Open multiple-tabs in IE9 using Process

Question

I'm trying to open multiple-webpages in the same IE9 session. It seems that I have to wait a bit of time after opening the first url before I can open the rest, but using Thread.Sleep seems hackish. Is there any way I can do better?

foreach (string url in urls)
{
    try
    {
        if (!isLaunched)
        {
            Process p = new Process();
            p.StartInfo.FileName = browser;
            p.StartInfo.Arguments = url;
            p.Start();

            Thread.Sleep(1000); // somewhere between 500 and 1000
            isLaunched = true;
        }
        else
        {
            Process.Start(url);
        }
    }
}

Note: If I do not wait the time, I will end up with one browser session with one page (the last page.

Update: - I tried p.WaitForInputIdle() but it did not work. - Per http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winforms/thread/fe4be58f-9c9d-4e52-8ced-e3cd9c1bbee7 I also tried

int i = 0;
    while (i == 0)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("!$@!");
        Thread.Sleep(100);
        p.Refresh();
        i = p.MainWindowHandle.ToInt32();
    }

but got an error:

Process has exited, so the requested information is not available.
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.EnsureState(State state)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.get_MainWindowHandle()

Update2: The code below works (waits for IE9 launch to exit), but still requires Thread.Sleep(100). Any less and it sometimes only puts a portion of the sites up... No... scratch that, this only works if there is an IE session already. The Process exits because it hands off the url to the existing IE session.

                foreach (string url in urls)
                {
                    try
                    {
                        if (!isLaunched)
                        {
                            Process p = new Process();
                            p.StartInfo.FileName = browser;
                            p.StartInfo.Arguments = url;
                            p.Start();
                            p.WaitForExit();
                            Thread.Sleep(100);
                            isLaunched = true;
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            Process.Start(url);
                        }
                    }

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 01 '11 at 18:56

0

Not exactly what you asked for, but i found this

The command line switches for ie doesnt seem to support launching tabs :/

answered Jun 01 '11 at 18:56

aL3891

6,205
3
33
37

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 01 '11 at 18:59

0

foreach (string url in urls)
{
    try
    {
        if (!isLaunched)
        {
            Process p = new Process();
            p.StartInfo.FileName = browser;
            p.StartInfo.Arguments = url;
            p.Start();

            if(!p.WaitForInputIdle()){ //Should wait indefinitely until the 
                                       //process is idle
              Thread.Sleep(1000);// Just in case the process has no message loop
            }

            isLaunched = true;
        }
        else
        {
            Process.Start(url);
        }
    }
}

answered Jun 01 '11 at 18:59

Justin Pearce

4,994
2
24
37

Doesn't work if you make Thread.Sleep any shorter than about 1000 ms, so I think it still isn't doing the right thing. (What if the target computer is really slow?) – tofutim Jun 01 '11 at 19:03
I suspect, then, that your program does not have a user interface? – Justin Pearce Jun 01 '11 at 19:09
Does it make a difference whether the Program has a UI? – tofutim Jun 01 '11 at 19:13
@tofutim: Sorry, I misread some of the documentation of the WaitForInputIdle function. Disregard my last comment. – Justin Pearce Jun 02 '11 at 18:36

Open multiple-tabs in IE9 using Process

2 Answers2

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