the future of VisualNEO Win

#1 · December 5, 2018, 2:46 am

Microsoft is building its own Chromium browser to replace the default Edge on Windows 10. Microsoft will announce plans for a Chromium browser as soon as this week. If changes are made to the internal IE WebBrowser object of Windows, VisualNEO Win will have to be updated or its web application may not work.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/4/18125238/microsoft-chrome-browser-windows-10-edge-chromium?fbclid=IwAR27vsCot_8ACqYgoVimNRsSCnxbGvul06xJu_zjw11UVGgsp5BRLdELgws

#2 · December 5, 2018, 6:38 pm

> If changes are made to the internal IE WebBrowser object of Windows....

This will be the question. The IE Webrowser Object has nothing to do with Edge.

So when they replace Edge it will be no Problem. When they stop to support the IE ActiveX, that will be a Problem.

Regards

#3 · December 17, 2018, 1:03 am

Re: "When they stop to support the IE ActiveX, that will be a Problem."

It is already a big problem because Microsoft stopped IE development and new technologies have emerged. I was discussing this with Tom Mulgrew who makes Basic4GL Mobile WebAssembly applications ( https://www.basic4gl.net/mobile/gallery/nubby/). IE does not support WebAssembly. Bill Gates is too busy bio-engineering the perfect mosquito or something like that...

#4 · December 17, 2018, 8:09 am

I'm not specially worry about this.
Take a look at Internet Explorer Lifecycle FAQ here:
https://support.microsoft.com/am-et/help/17454/lifecycle-faq-internet-explorer

Regards.

#5 · December 17, 2018, 8:36 pm

There was a "Chrome" plugin for Neobook. But it was quite large and did not work very well. There is also a browser component that uses Firefox rendering instead of IE. http://www.pbear.com/ But it won't read HTML5 .

Is there no alternative to the IE browser object for VisualNeo? Should it not be possible to use a frame-less Chrome window (if installed by the user) in a VisualNeo rectangle? Perhaps WebAssembly applications would work then? Maybe a plugin could be made to automatically assign the user's default browser directly to a rectangle for Firefox, Opera, Edge, etc.... without using IE

#6 · December 17, 2018, 9:28 pm

Hello,

Do you really ask about a "VisualNeo Win" Version? It sounds for me that you are asking for "VisualNeo Web".

There you can use browser of your choice and WebAssembly.

Regards

Hans-Peter

#7 · December 17, 2018, 11:20 pm

I am asking about VisualNEO Win

I found that Opera, Firefox and Edge browsers could not identify the application's main window when attached to a rectangle.

However the Google Chrome browser can be attached to a VisualNEO rectangle and almost everybody has Chrome installed already.

Here I got a WebAssembly application to run in a Chrome rectangle of VisualNEO Win. It would not work with the native IE WebBrowser object.

The next step is to use Chrome command line options to adjust the window.

https://www.ghacks.net/2013/10/06/list-useful-google-chrome-command-line-switches/

Chrome insists on always displaying "tabs" and that may interfere with your page layout

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/wgMW15vDEL8

Perhaps the" easiest" way to hide unwanted tabs is to simply paste a white rectangle over them. Quick and dirty..... If you want to struggle with command line switches, that is up to you...

--start-fullscreen

Like F11, The Chrome parameter "--start-fullscreen" will load the URL only to the full size of the VisualNEO rectangle, without displaying tabs or a menu bar.

.

#8 · December 18, 2018, 11:42 am

This is really interesting!!

#9 · December 21, 2018, 5:27 am

RunInRectangle

To run Chrome in a rectangle without tabs or a menu bar
Use "--app=your.url"

For example:

Application:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe

Parameters:
--app=http://your.url.here

Use these switches to block notifications and translation alerts:
--disable-notifications
--disable-features=TranslateUI

Parameters:
--disable-notifications --disable-features=TranslateUI --app=http://your.url.here

#10 · December 21, 2018, 12:55 pm

Great!. I think this opens the door to a Chrome plugin.
We just need a way to perform both directions communication.

By the way, of interest for VisualNEO Win plugin developers: There is now a Delphi Community Edition anyone can install for free under some commercial restrictions.

#11 · December 21, 2018, 4:53 pm

Can we make plugins with Precision Delphi (PdScript) or with Lazarus?

