JxMaps 1.1 is Released

Happy to share the news of JxMaps 1.1 release. The new version is based on Chromium 49. Apart from this we have simplified the API and added JavaFX support.

More details on this release are available in our release notes.

Feel free to download and try out the new version, and make sure to share your feedback with us: send us an email or post a question with #jxmaps tag on Stack Overflow.

Affiliate Links Review on a Blog Devoted to WordPress

TeamDev has been into WordPress plugin development for a while.

We have launched a number of helpful plugins that even a non-developer can use to optimize their WordPress website: clean the source code from the unnecessary elements and make it SEO-ready, enhance built in search facilities, help adopt AMP technology, and more.

Recently we’ve been in contact with Dave, a blogger from Belgium, who is the owner of a blog devoted to explaining WordPress technology. Now we are more than happy to reference his article about our Affiliate Links plugin for link shortening and masking, that he used himself, and decided to share his experience with his readers. The article is in German, but luckily, due to modern technology, a foreign language is less of a barrier every day.

TeamDev on Envato Market

JxBrowser 6.6 is Released

JxBrowser 6.6 is now available for download.

The major change in this release is upgrade of the Chromium engine to version 51.0.2704.106, which also brings several changes to JxBrowser system requirements.

In November 2015 Google announced the end of Chrome/Chromium’s support for Windows XP, as well as Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, since these platforms are no longer actively supported by Microsoft and Apple. Starting with Google Chrome/Chromium 50 these platforms are not supported at all. Since JxBrowser 6.6 is based on Chromium 51, support of these platforms has been dropped as well.

Except for Chromium engine upgrade, in this version we introduced a new functionality that allows receiving notifications when the spell checker has checked the text on the loaded web page. Using it you can get information about spelling mistakes on the web page.
Several critical issues reported by JxBrowser customers have also been resolved in this update.

For the full list of the features and improvements in this version, please see the Release Note record.

Enjoy Extended DOM API in DotNetBrowser 1.7.1

DotNetBrowser has been updated to version 1.7.1.

In this release we have primarily focused on improvements and additions.

We have extended our DOM API to simplify the work with HTML forms fields. In previous versions, it was difficult to obtain current values from the fields and this task was often done using JavaScript. Now this can be done using DOM API itself.

Further, we have added support of two Chromium native features: spell checker and password manager.

Full list of changes for your attention is, as always, at the DotNetBrowser Release Notes page.

The update is available for download.

Post your questions, if any, on Stack Overflow under #dotnetbrowser tag and we’ll be happy to help you out!

Building Browser-based Kiosk Apps with C#/VB.NET

A new tutorial for .NET developers is out on Codeguru.

In this practical guide Anna Dolbina, the lead developer of the DotNetBrowser, shows how to use it for building browser-based kiosk applications with WPF or Windows Forms.

Have a great read and enjoy experimenting with this approach in your own applications!

JxBrowser 6.5 is Released

JxBrowser 6.5 is now available for download.

In this version we focused on implementing features, long-awaited by our customers, such as access to HTTP response data to handle AJAX responses, multiple HTTP headers support, gesture event listener, getting selected HTML, better support of IME and different keyboard languages, and more.

For the full list of the features and improvements, please see the Release Notes.

DotNetBrowser 1.7 now runs on Chromium 49!

DotNetBrowser has been updated to version 1.7.

In addition to the main change, which is upgrade of the underlying Chromium engine to version 49, this release contains some important updates.

We have introduced further improvements of how we work with objects. In previous versions, we were able to register global functions and invoke them from JavaScript. Now it is possible to pass complete .NET objects to JavaScript side and invoke their methods as if they were regular JavaScript objects. You can get a deeper insight on this improvement in the migration guide we have prepared.

Also, we have applied fixes and improvements for the lightweight control rendering and added certificate validation API.

See the full list of changes available in this release on the DotNetBrowser Release Notes page.

The update is available for download.

As always, we'll be happy to answer your questions about our product on Stack Overflow under #dotnetbrowser tag.

