DotNetBrowser

DotNetBrowser is a proprietary .NET library that provides a Chromium-based engine which can be used to load and display web pages. It is developed and supported by TeamDev since 2015.

DotNetBrowser

Developer(s)	TeamDev
Initial release	6 April 2015 (2015-04-06)
Written in	C#, C++
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS
Type	Framework, Web browser
License	Proprietary

Features

Some main features are as follows:

• Load and display the web page.
• Embed a Chromium-based browser in a .NET desktop application as an Avalonia UI, WPF or Windows Forms control.
• Handle navigation and network events.
• Access Document Object Model of the loaded web page.
• Execute JavaScript on the loaded web page, inject .NET objects and call them from JavaScript

Usage

Primary usage is embedding a browser into various .NET desktop applications and displaying the web pages. DotNetBrowser can be used as a headless browser. The headless mode is also available on Linux and macOS.

Another known use-cases are creating web-based kiosk applications and VSTO add-ins for Microsoft Office.

More examples and use-cases are available in the DotNetBrowser Examples repository.

Example

WPF

XAML markup <syntaxhighlight lang="XML"> <Window x:Class="Sample.Wpf.MainWindow"

       xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
       xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
       xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
       xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
       xmlns:wpf="clr-namespace:DotNetBrowser.Wpf;assembly=DotNetBrowser.Wpf"
       mc:Ignorable="d"
       Title="MainWindow" Height="450" Width="800" Closed="MainWindow_OnClosed">
   <Grid>
       <wpf:BrowserView x:Name="browserView"/>
   </Grid>

</Window> </syntaxhighlight> C# <syntaxhighlight lang="C#"> using System; using System.Windows using DotNetBrowser.Browser; using DotNetBrowser.Engine;

namespace Sample.Wpf;

public partial class MainWindow : Window {

   private readonly IEngine _engine;
   private readonly IBrowser _browser;
    
   public MainWindow()
   {
       InitializeComponent();
        
       // Create and initialize the IEngine
       _engine = EngineFactory.Create();
        
       // Create the IBrowser
       _browser = engine.CreateBrowser();
       _browser.Navigation.LoadUrl("https://teamdev.com/dotnetbrowser");
        
       // Initialize the WPF BrowserView control
       browserView.InitializeFrom(browser);
   }
    
   private void MainWindow_OnClosed(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
       _browser.Dispose();
       _engine.Dispose();
   }

} </syntaxhighlight>

Windows Forms

C# <syntaxhighlight lang="C#"> using System; using System.Windows.Forms; using DotNetBrowser.Browser; using DotNetBrowser.Engine; using DotNetBrowser.WinForms;

namespace Sample.WinForms;

public partial class Form1 : Form {

   private readonly IEngine _engine;
   private readonly IBrowser _browser;
    
   public Form1()
   {
       InitializeComponent();
        
       // Create and initialize the IEngine
       _engine = EngineFactory.Create();
        
       // Create the Windows Forms BrowserView control
       var browserView = new BrowserView
       {
           Dock = DockStyle.Fill
       };
        
       // Create the IBrowser
       _browser = engine.CreateBrowser();
       _browser.Navigation.LoadUrl("https://teamdev.com/dotnetbrowser");
        
       // Initialize the Windows Forms BrowserView control
       browserView.InitializeFrom(browser);
        
       // Add the BrowserView control to the Form
       Controls.Add(browserView);
       Closed += Form1Closed;
   }
    
   private void Form1Closed(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
       _browser.Dispose();
       _engine.Dispose();
   }

} </syntaxhighlight>

See also

• Chromium Embedded Framework
• Electron

External links

• Official website
• DotNetBrowser Help Center - the DotNetBrowser support website containing documentation and release notes.
• DotNetBrowser Examples, 5 October 2022 - the repository containing various examples of using DotNetBrowser.