Using Microsoft Internet Control - WebBrowser Control

[mike.maynard]

I support a Jade Application that uses the (imported) WebBrowser control on a Jade form (imported from Microsoft Internet Controls quite some time ago, maybe 15 years ago).
The Jade form displays the web pages of the MedChart application and has worked fine over the past 15 years.

Our client has installed a new version of MedChart. Our link to the MedChart environment via the WebBrowser control on the Jade form initiates fine.
However, now when they click on a (new) button within the MedChart page, they experience an error, reported as:

Unable to get property 'getAttribute' of undefined or null reference
Error at Line 654, char 13

I've had a chat with the MedChart support team, and whilst the error is within their environment, they are suspecting IE compatibility issues.

Does anyone have any experience with using the WebBrowser control in Jade forms and hitting issues like this?

Are there compatibility issues that could be resolved by re-importing the Microsoft Internet Controls, and if so are there version considerations, compatibility issues that need to be resolved somehow?

Just trying to get a head start on troubleshooting this from a Jade/ActiveX WebBrowser perspective should the MedChart team come back confirming WebBrowser compatibility issues.

Note: Default browser is Internet Explorer 11

Any help, suggestions appreciated.

[ghosttie]

As you say, I suspect their web app just has an IE compatibility problem, so either they'll fix it and the problem will go away or you'll have to replace the WebBrowser control with something newer (i.e. embedded Chrome/Webkit).

I doubt re-importing the control will do anything unless you're not on the most recent version, in which case updating it could conceivably help.

[advaro]

Hi - we had a similar issue a few year using the same control, except for us it worked in IE from the desktop, but not in the webbrowser control within our app.
Turned out the webbrowser control wasn't just using whatever version of IE was installed, it was using an older version. There was a registry setting that let you set Browser Emulation mode or something and specify which version you wanted it to use.

We ended up managing to sort the issue with the web pages being displayed, so didn't end up changing the registry, but I can remember it being an option we looked at.

But this was just a version thing within IE, if it's working in IE from your desktop but not in the webbrowser it may work, but if its not working in the latest version on your desktop either then this won't help.

Good Luck
Stephen

[BeeJay]

Hi Mike,

We had issues with script errors with an embedded Web Browser control. For us, it was also resolved by adding a registry setting for the jade.exe to use IE11 emulation mode. To save you some typing, the full registry key is as follows for a 32bit thin client:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION

Here's a series of screen shots of the key being added:

Add key part 1.png (225.92 KiB) Viewed 6851 times

Add key part 2.png (37.36 KiB) Viewed 6851 times

Add key part 3.png (162.59 KiB) Viewed 6851 times

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
BeeJay.

Any thoughts expressed are my own and in no way reflect the views of my employer. If this reply includes any sample code, or other changes such as registry key settings, I believe that this information is accurate and reliable and has been prepared with care but give no guarantee that the sample code or suggested changes will be free of defects or errors. No responsibility or liability, financial or otherwise, is accepted for any consequences arising out of the use of any sample code including loss of profits, indirect, special or consequential losses or damages.

[mike.maynard]

Thx for the info BeeJay & Advaro - it works fine in IE11 browser direct, just errors within the web browser, on the Jade form, so looks like you guys had the same problem as me - I'll try the registry change as suggested, hopefully it works, cheers, Mike

[BeeJay]

Mike,

I was going to add, for a 64bit thin client the registry key is almost the same, but with WOW6432Node removed from the path:

32bit:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION

64bit:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION

Cheers,
BeeJay.

Any thoughts expressed are my own and in no way reflect the views of my employer. If this reply includes any sample code, or other changes such as registry key settings, I believe that this information is accurate and reliable and has been prepared with care but give no guarantee that the sample code or suggested changes will be free of defects or errors. No responsibility or liability, financial or otherwise, is accepted for any consequences arising out of the use of any sample code including loss of profits, indirect, special or consequential losses or damages.

[mike.maynard]

Just adding a comment from a private message between myself and Beejay, just so that everything is the one place here:

Question I posed: Further to your below comment on the Jade forum, the registry change that you refer to, is that on the Jade Server (or App Server), or every thin client PC – Hopefully just the Jade Server/AppServer.

Beejay Response:
Unfortunately it needs to be done on each thin client machine. This can be problematic if users don’t have admin rights on their desktop.
For our clients we created an InstallShield to do this, but that still needs admin rights to update the registry.
Most of the ‘managed’ sites were able to deploy this change with their standard distribution tools once they confirmed that it worked as expected.