Access Forms: Edge Web Browser Control

[mgpostcard]

Hello

According to this link, I ought to be able to use an Edge Web Browser Control inside an Access form:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-web-browsing-to-a-form-8ec2fe67-1b19-4f04-92b6-eb7660...

Unfortunately I am only given the option of a bog standard Internet Explorer browser, not Edge.

WhatIsMyBrowser.com reports IE11 (IE7 Compatability View)

I'm a 365 subscriber running Access 2104 (Build 13929.20386 Click-to-Run) and Edge 90.0.818.62 (Official build) (64-bit).

Any ideas?

[#2]

Interesting that an official MS article states the Edge browser control is already available.
Unfortunately this isn't yet the case.
It was originally slated for Dec 2020, then the date was revised to Aug 2021, See Access roadmap 

However, according to the MS Access development team at DevCon 2021, it is now unlikely that the Edge browser control will be available before the end of 2021

[#3]

Top reply, I wasn't aware of the roadmap thank you @isladogs 

[#4]

You're welcome. Treat the slated dates as 'elastic'
Their current priority is the Dataverse connector and everything else has been pushed back as a result. It may or may not help that the Access Team leader recently left and the replacement hasn't yet been announced

[#5]

Well, hopefully the edge webbrowser control is to be released in autumn this year, it is crucial and not easy to find more and more website blocking the IE-Version

[#6]

@Lovicevic Will the current Webbrowser component work even after internet explorer is retired? Is it safe to continue using WebBrowser component in MS access application?  My org wanted me to research on the danger of continuing with this component. 

[#7]

The answer is both Yes ,..and No
See this parallel thread IE11 retirement - What does this mean for MS Access Apps? 

[#8]

It will work as much as IE is supported by a webpage hoster. Youtube just stopped to let you play videos a few weeks ago, and replaced it by a blocker page (it used to run videos ad-free). However, I dont do critical stuff via webbrowser control (e.g. online-banking), just kind of data mining or automated information requests from well-known service providers, so my personal risk is low and I would not provide access-applications with the outdated webbrowser-control to my clients.

[#9]

It's hard to predict what is going to happen. As Colin knows, recently the ability to display PowerBI reports in the web browser control was broken. Yes, I've tried all of the suggestions about registry settings, etc. to restore that; all to no avail. It's been reported to MS, but the continual slide in the delivery date for an updated Web browser control is not promising.

[#10]

@George_HepworthI fully agree, it is somehow clumsy if you introduce a new browser and keep some attached tools unchanged over years, knowing that some hungry crowd is waiting ...

If found this in one of my clients' databases 🙂

[#11]

My main issues of concern right now are:
1. The URL limit in IE is just 2083 characters whereas in Chrome / Edge, its at least 64,000 characters. The low limit in the IE web browser makes it difficult to load maps with several layers.
2. The Google JavaScript API no longer works with IE & has stopped one of my mapping apps working.

[#12]

Problem 2 is resolved in the new Web Browser control as of today.

[#13]

Problem 1 is also partly resolved with the release of the new Edge browser control to those in Office Insiders channels.
The URL limit for Google mapping APIs is currently 16K characters. Using the .Navigate property it should be possible to enter long URLs up to this limit (if not higher). However, at the moment the old 2048 character limit still applies using the .ControlSource property. This is a known issue which should hopefully be fixed before the wider release of the new control to all users, hopefully in April

[#14]

Hi
currently we are using the legacy webbrowser control
the functionality we are missing is access to the webbrowser.Document
this allows us to access document elements in vba and use it to open forms with filter criteria.
two questions:
1. is it possible to achieve that is the new edge control - (old code sample below)?
"TdCellIndex = em.cellIndex
VarValue = em.innerText
Set tb = Doc.getElementById("NGTable1")
For Each th In tb.getElementsByTagName("th")
If th.cellIndex = TdCellIndex And th.ID <> "" Then
strCol = th.ID
Exit For
End If
Next th"

2. do we need a new runtime to use the edge control?
thank you

[#15]

It is my understanding that the new Edge web browser control uses Javascript. Little documentation is available yet, though.

[#16]

@George_Hepworth

II have seen the details

In general there are two methods 

Javascript execute 

Javascript get value 

- the names are not accurate 😂

I was looking for code samples on both. 

At this poing i find the control little bugy

We would like to transition ASAP but we need some answers

Dchen

[#17]

@danielchent1 

The 2 methods are actually RetrieveJavascriptValue & ExecuteJavascript

So far I've not done much with either of these but I use the following code to grab the value of co-ordinates from 2 textboxes latbox & lngbox on a local HTML file

Dim strPath As String, sngLat As Single, sngLong As Single

strPath = CurrentProject.Path & "\geolocal.html"
With Me.EdgeBrowser0
    .Navigate "https://msaccess/" & strPath 'need prefix for local HTML file

     .Visible = True 
     DoEvents
                    
     Do Until .ReadyState = 4
     Loop    

     sngLat = .RetrieveJavascriptValue("document.getElementById('latbox').value")
     sngLong = .RetrieveJavascriptValue("document.getElementById('lngbox').value

End With

two 

[#18]

@isladogs

Thank you for your answer. 

I have tried the same. 

What i need is to be able to run either one of these function and regurn objects such as html table cell properly collection etc. 

Dchen

[#19]

Hi George, I'm trying to display some pages and documents from Ms-Online Sharepoint e.g. https://mycompanyname.sharepoint.com in Control. I have entered the path in the Trusted table. But it is opened separately in the browser, not in the control. Is there a solution. The documentation didn't give me any clue. Thank you.

[#20]

@Tassimo 

Daniel Pineault has provided a lot information on the modern web browser control.

start here.