How can I avoid refresh with TWebBrowser - delphi

Question

I have a TWebBrowser component that show a Google maps page. The problem is that when user press F5 the page refresh and page reloads. This cause javascript variables to reinitialize and get out of sync with Delphi and a scripting error dialog appear,
'undefined' is null or not an object.
I want to stop refresh from the user.
I tried this event for OnBeforeNavigate2:
procedure TNewOrganizationForm.mapAddressBeforeNavigate2(ASender: TObject;
const pDisp: IDispatch; var URL, Flags, TargetFrameName, PostData,
Headers: OleVariant; var Cancel: WordBool);
begin
inherited;
Cancel := Assigned(fMapEngine) and not fMapEngine.Loading;
end;
But when I set a breakpoint it is not even called. Is there another way ?

Answer 1

Ronald you can use the IHTMLDocument2.onkeydown event to intercept and block a key.
to assign an event handler first you must create a procedure type using the IHTMLEventObj as parameter.
THTMLProcEvent = procedure(Sender: TObject; Event: IHTMLEventObj) of object;
then you must create an class descendent from InterfacedObject and IDispatch to pass and process the events .
finally you can process the intercepted key in the onkeydown event in this way
Var
HTMLDocument2 : IHTMLDocument2;
begin
if Not Assigned(WebBrowser1.Document) then Exit;
HTMLDocument2:=(WebBrowser1.Document AS IHTMLDocument2);
if HTMLDocument2.parentWindow.event.keyCode=VK_F5 then //compare the key
begin
HTMLDocument2.parentWindow.event.cancelBubble:=True; //cancel the key
HTMLDocument2.parentWindow.event.keyCode :=0;
end;
end;
//check the full source code
unit Unit55;
interface
uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
Dialogs, OleCtrls, SHDocVw, MSHTML;
type
//Create the procedure type to assign the event
THTMLProcEvent = procedure(Sender: TObject; Event: IHTMLEventObj) of object;
//Create a new class for manage the event from the twebbrowser
THTMLEventLink = class(TInterfacedObject, IDispatch)
private
FOnEvent: THTMLProcEvent;
private
constructor Create(Handler: THTMLProcEvent);
function GetTypeInfoCount(out Count: Integer): HResult; stdcall;
function GetTypeInfo(Index, LocaleID: Integer; out TypeInfo): HResult; stdcall;
function GetIDsOfNames(const IID: TGUID; Names: Pointer;
NameCount, LocaleID: Integer; DispIDs: Pointer): HResult; stdcall;
function Invoke(DispID: Integer; const IID: TGUID; LocaleID: Integer;
Flags: Word; var Params; VarResult, ExcepInfo, ArgErr: Pointer): HResult; stdcall;
public
property OnEvent: THTMLProcEvent read FOnEvent write FOnEvent;
end;
TForm55 = class(TForm)
WebBrowser1: TWebBrowser;
procedure FormShow(Sender: TObject);
procedure WebBrowser1NavigateComplete2(ASender: TObject; const pDisp: IDispatch; var URL: OleVariant);
procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private declarations }
FOnKeyDownConnector: THTMLEventLink; //pointer to the event handler
procedure WebBrowser1OnKeyDown(Sender: TObject; EventObjIfc: IHTMLEventObj);//the event handler
public
{ Public declarations }
end;
var
Form55: TForm55;
implementation
{$R *.dfm}
constructor THTMLEventLink.Create(Handler: THTMLProcEvent);
begin
inherited Create;
_AddRef;
FOnEvent := Handler;
end;
function THTMLEventLink.GetIDsOfNames(const IID: TGUID; Names: Pointer; NameCount, LocaleID: Integer; DispIDs: Pointer): HResult;
begin
Result := E_NOTIMPL;
end;
function THTMLEventLink.GetTypeInfo(Index, LocaleID: Integer; out TypeInfo): HResult;
begin
Result := E_NOTIMPL;
end;
function THTMLEventLink.GetTypeInfoCount(out Count: Integer): HResult;
begin
Result := E_NOTIMPL;
end;
function THTMLEventLink.Invoke(DispID: Integer; const IID: TGUID; LocaleID: Integer; Flags: Word; var Params; VarResult, ExcepInfo, ArgErr: Pointer): HResult;
var
HTMLEventObjIfc: IHTMLEventObj;
begin
Result := S_OK;
if Assigned(FOnEvent) then FOnEvent(Self, HTMLEventObjIfc);
end;
procedure TForm55.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
FOnKeyDownConnector := THTMLEventLink.Create(WebBrowser1OnKeyDown); //assign the address of the event handler
end;
procedure TForm55.WebBrowser1NavigateComplete2(ASender: TObject; const pDisp: IDispatch; var URL: OleVariant);
var
HTMLDocument2 : IHTMLDocument2;
begin
HTMLDocument2:=(WebBrowser1.Document AS IHTMLDocument2);
HTMLDocument2.onkeydown := FOnKeyDownConnector as IDispatch; //assign the event handler
end;
procedure TForm55.WebBrowser1OnKeyDown(Sender: TObject; EventObjIfc: IHTMLEventObj);
Var
HTMLDocument2 : IHTMLDocument2;
begin
//finally do your stuff here, in this case we will intercept and block the F5 key.
if Not Assigned(WebBrowser1.Document) then Exit;
HTMLDocument2:=(WebBrowser1.Document AS IHTMLDocument2);
if HTMLDocument2.parentWindow.event.keyCode=VK_F5 then
begin
HTMLDocument2.parentWindow.event.cancelBubble:=True;
HTMLDocument2.parentWindow.event.keyCode :=0;
end;
end;
procedure TForm55.FormShow(Sender: TObject);
begin
WebBrowser1.Navigate('www.google.com');
end;
end.

Answer 2

I did not find an easy way to do this. I could not find any event or anything similar on TWebBrowser, that would dissable refresh. Maybe you should check TEmbededWB as it has more events and is more capable than the default TWebBrowser. Otherwise they are very similar.
But I found a way to prevent refresh. Now it is funny that even with KeyPreview set to "True" on the main form I could not recieve key notifications. It seems that TWebBrowser eats them up somehow. But this worked:
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
Application.OnMessage := OnAppMessage;
end;
procedure TForm1.OnAppMessage(var Msg: TMsg; var Handled: Boolean);
begin
if Msg.message = WM_KEYDOWN then
if Msg.wParam = VK_F5 then
Handled := True;
end;
Not the most elegant way but at least it works. I have not found a better solution yet.