Web browser plug-in

[RacerTippy]

Ok, so I'm starting to dig in depth into features beyond basic buttons. I added a browser tab so I can get to the racing website and get the event passwords and whatnot.
2 problems I have encountered.

1- I hid the tabstrip for a cleaner look, and have used buttons for tabs. However, once I go to the IE tab ... I'm stuck. How do you get back? I tried adding a tab button but the IE window covers it.

2- There is no navigation bar for IE in the browser tab. How do you go back/forward, get to your favorites for another site, or enter an address into the (non-existant) address bar?

Thanks all, or Bill I'm assuming.

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

1) You need to put a button on your Plugin tab that tells it to go back to the last tab. This is just a normal button, with no macro. In the Toolkit/Button Editor, you can use the Select Tab combobox, to tell TB to back. But you need to make room beside your plugin for the button. Zorlac said he cannot put buttons on to of ActiveX windows, even though in the Toolkit you can set the button to a higher layer, TB won't work that way. So just make room beside the plugin for your button.


2) This I'm not sure about. You can obviously click links and go to pages, but how do you go back? I don't know. About 3 months ago, I tried writing a webpage with frames that had a frame at the top with back buttons, but it just would not work. I posted a question about it, and the reply I got was that you can't go back with frames. Here is the thread about it. Dymano answered it and said it cannot be done. I didn't really understand the answer, but I couldn't do it, and he said it could not be done, so I gave up. To bad..

As far as displaying the Address Bar, Zorlac would have to answer that. I think it can be done, but don't see it would do any good. Since TB was designed to never become the Active Window, so your games will not minimize when you use TB, it cannot receive keystrokes typed into an Address Bar, or any textbox. In Windows, a Window must be the active Window to receive Keystrokes. TB is never the Active Window by design.

[RacerTippy]

A-ha.
1- I had the browser plug-in expanded full screen and couldn't get the button to show even after I found the layer info. So I guess that's the answer, you can't full screen (or full window I guess would be more accurate) the plug-in. Shame that, guess I'll just make that button really short!

2- Good point about text input. And that wouldn't really be necessary if there was a way to get to the other browser bar features, like favorites. I guess you couldn't use TB as a "desktop environment" as I was trying to create, with a tab to view and post to forums, etc. But if there was a way to get to other sites than the one you have dictated in the config, at least you can click around and browse.
I thought about making my "home page" in the plug-in a simple local html page with links to the 3 or 4 sites I need which would work around that, but then after you've browsed a site for a while, you can't get back "home" again! You can right click anywhere in a page and choose "Back/Forward" btw, but doing that 37 times isn't really a workable solution. And unless I missed it, there's no choice for "Home" or "Favorites" in the right click menu.

Anybody have any ideas? Good idea about the frames Bill. Any ways to get a browser function menu? What about the IE7 tabbed browsing feature? You could open a home page in the first tab (IE7 tab, not TB tab) and all subsequent pages from your links opens a new tab, that way you can always close windows or move back to the home tab to go to another site. Tabbed browsing rocks in general, saves having 4 Explorer windows open.

Just trying to think a little outside the box or bigger picture, to have TB up full screen and still do other things like check email and forums, and not have to Alt-Tab out of the window to other apps.

Thanks WBK.

Edit- Just read that thread you linked, guess I'm not that original. You were already attempting work on this very thing months ago! Great minds and all that

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

1. Yea, but read the thread I posted. He gave a suggestion that I never looked into.

If you are going to make that button on the top, might as well make it use all the width... Just an idea.

2. Sorry, I can't be of more help. I'd have to try and figure it out, and I don't have the time. But, you could get back to Home if you just a static link to it in a frame I suppose. But if you can get something working this would make Plugin Browsers much more useful. So, good luck.

[zorlac]

I`ll see if I can display the web navigation tolbar when I get back, it wasnt something that I even thought about.

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

You won't be able to type in it though....

And the only addresses that appear in the Addressbar dropdown list are ones that you actually type in I think. Not ones you click on in links. I just remember looking at that list several times in the past and wondering why all the sites I visited were not there.