Embed Google Maps in .NET Desktop Application

The lead developer of the DotNetBrowser Anna Dolbina has shared another useful tutorial on C# Corner. Here is the full text for your convenience: 

If you need to embed and display Google Maps in your .NET WPF or WinForms application, then DotNetBrowser library can help you to implement it without much effort.

DotNetBrowser is a .NET library that allows embedding a Chromium-based web browser control into a WPF or WinForms application to display web pages built with HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, AJAX etc. The Browser component that displays web pages has two rendering modes, lightweight and heavyweight. Both modes have advantages and limitations, and it’s up to you which one to choose.

In order to embed and display Google Maps in your .NET application you just need to create an instance of the BrowserView, embed it into a Window or any other container and load the https://maps.google.com web page using the LoadURL() method of its Browser property. The following sample demonstrates the most straightforward way of doing this,

1. using DotNetBrowser;  
2. using DotNetBrowser.WinForms;  
3. using System;  
4. using System.Windows.Forms;  
5.   
6. namespace GoogleMapsSample  
7. {  
8.     public partial class Form1 : Form  
9.     {  
10.         private BrowserView browserView;  
11.   
12.         public Form1()  
13.         {  
14.             InitializeComponent();  
15.             browserView = new WinFormsBrowserView();  
16.             this.Controls.Add((Control)browserView.GetComponent());  
17.             browserView.Browser.LoadURL("http://maps.google.com");  
18.   
19.         }  
20.     }  
21. }  

JxBrowser 6.4: Chromium 49 and Stability Improvements in Multi-threaded Environment

New version of JxBrowser is available for download.

In JxBrowser 6.4 we updated Chromium engine to version 49.0.2623.110, implemented several new features, and fixed important issues reported by our customers.

For the full list of the features and improvements, please see the Release Notes.

DotNetBrowser 1.6.4 — JavaScript - C# Bridge Improvements

DotNetBrowser has been updated to version 1.6.4.

In this minor update we have improved JavaScript – C# bridge to provide a more convenient way to work with objects. Also, we have applied fixes and improvements for the heavyweight control disposal and added default context menu implementation.

See the full list of changes on the DotNetBrowser Release Notes page.

The update is available for download.

We also invite you to ask us questions about the product on Stack Overflow under #dotnetbrowser tag, as we are moving our product forum there.

Great news for Java developers: Google Maps can finally be embedded into Java desktop applications, using brand-new JxMaps component, created by TeamDev Ltd.!
JxMaps is a Chromium-based cross-desktop library that provides a MapView Java Swing component, allowing to display Google Maps inside a Java app. You don’t need to learn or use JavaScript to work with maps.
Take a look at the Quick Start Guide and code examples for implementation details.

You are welcome to download the library, and try it out with free 30 days evaluation.

Know someone, who’s been struggling to integrate maps into Java app? Don’t hold it to yourself, share good news: https://goo.gl/ISncMO!

How to Create a Web-based Java Swing Kiosk Application

A new article by the lead developer of JxBrowser Vladimir Ikryanov is out on DZone. We publish the full text for your convenience here: 

Kiosk applications are used in a wide range of industries, such as banking, education, retail, travel, and entertainment, serving as information points, POS, and product promotion tools. Whenever it is possible to augment the human-attended service with automatic transactions, kiosks come in play. It is not uncommon nowadays to purchase a movie ticket, pick an outfit in a large store, or check-in on a flight in a matter of minutes using a specialized kiosk. 

When it comes to the development of application software for kiosks, there are certainly tweaks and tricks known to the industry. We’ve come across a frequently asked question of how to enable a browser-based application to be run in kiosk mode. Such an application would be easier to support, maintain, and upgrade compared to an app built on a specialized kiosk development platform.

Important Improvements in JxBrowser 6.3

JxBrowser 6.3 is now available for download.

In this update we implemented long awaited features such as mute/unmute audio on the loaded web page, SSL certificate verifier, mouse and keyboard events filters, etc. and fixed several critical issues.
For Windows platform we signed JxBrowser binary files with our valid certificate, so Windows Defender won’t block JxBrowser process from running and end users don’t need to include JxBrowser process into the list of trusted processes. On Mac OS X Java 1.6 support has been restored as well. DOM API has been extended with functionality that allows getting next and previous sibling of a DOM node and more.

