.NET C#: WebBrowser control Navigate() does not load targeted URL

Question

I'm trying to programmatically load a web page via the WebBrowser control with the intent of testing the page & it's JavaScript functions. Basically, I want to compare the HTML & JavaScript run through this control against a known output to ascertain whether there is a problem.

However, I'm having trouble simply creating and navigating the WebBrowser control. The code below is intended to load the HtmlDocument into the WebBrowser.Document property:

WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
wb.AllowNavigation = true;

wb.Navigate("http://www.google.com/");

When examining the web browser's state via Intellisense after Navigate() runs, the WebBrowser.ReadyState is 'Uninitialized', WebBrowser.Document = null, and it overall appears completely unaffected by my call.

On a contextual note, I'm running this control outside of a Windows form object: I do not need to load a window or actually look at the page. Requirements dictate the need to simply execute the page's JavaScript and examine the resultant HTML.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

You should handle the WebBrowser.DocumentComplete event, once that event is raised you will have the Document etc.

wb.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(wb_DocumentCompleted);

private void wb_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
  WebBrowser wb = sender as WebBrowser;
  // wb.Document is not null at this point
}

Here is a complete example, that I quickly did in a Windows Forms application and tested.

public partial class Form1 : Form
  {
    public Form1()
    {      
      InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
      WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
      wb.AllowNavigation = true;

      wb.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(wb_DocumentCompleted);

      wb.Navigate("http://www.google.com");

              }

    private void wb_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
    {
      WebBrowser wb = sender as WebBrowser;
      // wb.Document is not null at this point
    }
  }

Edit: Here is a simple version of code that runs a window from a console application. You can of course go further and expose the events to the console code etc.

using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
  class Program
  {    
    [STAThread] 
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {      
      Application.Run(new BrowserWindow());   

      Console.ReadKey();
    }
  }

  class BrowserWindow : Form
  {
    public BrowserWindow()
    {
      ShowInTaskbar = false;
      WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;
      Load += new EventHandler(Window_Load);
    }

    void Window_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {      
      WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
      wb.AllowNavigation = true;
      wb.DocumentCompleted += wb_DocumentCompleted;
      wb.Navigate("http://www.bing.com");      
    }

    void wb_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
    {
      Console.WriteLine("We have Bing");
    }
  }
}