#12 · December 21, 2018, 5:14 pm

Hello,

You can use the PdScript Interpreter in its Dll Version from the hpwPdScript plugin. (you have tested it)

But it is not a Compiler to create new Dll's. So it can not be used to create nbp/nbr files.

For Lazarus there was a template for Freepascal in the past.

Not sure how good it worked and if it was well tested and powerfull.

Regards

Hans-Peter

#13 · December 22, 2018, 7:13 pm

The latest version of Free Pascal Compiler was released in 2017, so it is up to date.

https://www.freepascal.org/

You can create DLL files with the Lazarus IDE. It is freeware with a large user community.

https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

.

#14 · December 22, 2018, 9:40 pm

Hello,

You can also think about using the Delphi community Edition.

Regards

Hans-Peter

#15 · December 22, 2018, 10:56 pm

You can also think about using the Delphi community Edition.

I just downloaded a copy. But it has some strange terms of service (if you bother to read the fine print).... Apparently they want to monitor your annual finances, in order to use their trial version... what? I am a retired senior citizen and this does not apply to me. However, I put that in the same aggressive marketing group as Apple intentionally slowing down its old iphones with malicious cookies in order to sell new ones...

I got the Delphi community Edition working now after changing PLATFORM variable to Win32. It allows you to create browser apps in Windows using IE. But VisualNeoWin also does that, and will display the Google Chrome browser in a rectangle with switches.

I have never made a NEO plugin before and I don't know where to start. Is there any documentation?

#16 · December 23, 2018, 8:32 am

Hello,

>Is there any documentation?

There is the SDK for VisualNeo Win which contains Samples for different languages.

There is a sample plugin for Delphi.

Luis can provide a download link.

Another sample could be OpenNbNewlisp which is the opensource flavour of a newlisp-plugin.

http://www.hpwsoft.de/anmeldung/html1/neobook/neobook14.html

Regards

Hans-Peter

#17 · December 23, 2018, 8:49 am

Just noticed the download link for the SDK: https://visualneo.com/downloads

luishp has reacted to this post.

#18 · December 26, 2018, 10:10 am

I have just discovered this Delphi component:

CEF4Delphi

It has compatibility from Delphi 7 and above.
I think it could be a good alternative to current IE based WebBrowser object.

Vadim has reacted to this post.

#19 · December 26, 2018, 1:09 pm

Quote from luishp on December 26, 2018, 10:10 am

I think it could be a good alternative to current IE based WebBrowser object.

The only drawback is that the user must download the 150 MB chromium component.

But if they already have the Chrome browser installed there is nothing to download. Chrome can be run in a rectangle with the correct command line switches.

If you have control over the web pages in your Neobook app, it is probably better to stick with the in-built IE web-browser object because then you can communicate with it using the standard VisualNEO actions and variables. You can also create HTML code with VisualNeo Web and then embed it into your Visual Neo Windows applications.

However, if you have no control over the web pages because they are on remote servers, it may be a good idea to display them in a Chrome browser. Some third-party web pages may be slow or not work at all with the built-in IE web browser object. And you don't want users seeing the dreadful "Your Current Browser is Outdated!" warning the first time they try out your new software.

Chrome has many command-line switches such as --kiosk which removes the tabs and menu and loads the page as full screen (a full screen relative to your desktop, not your application, so design it accordingly).

Communicating with Chrome is not as easy as with the built-in IE web browser object. Some SendKey actions may work.

You can display a page in Chrome while loading the same page off-screen into a JavaScript-disabled IE web browser object. Thus, while the user only sees the Chrome display, your program is silently scraping the page for meta-data etc., using the built-in VisualNEO action commands. (Disable JavaScript in the web Browser object so it makes no sounds, etc.)

I am currently testing 15 different browsers in Visual Neo Win to see how they run in a rectangle. I'll let you know...

#20 · December 26, 2018, 11:43 pm

Hello,

>I think it could be a good alternative to current IE based WebBrowser object.

I would aggree that it might an alternative to the IE Web-Object, but only as an optional plugin.

Adding the 150 MB to the core would be bad for all cases of non-web win-apps.

Regards

mishem has reacted to this post.

the future of VisualNEO Win - Forum

the future of VisualNEO Win