For the full list of the features and improvements, please see Release Note record.

DotNetBrowser 1.6.3 is Released

DotNetBrowser has been updated to version 1.6.3.

In this update we have implemented mouse and keyboard events for BrowserView, applied fixes and improvements for scrollbar behavior and text selection for LIGHTWEIGHT mode and added a customizable print handler for PrintToPDF() functionality.

See the full list of changes on the DotNetBrowser Release Notes page.

The update is available for download.
Please feel free to share your feedback or post help requests on DotNetBrowser support forum.

Text Search API and Flash Stage3D Support in DotNetBrowser 1.6.2

DotNetBrowser has been updated to version 1.6.2.

In this minor update we have implemented Text Search API, applied fixes and improvements for better Flash Stage3D support, added Flash context menu support and web cursors support.

See the full list of changes on the DotNetBrowser Release Notes page.
The update is available for download.

Please feel free to share your feedback or post help requests on DotNetBrowser support forum.

Spell Checker and Media Device API in JxBrowser 6.2

JxBrowser 6.2 is now available.

In this update we implemented some long-awaited features. With this release JxBrowser introduces support of Windows Server 2016 platform and ability to listen to custom DOM Events. On top of the print functionality available previously, we have added the ability to print the selected text on a loaded web page and adjust print settings when user needs to save a web page as PDF. We have also introduced a brand-new Spell Checker API, support of HTML5 input element with type=color, and made more improvements.

For those, looking for the full list of the features and improvements, we have prepared an explicit Release Note record.

All these great new features are available in the new build ready to download.

Improved Stability and Memory Usage in JxBrowser 6.1.1

JxBrowser 6.1.1 with stability and memory usage improvements is available for download.

In this quick update we improved stability of the library in cases of interaction with BrowserView control, such as setting focus, moving control from one window to another, and opening/closing control in JTabbedPane.

We strongly recommend that your upgrade!

The list of all fixes and improvements in this update is available on the Release Notes page.

JavaScript-Java Bridge API in JxBrowser 6.1

JxBrowser 6.1 is available for download. In this minor update we added new powerful features and extended existing API with new capabilities:

• Brand-new JavaScript-Java Bridge API with new features has been implemented. Which is great news, because now you can inject any Java object into JavaScript code and work with Java objects like with typical JavaScript object.
• LocalStorage and SessionStorage API that allows working with HTML5 web storages from Java has been implemented.
• ScriptContext listener API that allows getting notifications when web page has been loaded but JavaScript on it hasn’t been executed yet has been added. Using this listener you can execute any JavaScript code before JavaScript code on the loaded web page will be executed.
• Several critical issues reported by our customers have been fixed.
• Stability and memory usage in Chromium engine have been improved.
• Data transferring between Java and Chromium processes now works ~10 times faster.

The list of all new features and improvements in JxBrowser 6.1 is available on Release Notes page.

We strongly recommend that your upgrade to JxBrowser 6.1 because this version solves critical issues that might affect stability of your software.

XPath API and Improved Video Support in DotNetBrowser 1.6.1!

DotNetBrowser has been updated to version 1.6.1.

In this minor update we have implemented XPath API, applied fixes and improvements for better video support (HTML5, Flash, Silverlight), and improved stability in Windows 8/8.1/10 environments.
See the full list of changes on the DotNetBrowser Release Notes page.

The update is available for download.
As always, we would be glad to hear your feedback or provide help on our product on DotNetBrowser support forum.

JxBrowser is to be Updated to New Chromium with Brotli Support

Faster and leaner web-browsing became buzzwords of the day as one of the Google web performance engineers announced, that Brotli data compression algorithm is to be implemented in Chrome browser.

Brotli developers promise up to 26% increase in compression performance compared to currently used Zopfli algorithm, which means faster load times and less resources necessary to render web content.

JxBrowser team is full on preparing a new JxBrowser 6 update, based on the latest Chromium version with Brotli support included. Stay tuned for the latest release news.