Features in Essential HTML UI for Windows Forms

Essential HTMLUI supports rendering Web pages in order to create interactive applications. Like popular Web browsers, Essential HTMLUI comes with advanced options to work with Web-related issues like navigating through a history of documents, etc. Essential HTMLUI is completely independent from Internet Explorer; this provides full independence in controlling the appearance and settings of the control.

HTML Files Accessible in the URL

HTML Files from the User Drive

Any HTML file from the user's drive can be loaded into the HTMLUI control by specifying the location of the document. The HTMLUI control can also load MHTML files from a local drive. Users can customize the HTMLUI control to load documents into it by dragging and dropping them into the control.

HTML Files from the User Drive

HTML from Text

Essential HTMLUI can render HTML contents in the form of text. Also, it is possible to change HTML contents easily at run time with the help of the HTMLUI control. Another feature available in Essential HTMLUI is that the XML Document object of the document loaded in the control can be extracted and used by the user for other external applications.

HTML from Text

Relative Links

Essential HTMLUI supports linking to various documents either from the user drive or from a URI which helps in developing user-friendly applications. Essential HTMLUI allows the use of the TAB key shortcut to navigate through the links.

Images can be used instead of text as links to other files in the HTMLUI control. The important feature that Essential HTMLUI provides with links is that users can decide the course of action forwarded by the link after being clicked, with the help of built-in events that are developed with the HTMLUI control.

Handling Relative Links

Stream Files

HTML files associated with a project as an embedded resource can be easily loaded in Essential HTMLUI. Methods are enabled with the HTMLUI control that allow HTML documents to be loaded from a memory stream.

HTML Files Loaded from a Memory Stream

Control in HTML Element

Essential HTMLUI can expose the control that is present in a specified HTML element. Tracing controls in an HTML document will help developers in creating a powerful interaction environment for users.

Custom Control Using Custom Tag

Custom controls can be created and used just like normal HTML elements with the help of custom tags. The custom tag is a customized HTML tag with Class and Assembly as its attributes. The Assembly attribute refers the namespace of the control, and the Class attribute refers the control itself. This is flexible to such an extent that users can use any Windows Forms control in an HTML document and make the application native and productive.

Create Custom Control Using Custom Tag

Custom Control Using Interfaced Tag

The other form of using Essential HTMLUI in rendering user-defined controls is by creating a control in the HTML document as an HTML element and interfacing that HTML element with a control available on the form. Essential HTMLUI will take care of the layout of the control interface with the form based on the properties available for it in the HTML document. This method helps in creating applications involving customized layouts and advanced user interactivity.

User-Defined Tags Interfaced with Windows Forms

Document Tags

The following tags define the major sections of an HTML document.

The HTML tag defines that the document is a HTML document.

The head tag contains the title and references to the styles for the elements in the document.

The body tag contains the HTML elements of the document.

Essential HTMLUI supports the following formatting-related tags. The b tag—Bold font text.The br tag—Next line.The em tag—Emphasize text.The font tag—Font formatting options.The h1 tag—Header 1.The h2 tag—Header 2.The h3 tag—Header 3.The h4 tag—Header 4.The h5 tag—Header 5.The h6 tag—Header 6.The hr tag—Horizontal rule.The code tag—Inline code snippets.The strong tag—Bolded text.The style tag—Defines the styles for the html elements in the document.The sub tag—Subscripted text.The sup tag—Superscripted text.The p tag—New paragraph.The pre tag—Predefined text.

List of Supported HTML Tags

Essential HTMLUI supports the following HTML tags for layout and customization of elements.

A (Link)B (Makes text bold)BR (Break line)EM (Makes text italic)FONT (Inline element for text)H1–H6 (Tags for heading styling)HR (Horizontal line)I (Makes text italic)U (Underlines text)IMG (Displays images)LINK (Used for attaching CSS document)SPAN (Inline element for applying CSS style)STRONG (Makes text bold)STYLE (Used for attaching CSS inside HTML document)TITLE (Title displayed on control)INPUT (Windows Forms controls, such a button, textbox, etc.)SELECT (ListBox or ComboBox win controls)TEXTAREA (Multiline TextBox win control)CHECKBOX (CheckBox win control)RADIO (RadioBox win control)CODE (Inline tag for representing code sample)CUSTOM (Interface Windows Forms controls to the HTML elements)CENTER (Center align the text)DIV (Block tag container)FORM (Container for win controls)BODY (Container of visual document data)HEAD (Container for document's settings) LI (Simple item of a list) LINK (Defines link to external document such a CSS document) OL (Ordered list container) P (Container of text paragraph) PRE (Container of formatted text) SCRIPT (Container of script code) TABLE (Represents table container) TR (Container of single row in a table) TD (Container of single cell in a table)TH (Column header in a table) UL (Unordered list container)

List of all Supported HTML Tags

Localization Using HTMLUI

Localizing applications can be made easier by using Essential HTMLUI. The layout and run-time customization capabilities afforded by HTMLUI make it the ideal localization framework for your applications. When text or images are changed on account of localization, the control will automatically lay out the user interface to provide the best experience to the user.

