Question

I have been navigating the various WebBrowser control stackoverflow questions, and I can’t seem to find an answer to a problem I am having. I am trying to use the WebBrowser control to print a web page. Following MSDN’s example, I have created the following console application:

namespace WebPrintingMadness {     using System;     using System.Collections.Generic;     using System.Text;      /// <summary>     /// The entry point of the program.     /// </summary>     class Program     {         /// <summary>         /// The main entry point of the program.         /// </summary>         /// <param name='args'>Program arguments.</param>         [STAThread]         public static void Main(string[] args)         {             string url = 'https://stackoverflow.com/';              WebPagePrinter webPagePrinter = new WebPagePrinter();             webPagePrinter.PrintWebPage(url);             Console.ReadLine();         }     } }    namespace WebPrintingMadness {     using System;     using System.Collections.Generic;     using System.Text;     using System.Windows.Forms;      /// <summary>     /// This class is used to print a web page.     /// </summary>     internal class WebPagePrinter : IDisposable      {         /// <summary>         /// A System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser control.         /// </summary>         private WebBrowser webBrowser;          /// <summary>         /// Initializes a new instance of the WebPagePrinter class.         /// </summary>         internal WebPagePrinter()         {             this.webBrowser = new WebBrowser();             this.webBrowser.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(this.WebBrowser_DocumentCompleted);             this.webBrowser.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true;         }          /// <summary>         /// Disposes of this instance.         /// </summary>         public void Dispose()         {             this.Dispose(true);             GC.SuppressFinalize(this);         }          /// <summary>         /// Prints a web page.         /// </summary>         /// <param name='url'>The url of the web page.</param>         internal void PrintWebPage(string url)         {                this.webBrowser.Navigate(url);         }          /// <summary>         /// Disposes of this instance.         /// </summary>         /// <param name='disposing'>True if disposing, otherwise false.</param>         protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)         {             if (disposing)             {                 if (this.webBrowser != null)                 {                     this.webBrowser.Dispose();                     this.webBrowser = null;                 }             }         }          /// <summary>         /// Event handler for the webBrowser DocumentCompleted event.         /// </summary>         /// <param name='sender'>The event sender.</param>         /// <param name='e'>The event arguments.</param>         private void WebBrowser_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)         {             WebBrowser navigated = sender as WebBrowser;              if (navigated == null)             {                 return;             }              navigated.Print();             navigated.Dispose();         }     } } 

However, the DocumentCompleted event never fires. Is it possible to use this Windows.Forms control in an console application?

Answer 1

The basic requirement of an STA thread is that it needs to run a message pump. In Windows Forms, you can use Application.Run. Or you could write the message pump by hand, using user32!GetMessage & DispatchMessage. But it’s probably easier to use the one in WinForms or WPF.