Scrolling down an embedded IE

[Nahuel]

I'm trying to simulate a rich edit control using an embedded IE object in a GUI (Valuater's idea). It works really great, but the scrolling problem is really annoying...

here's an example, type something and press enter.

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#include <GUIConstants.au3>
#include <IE.au3>
$XT_oIE = _IECreateEmbedded()
$MainGui = GUICreate("Chat",624, 446)
$Obj_RCV = GUICtrlCreateObj($XT_oIE, 6, 20, 600, 346)
_IENavigate($XT_oIE, "about:blank")
$EditSend = GUICtrlCreateEdit("",6, 374, 539, 61, $WS_VSCROLL)
$Send = GUICtrlCreateButton("Send", 556, 382, 57, 53, $BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON)
GUICtrlSetState($EditSend,$GUI_FOCUS)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)

While 1
    $nMsg = GUIGetMsg()
    Switch $nMsg
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
        Case $Send
            XSkinText(GUICtrlRead($EditSend))
            GUICtrlSetData($EditSend,"")
            GUICtrlSetState($EditSend,$GUI_FOCUS)
    EndSwitch
WEnd

Func XSkinText($msg = "", $color = "black", $size = "3")
    If $msg == "/clr"  Then Return _IEDocWriteHTML($XT_oIE, "")
    If $msg == "/exit"  Then Exit
    If StringInStr($msg,"/goto:",1)  Then
        $URL=StringSplit($msg,":")
        Return _IENavigate($XT_oIE,StringStripWS($URL[2],8) ,0)
    EndIf

    ;Smilies
    $SmilieDir=@ScriptDir & "\caritas"
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":)", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\smile.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":D", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\smile.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":(", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\sad.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,"(h)",'<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\cool.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":|", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\eek.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":x", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\mad.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":$", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\shame.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":s", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\confused.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,";)", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\wink.gif">')

    $Previous= _IEDocReadHTML($XT_oIE) 
;~  $Previous & 
    _IEDocWriteHTML($XT_oIE, $Previous & '<font color="blue" size="3"><i>' & @UserName & ' says:</i></font><br><font color="' & $color & '" size=' & $size & '>' & $msg & '</font><br>')
EndFunc

I already tried $oIE.document.parentwindow.scroll but it looks really.. bad. Can anyone think of a better way?

Edited November 23, 2007 by Nahuel

[DaleHohm]

I have a solution to exactly this in the forum somewhere, but can't find it at the moment. You may want to search and I will try more later.

Dale

[Nahuel]

Thank you for your reply Dale

I've looked a lot before posting, but none of the answers was convincing. This is the 'best' one I found:

$iVisibleHeight = $XT_oIE.document.body.clientHeight
$XT_oIE.document.parentwindow.scrollBy(0,$iVisibleHeight)

It has the same 'up and down' effect which makes it really annoying, and it gets worse as the text grows.

$oIE.document.body.clientHeight always returns the same value, obviously, no matter how much text there is in the window. So 'removing' (somehow) the same quantity of rows of text from the top as they are appended seems a bit hard now...

Thank you for your help.

[Will66]

If i understand the issue correctly....you could place a bookmark <a name="bottom"> in the ie and insert your new entry above the bookmark then navigate to about:blank#bottom

[Nahuel]

Sure, that sounds nice... But I have the feeling that it will cause the same problem, I'll try it.

The problem is that the new text is not appended to the end. The old text is read and attached to the new one and then set to the IE object, which causes it to scroll up. Navigating to about:blank#bottom will cause it to scroll down again, causing that 'up-down' effect I mentioned

[DaleHohm]

My screen updates fast enough it took me a bit to understand what you were having issues with. It's the screen flicker as it updates from the top and then scrolls down to the bottom right?

If so, an this is actually much more efficient anyway, use _IEDocInsertHTML instead of *WriteHTML.

The folllowing modification adds a new line in the main section and rewrites and removes lines in your update function:

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#include <GUIConstants.au3>
#include <IE.au3>
$XT_oIE = _IECreateEmbedded()
$MainGui = GUICreate("Chat",624, 446)
$Obj_RCV = GUICtrlCreateObj($XT_oIE, 6, 20, 600, 346)
_IENavigate($XT_oIE, "about:blank")
$oBody = _IETagNameGetCollection($XT_oIE, "body", 0) ; <---------- This is new
$EditSend = GUICtrlCreateEdit("",6, 374, 539, 61, $WS_VSCROLL)
$Send = GUICtrlCreateButton("Send", 556, 382, 57, 53, $BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON)
GUICtrlSetState($EditSend,$GUI_FOCUS)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)
$begin = TimerInit()

While 1
    $nMsg = GUIGetMsg()
    Switch $nMsg
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
        Case $Send
            XSkinText(GUICtrlRead($EditSend))
            GUICtrlSetData($EditSend,"")
            GUICtrlSetState($EditSend,$GUI_FOCUS)
    EndSwitch
WEnd

Func XSkinText($msg = "", $color = "black", $size = "3")
    If $msg == "/clr"  Then Return _IEDocWriteHTML($XT_oIE, "")
    If $msg == "/exit"  Then Exit
    If StringInStr($msg,"/goto:",1)  Then
        $URL=StringSplit($msg,":")
        Return _IENavigate($XT_oIE,StringStripWS($URL[2],8) ,0)
    EndIf

    ;Smilies
    $SmilieDir=@ScriptDir & "\caritas"
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":)", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\smile.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":D", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\smile.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":(", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\sad.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,"(h)",'<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\cool.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":|", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\eek.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":x", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\mad.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":$", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\shame.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,":s", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\confused.gif">')
    $msg=StringReplace($msg,";)", '<img src="' & $SmilieDir & '\wink.gif">')
    
    ; Start New code
    $sAppend = '<font color="blue" size="3"><i>' & @UserName & ' says:</i></font><br><font color="' & $color & '" size=' & $size & '>' & $msg & '</font><br>'
    _IEDocInsertHTML($oBody, $sAppend)
    $iVisibleHeight = $XT_oIE.document.body.clientHeight
    $XT_oIE.document.parentwindow.scrollBy(0, $iVisibleHeight)
    ; End New code
EndFunc

Dale

[Nahuel]

You Dale, are my personal hero

That's just perfect. Thanks a bunch for your time and great solutions, as always.