How to load a local help file using HTMLViewer and LoadUrl

Targets macOS
1

I want to have an html page load to an anchor in that page. I can load it on a PC but the code of course doesn’t transfer.

The page with the anchor is store in a listbox in the rowtag next to the viewer.

Var str As String = IniHerd.HelpFolder.URLPath + me.RowTagAt(row)
HelpWindow.HTMLVwr.LoadURL(str)

Would someone please tell me how to write this for MacOS

2

At first glance, this should work on Mac.

3

Unfortunately it doesn’t. Not even one without an anchor.
Elsewhere I’ve noticed it has something to do with the
“file:///” and it has to be replaced.

It states that in the LR but I don’t have a replacement for a local file.

4

I think the ‘.URLPath’ doesn’t include the folder delimiter on the end, so you may need to detect for that.

5

Thanks. It’s there. Grumble.

BTW. It doesn’t work, if it doesn’t change the page.

6

it seems LoadUrl wants to have http or https prefix to the url.
don’t know if it accepts file:// ?
I would use the LoadPage method, if the file is on the computer ?

7

I can do that but (excuse sarcasm) I so wanted the anchor to work.
I also have tried changing file out for http but that wouldn’t work also.
sigh

8

The anchor is part of the url isn’t it? So that should not matter with the LoadPage method.

LoadPage("anchor_example2.html#a001")

should jump to the a001 ID for instance, something like the in that html page:

<li id="a001">text here</li>
9

Apologies. It was a space on the end of the file name that did me in. I split the text file that I had built but it didn’t remove an extra carriage return. It doesn’t even show as an extra space on an editor.

I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t create a folderitem for the longest.

I can now LoadURL without http.

1 Like
10

We had a similar case a few weeks ago, those are nasty bugs. What might help you in future is looking at the variable in the binary view to find such extra characters.

11

That’s how I found it.
Me What is that? Why do have a “.” on the end?

I thought Mac’s TextEdit would show little things like that.

I opened it in TextWrangler and it showed I still Windows returns. Ugh.

Lesson learned.

1 Like
12

Obviously, anchors do not seem to work in Mac HTMLViewer.

Here is a workaround, which displays the content from the anchor (here, “#example”):

Dim f As folderitem = SpecialFolder.UserHome.child("Downloads").child("anchor.html")
Dim PageContent As String

If f.exists Then 
  If f <> Nil Then
    If f.Exists Then
      // Be aware that TextInputStream.Open could raise an exception
      Var t As TextInputStream
      Try
        t = TextInputStream.Open(f)
        t.Encoding = Encodings.UTF8
        PageContent = t.ReadAll
      Catch e As IOException
        MessageBox("Error accessing file.")
      End Try
      t.Close
    End If
  End If
  
  Dim PageCuts() As String = PageContent.Split("<a href=""#example"">")
  
  HTMLViewer1.LoadPage("<html><body>" + PageCuts(1), FolderItem.TemporaryFile)
  
Else
  MsgBox "merde"
End If
13

I like the messagebox on the end. Thanks

2 Likes
14

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

1 Like