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Hello,
I really believe that IE 6 has a new (intentional?) bug that severely limits the capability of dhtml and cross domain scripting. Yesterday, I read an interesting article about the subject and it only supported my claim. The article explained why Microsoft will not be letting the IE DHTML Implementation get any more powerful than it already is. Microsoft has realized that an experienced DHTML developer can create a web application that looks and performs just like a desktop application. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the impact that this will have on the sales of Microsoft's new Core Development Products and Technologies (WinForms, C#, .net).
After I read this article, I started to think about an .hta script that suddenly quit working when I upgraded from IE 5 to IE 6. The script used cross domain techniques but nothing really fancy. To make matters worse, I have tried extensively to update and fix my script with no luck. I still receive 'Access Denied' errors.
If you are interested, I have prepared a simple code example containing a dhtml 'one-liner' which demonstrates the cross domain scripting technique that I have been ranting about. To use the example, save the code to a file with the .hta extension. Double click the .hta file to execute it. The application is very simple. Select some text with your mouse and click the 'Get HTML' button. The button is suppose to (and did under IE 5) pop up an alert message that contains the HTML snippet which corresponds to your selection. To try and fix the script, I added the application="yes" attribute to the IFRAME Tag. According to the documentation, this is a new requirement for IE 6. It is suppose to lower the security constraints for the iframe, thus enabling cross domain scripting. It didn't work. Do take note that the example works when the html file in the iframe is on your local machine (example- change the 'src' attribute of the iframe to 'c:\file.htm' or something).
Code Example:
[HTML]<html>
<head>
<TITLE>Simple Cross Domain DHTML Mouse Selection Script</TITLE>
<HTA:APPLICATION ID="HTAEx"
APPLICATIONNAME="HTAEx"
ICON="e.ico"
WINDOWSTATE="normal">
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" value="Get HTML" onClick="getText()"><br><span><br>
<iframe Application="yes" src="http://msdn.microsoft.com" id="TheFrame" style="width: 100%; height: 85%"></iframe>
<script language=JScript>
function getText()
{
var doc = window.frames.TheFrame.document;
var text1 = doc.selection.createRange().htmlText;
alert(text1);
}
</script>
</body>
</html>[/HTML]
Let me know what you think.
