Forcing Sketchup to use IE8 and other Web Dialog problems

alexmojaki

I use a Mac, and my Web Dialogs worked great there, but when I tested it on Windows they don't. Firstly, IE7 renders horribly. I installed IE8 and that looks better but I can see Sketchup is still using 7. Can I force it to use 8?

Secondly, no scrollbars show. The required property in webdialog.new is true, and scrollbars are definitely needed. The content is clearly bigger than the screen.

3: dialog.get_element_value isn't working. I know the required element ID exists and has a value because I've used javascript to test that it's there. But all I get is an empty string. This worked fine on Mac, it's as though IE is blocking the data from being sent.

Dan Rathbun

1) I have noticed this also. document.documentMode still returns 7, even though you use:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
and:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="EmulateIE8">

I was thinking this morning, what would cause this?
I wonder if it is because SketchUp is still using MSVC Runtime v8.x (2005). I believe the WebBrowser Control may be limited by the runtime version. (But this is only speculation on my part.)

Dan Rathbun

2) Scrollbars

It is a bug, that on PC, the WebDialog's **scrollable** argument does not work.

Depending on whether you are in Standards compliant mode or not, for PC, you need to use the scroll="yes" or ("no"|"auto") with the <HTML> or <BODY> elements (respectively.)

Also the CSS overflow attribute may have some bearing on this issue.

Dan Rathbun

3) Now that you mention it, I may have noticed some quirky behavior with that method.

Because I have caught myself doing this instead:

@dialog.execute_script %q[%(#800080)[window.location='skp:ValueToRuby@'+document.getElementById("MyID").value;] ]

.. where ValueToRuby is some callback name you define with add_action_callback.

alexmojaki

Thanks, the scroll attribute worked. But what is Standards compliant mode? This is for a plugin that I want to distribute, so will this fix only work for some users?

@dan rathbun said:

Because I have caught myself doing this instead:

I don't understand. What do you mean by this sentence? I can't even see if you're suggesting a solution or just pointing out that you have the same problem.

Dan Rathbun

@alexmojaki said:

I don't understand.

OK, then let me re-phrase.

Here is a workaround:

@value = nil
@dialog.add_action_callback("ValueToRuby") {|dlg,value| @value = value }
# Now use the callback;
@dialog.execute_script %q[window.location='skp;ValueToRuby@'+document.getElementById("MyID").value;]
# Now use the value;
puts(@value)

Dan Rathbun

@alexmojaki said:

But what is Standards compliant mode?

[<!DOCTYPE>](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms535242(v)

[Document Compatibility](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh781499(v)

Quirks Mode

thomthom

A valid HTML document with a strict doctype and meta tag to make IE use the latest render engine should work.
If it doesn't work then please validate your HTML, then post a code example.

Anton_S

Same here, I also want to use latest Internet Explorer style; Buttons to be highlighted and rounded at corners like in IE8, checkboxes to be similiar to IE8, and everything else.
I noticed that thomthoms Cleanup3 tool has a webdialog with a similiar context to IE8. How do I make all my HTML style to be similar to IE8? Like this?

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />
<!-- Some code -->
</head>
<body>
<!-- Some code -->
</body>
</html>

... I checked it, via webdialog and it was the same as original old style.

thomthom

Isn't CSS round corners an IE9 feature?

thomthom

@anton_s said:

like in IE8, checkboxes to be similiar to IE8

You mean the default style in IE8?

Anton_S

@thomthom said:

Isn't CSS round corners an IE9 feature?

Well, I have IE9 then.

@thomthom said:

@anton_s said:

like in IE8, checkboxes to be similiar to IE8

You mean the default style in IE8?

Yes, but now I prefere IE9's default style.

thomthom

I don't know about the default styling in embedded web controls. I thought we where talking about CSS styling.
The default styling I think might be affected by what common control manifest the host application uses...

Can we perhaps see screenshots of desired result in a non-webcontrol Just to make sure we're talking about the same matters.

Anton_S

Here's an HTML Code opened via SketchUp Webdialog
HTML code opened via SU8 Webdialog
...horrible

Now Here's an HTML code opened via IE9
Same HTML opened via IE9
...just looks beatiful.

