change has more to do with my problem solution than the first. Please comment if you understand the logic.

Answer 3

use syntax: file://c:/xyz.html