Skin and Theme Localization

Essential HTMLUI can be used to skin and theme applications to provide an experience beyond typical localization. The entire user interface arrangement can be switched on the fly for different locales.

Localization Support

Supported CSS Attributes

Essential HTMLUI supports the following Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) attributes to be used along with HTML documents. colorbackground-colortext-alignvertical-aligncursorpaddingpadding-leftpadding-toppadding-rightpadding-bottomborderborder-leftborder-topborder-rightborder-bottomborder-styleborder-left-styleborder-top-styleborder-right-styleborder-bottom-styleborder-widthborder-left-widthborder-top-widthborder-right-widthborder-bottom-widthborder-colorborder-left-colorborder-top-colorborder-right-colorborder-bottom-colorfont-familyfont-stylefont-weightfont-sizetext-decorationwidthheightbackground-imagebackground-repeat

Extensive Cascading Style Sheet Attributes Support

Load XML Using XSLT

Essential HTMLUI can display XML documents transformed to HTML using XSLT. In an XSL transformation, both the XML document and an XSLT style sheet are read. Based on the instructions found in the XSLT style sheet, a new HTML document is generated in the output which is then loaded into the HTMLUI control.

Load XML Documents using XLST

Render Web Documents

Essential HTMLUI supports rendering HTML pages from Web pages, which helps in the creation of interactive applications involving simple pages. Also, the control supports History options just like the popular Web browsers, which help in navigating through the previous HTML pages loaded in the HTMLUI control.

Render Documents from the Web

Scripting

Scripting inside an HTML document makes the document self-contained and work independently. Essential HTMLUI supports embedded scripts in HTML code. A user can also define script code in external documents. Scripting is supported in three languages: C#, Visual Basic, and JScript.

Scripting

Bubbling Events Architecture

Bubbling events architecture is the use of a common event handler declared for a parent HTML element that can be used in handling the same event for all of its child HTML elements. This helps in reducing the task of declaring event handlers for all the elements in a document, thereby reducing the length and complexity of the code.

Bubbling Event Arguments

Interactive Control Events

Essential HTMLUI comes with some events that can be used to access the state of the control at run time. The event handlers for these events are custom developed to help users make the application more informatory and interactive. These events are so powerful that the status and the course of the application can be decided at run time.

Interactive Control Events

Design Properties

Essential HTMLUI exposes design properties like an element's size, location, etc. Also, users can change the visibility of HTML elements at run time. Powerful graphical applications with the use of HTML documents are feasible with Essential HTMLUI because of these interactive formatting features.

Accessing Design Properties

Events

Essential HTMLUI supports custom representation of elements by handling events. This serves as a powerful medium for the customization of display elements.

Element Events in HTMLUI

Format

Essential HTMLUI comes with a separate class for creating and applying formats to HTML elements. With the help of this formatting option, UI applications with a modern appearance can be created.

Changing Format of HTML Elements

Customized Scrolling

Essential HTMLUI supports scrolling which helps users in loading large documents inside the HTMLUI control and navigating to desired locations easily. Users can toggle the scrolling control visibility at run time. Easy methods are enabled such that users can scroll quickly through the document to desired positions.

Customized Scrolling

Keyboard Shortcuts

Essential HTMLUI comes with flexible keyboard support with functionalities similar to those featured in popular browsers. Common options like Select All Text, Find specified text, Copy selected text, and tabbing through the control gives Essential HTMLUI a familiar feel and makes it flexible for common tasks.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Text Selection

Selecting the text present in a document is supported in Essential HTMLUI. The selected text can be accessed programmatically and searched, or copied to the clipboard to be used in other applications. In addition to text, HTML elements under the selection region can be accessed and coded for efficient UI solutions.

Text Selection

Export Formats

This is an example of how a document available in Essential HTMLUI is converted to an image and used in other Essential Studio applications.

Preview and Print

A hard copy of a document available in Essential HTMLUI can be created with the help of the printing feature that comes with the control. It also features a print preview operation that allows users to preview a document before printing. Documents that extend across several pages can be easily loaded and printed in Essential HTMLUI.

Print and Preview Files

IE Independent

Essential HTMLUI is completely independent of Internet Explorer. This provides full independence in defining the control's appearance and settings. HTMLUI will never be affected by Internet Explorer-related security issues.

HTMLUI Explorer

Programmatic Access

HTML elements displayed in a document in Essential HTMLUI are exposed as programmatic elements that can be manipulated from the application code. These elements expose standard events such as Click, MouseMove, and MouseDown. The content and appearance of all elements can be changed from within the code.

HTMLUI Programmatic Access

Source Code

Essential HTMLUI is written in C# and is available with full source code. The source code can be integrated into your development environment for debugging. Samples with source code are provided in C# and VB.NET.