Video: How to create Advanced IE bars
Posted on Friday, August 26th, 2011 at 10:44 am by Ty Anderson.
When we released Add-in Express for Internet Explorer and .NET, one of the first things I wanted to do was build some extensions that included custom IE bars. I quickly learned that what I wanted to use was not IE Bars but Add-in Express Advanced IE Bars. The advanced bars offer several advantages over regular IE Bars. This video demonstrates a couple:
- Layout options
- Drag and drop capability
As with any video, there is more included but you have to watch it to find out what!
You can find more information about IE Bars and Advanced IE Bars in the Developer Guide.
This video was captured in Visual Studio 2010 with Add-in Express for Internet Explorer and .NET.
4 Comments
Ty,
I was looking through the different examples. Are the Advanced IE Explorer Bars (and Explorer bars manager) supported in IE11?
I’m playing with a trial I got through Visual Studio gallery, and the tooltips seem to imply its only for IE7 -> 10.
Also: I’m trying to find a more complete example. For instance, do IE plugin/extensions have access to their own local storage? I search the adxie.pdf, and could not find a reference to the word “storage”. OR, do we just store information on local disk/registry?
(I’ve written browser extensions for Chrome, Opera, and Safari where everything is sandboxed. What are some of the most important differences I should realize?)
How does one go about injecting css, javascript, and html (altering the DOM/page)?
Could you please point me in the right direction?
thank you.
Bob,
registered user of Add-In-Express/Office.NET
Hello Bob,
>> I was looking through the different examples. Are the Advanced IE Explorer Bars (and Explorer bars manager) supported in IE11?
Yes, the Advanced Bars work in IE 7 and higher, including IE 11.
>> I’m playing with a trial I got through Visual Studio gallery, and the tooltips seem to imply its only for IE7 -> 10.
What tooltips do you mean? Please clarify.
>> Also: I’m trying to find a more complete example. For instance, do IE plugin/extensions have access to their own local storage? I search the adxie.pdf, and could not find a reference to the word “storage”. OR, do we just store information on local disk/registry?
You can store your data in the file system or registry. If Protected Mode or Enhanced Protected Mode is enabled, you can use our broker app to access protected resources.
>> (I’ve written browser extensions for Chrome, Opera, and Safari where everything is sandboxed. What are some of the most important differences I should realize?)
The most important difference is that IE creates a new instance of the plugin for each tab. Tabs may work in different processes.
>> How does one go about injecting css, javascript, and html (altering the DOM/page)?
This can be done via the Internet Explorer and MSHTML Object Models.
Bob, if you have any questions or need more information, you can always contact our support team. You can find our support email address in the readme.txt file located in the Add-in Express installation folder.
Thank you for the fast reply.
In answer to your question, where does it state only through IE10:
Create a new Project
-> ADX IE Add-on.
On/In the IEModules.cs designer form,
Mouse-over the ADIEXAdvancedBarsManager icon.
A tool-top appears that states:
“Enables the developer to create Advanced IE Bars in IE7-IE10.”
I’ll have to play-around and look for some examples of the toolbar/add-in communicating to the Broker App.
One other question: Is it safe and/or preferred to simple design the Add-On to ALWAYS talk to the broker-app, whether protected mode is on or not?? OR if protected mode is off, do you HAVE to use direct-access from the add-on to the storage resources because the broker “isn’t alive” ??
thanks again.
Bob
Hi Bob,
Thank you for your clarification about the tool-tips. We will fix the description.
As for your question about the broker application, it is always “alive” if you developed it and included into your setup project. I would suggest that you use it if your IE add-on should write some data to the file system or registry.