Here's the whole HTML code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9" >
<style type="text/css">
  body {background-color;rgb(0,0,0)}
  h1 {font-family;Tahoma; font-size;20px; text-align;center; color;rgb(0,140,255)}
  h2 {font-family;Lucida Calligraphy; font-size;14px; text-align;right; color;rgb(255,255,255)}
  p {font-family;Arial; font-size;12px; text-align;center; color;rgb(255,0,0)}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
  function update_checked(){
    var cb1 = document.getElementById("cb1").checked
    var cb2 = document.getElementById("cb2").checked
    var cb3 = document.getElementById("cb3").checked
    var cb4 = document.getElementById("cb4").checked
    var cb5 = document.getElementById("cb5").checked
    var cb6 = document.getElementById("cb6").checked
    var cb7 = document.getElementById("cb7").checked
    window.location = ("skp;update_checked@"+[cb1,cb2,cb3,cb4,cb5,cb6,cb7])
  }

  function test_set_multiple(){
    window.location = "skp;test_set_multiple@"
  }

  function set_menubar(){
    window.location = "skp;set_menubar@"
  }
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Chain Multiple Commands</h1>
<p><b>Check the following that you want to include in the "Set Multiple" operation.</b></p>
<form>
  <h2><b>SU Full Screen <input type="checkbox" id="cb1" onclick="update_checked()"/><br />
  Viewport Client Edge <input type="checkbox" id="cb2" onclick="update_checked()"/><br />
  Toolbar Stripts <input type="checkbox" id="cb3" onclick="update_checked()"/><br />
  Statusbar <input type="checkbox" id="cb4" onclick="update_checked()"/><br />
  Scenesbar <input type="checkbox" id="cb5" onclick="update_checked()"/><br />
  Thread Toolbars <input type="checkbox" id="cb6" onclick="update_checked()"/><br />
  Thread Dialogs <input type="checkbox" id="cb7" onclick="update_checked()"/><br /></b></h2>
</form>
<center>
<button onclick="test_set_multiple()">Test Set Multiple</button><br /><br />
<p><b>Note; Without a menubar there would not be a way to implement tools through shortcuts.</b></p>
<button onclick="set_menubar()" >Set/Remove Menubar</button></center>
</body>
</html>

thomthom

Right - I'm not sure what triggers that. Markup or the host application.

On a sidenote, maybe I suggest some comments on your dialog. Tone down the contract 255,0,0 red on completely black 0,0,0 background is very hard on the eyes. If you pick a slightly more subtle tone so the contrast ratio is less I'll be softer on your eye.

It's also best to stick with one font - and I recommend a sans-serif font (which is the de-facto standard in all applications). Script and fantasy styled fonts are not very legible.

Dan Rathbun

@anton_s said:

Same here, I also want to use latest Internet Explorer style; Buttons to be highlighted and rounded at corners like in IE8, checkboxes to be similiar to IE8, and everything else.

USE THIS META TAG:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
     <meta http-equiv="MSThemeCompatible" content="Yes">
  <!-- Some code -->
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- Some code -->
  </body>
</html>

Anton_S

@dan rathbun said:

<meta http-equiv="MSThemeCompatible" content="Yes">

Yup, that works!
Thanks

Anton_S

@thomthom said:

Right - I'm not sure what triggers that. Markup or the host application.

On a sidenote, maybe I suggest some comments on your dialog. Tone down the contract 255,0,0 red on completely black 0,0,0 background is very hard on the eyes. If you pick a slightly more subtle tone so the contrast ratio is less I'll be softer on your eye.

It's also best to stick with one font - and I recommend a sans-serif font (which is the de-facto standard in all applications). Script and fantasy styled fonts are not very legible.

Thanks, helpful sidenote

Aerilius

@dan rathbun said:

<meta http-equiv="MSThemeCompatible" content="Yes">

I especially like this, it makes the dialog look less like a webpage and more like an application dialog.
The operating system's default fonts and colors can be achieved with CSS2.1 system styles (is supposed to be enhanced/replaced by CSS3 appearance, but only Firefox implements that properly). In WebDialogs, I set the background color manually because not all browsers/OSs do it right:
dlg.execute_script('document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].style.background="'+dlg.get_default_dialog_color+'"')

Dan Rathbun

CSS3 Appearance has been cancelled in the latest revision. (And have not gone back to the 2.x docs, and removed those dire warnings.)