Using COM objects for browser automation .net

Question

Read a little wiki on COM interface. Going through forums and attempting to absorb all I can, it seems when working in .NET developing browser automating console apps, many frown upon their use.

What is a alternative to my usual

    Dim ie As InternetExplorer

        ie = New InternetExplorer
        ie.Visible = True
        ie.Navigate(website)

I am not sure if best practices type questions are allowed, but I am very curious to know the answer to this. Mainly the alternative and then of course a short why? Thanks guys :)!

Answer 1

In fact, you can use the Webbrowser control in a multithreading+console/winforms application.

Based on this answer : Run and control browser control in different thread

var html = RunWBControl("http://google.com").Result;

---

static public Task<string> RunWBControl(string url)
{
    var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<string>();
    var th = new Thread(() =>
    {
        WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler completed = null;

        using (WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser())
        {
            completed = (sndr, e) =>
            {
                tcs.TrySetResult(wb.DocumentText);
                wb.DocumentCompleted -= completed;
                Application.ExitThread();
            };

            wb.DocumentCompleted += completed;
            wb.Navigate(url);
            Application.Run();
        }
    });

    th.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
    th.Start();

    return tcs.Task;
}