HOWTO Make a Spy++ For "Inernet Explorer_Server"   

HOWTO Make a Spy++ For "Inernet Explorer_Server"

I am a developer trying to make a kind of spy program for web pages. What 
I'm trying to do is integrate web applications to external application, where 
the web page will have various forms, that a user then needs to hit a button, 
and have an external app capture "key" field data from the form (not all of 
them, just the ones we need), and let the external app process the data as 
need be.

Doing this kind of thing with typical "window" applications where fields are 
typical/standard window object, is easy using the Spy++ technique. But the 
Internet Explorer renders the web page in a window of the class "Inernet 
Explorer_Server", where the fields are windowless. So this throws a rock into 
the mix.

However, I came across an MSDN article which describes how one can get the 
DOM from a HWND. Here is that article's title and Q#.

HOWTO: Get IHTMLDocument2 from a HWND
Q249232
PSS ID Number: 249232
Article Last Modified on 5/12/2003

This article may be the solution for my needs. The only problem I can forsee 
is that if my app is external, it may not be able to intereact with the DOM. 
If that is an issue, it is not the end of the world, as I can make my app the 
"Parent/Host" and launch IE under it to ensure that any IE resources are 
accessible to my app.

Any ideas?

date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 11:10:02 -0700   author:   ATS

Re: HOWTO Make a Spy++ For "Inernet Explorer_Server"   

Accessing DOM elements from another process is not a problem, see
www.codeproject.com/shell/AutomateShellWindow.asp

-- 
Regards
Sheng Jiang

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Visual C++
http://www.jiangsheng.net
http://blog.joycode.com/jiangsheng/
"ATS"  дʼ
news:ACC54997-1A39-4CAC-9EB2-DCA7BAAD6071@microsoft.com...
> HOWTO Make a Spy++ For "Inernet Explorer_Server"
>
> I am a developer trying to make a kind of spy program for web pages. What
> I'm trying to do is integrate web applications to external application,
where
> the web page will have various forms, that a user then needs to hit a
button,
> and have an external app capture "key" field data from the form (not all
of
> them, just the ones we need), and let the external app process the data as
> need be.
>
> Doing this kind of thing with typical "window" applications where fields
are
> typical/standard window object, is easy using the Spy++ technique. But the
> Internet Explorer renders the web page in a window of the class "Inernet
> Explorer_Server", where the fields are windowless. So this throws a rock
into
> the mix.
>
> However, I came across an MSDN article which describes how one can get the
> DOM from a HWND. Here is that article's title and Q#.
>
> HOWTO: Get IHTMLDocument2 from a HWND
> Q249232
> PSS ID Number: 249232
> Article Last Modified on 5/12/2003
>
> This article may be the solution for my needs. The only problem I can
forsee
> is that if my app is external, it may not be able to intereact with the
DOM.
> If that is an issue, it is not the end of the world, as I can make my app
the
> "Parent/Host" and launch IE under it to ensure that any IE resources are
> accessible to my app.
>
> Any ideas?
>

date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:56:49 -0500   author:   jiangsheng[MVP] uss

Re: HOWTO Make a Spy++ For "Inernet Explorer_Server"   

Thanks for the reply, but I found the answer. IE supports IAccessible, which 
directly lets me do what I want to do. It even has a method to get an 
IAccessible object from a screen position, such as where the mouse cursor is. 
And this completely solved my needs.

date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 06:35:01 -0700   author:   ATS