Access Modern Web Browser Control – Bypassing Trusted Domains

Go Around

Oh you knew I would, admit it!

One of my biggest issues with the new Modern Web Browser control is this whole ‘Trusted Domains’ nonsense. It makes no sense to me to stop users from using a Web Browser to click on links to access other sites?! Isn’t that the whole point of a web browser, to browse, hence the name?! Instead of calling it a Web Browser control, it should have been called a Web Page Viewer control because now you aren’t supposed to use it to browse anything!

If you don’t know anything about the new browser or its limitations then check out:

Access Modern Web Browser Control
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Access Modern Web Browser Control
So, we have a new ‘Modern’ Web Browser control, some people have also referred to it as the Edge Web Browser control! Well that is if you are running MS365 and using the BETA or Current Update Channels running build 16.0.16327.20214 or greater. I thought, I would start documenting the new ‘Modern’ Web Browser control,…

Continue reading →

 

So I have been trying to find some way to get around this limitation and, well, today I finally did.

Now this is a proof of concept that still needs a little more massaging, but in my brief testing it appears to be working quite well for links.  It would still need further coding to handle buttons that act as links, … and other exceptions, but for a first step forward this is great.  Things can easily be added and improved upon now that the basic idea works.

The Concept

The concept is quite simple.  The Web Browser allow you to Navigate (in VBA) anywhere you want, yet normal web browsing is restricted.  So I said to myself, after trying a variety of other things, what if there was some way to intercept browsing and instead redirect it to the VBA Navigate instead.

From that, I created:

The Code

So the code is broken down into 2 parts:

  • Code to setup the page with the necessary code
  • Code to retrieve the click link URL and Navigate to it

Code to setup the page with the necessary code

So we use the On Document Complete event, so that once the page is fully loaded we run code to inject:

  • A JavaScript function to process clicks (JS – which capture clicks on the links)
  • A hidden input (which is used to collect the click on link URL)
  • A listener to capture any clicks on the page to run our injected JS function (the 1st item)
Private Sub EdgeBrowser0_DocumentComplete(URL As Variant)
    Dim sCmd As String

    sCmd = "var script = document.createElement('script');"
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript sCmd
    sCmd = "script.innerHTML = " & Chr(10) & _
            "    function interceptClickEvent(e) {" & Chr(10) & _
            "    var href;" & Chr(10) & _
            "    var target = e.target || e.srcElement;" & Chr(10) & _
            "    if (target.tagName === 'A') {" & Chr(10) & _
            "        href = target.getAttribute('href');" & Chr(10) & _
            "        document.getElementById('clickedLinkHref').value = href;" & Chr(10) & _
            "         e.preventDefault();" & Chr(10) & _
            "    }" & Chr(10) & _
            "}"
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript sCmd
    sCmd = "document.body.appendChild(script);"
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript sCmd
    
    sCmd = "var hiddenInput = document.createElement('input');"
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript sCmd
    sCmd = "hiddenInput.type = 'hidden';"
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript sCmd
    sCmd = "hiddenInput.id = 'clickedLinkHref';"
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript sCmd
    sCmd = "document.body.appendChild(hiddenInput);"
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript sCmd
    
    Me.EdgeBrowser0.ExecuteJavascript "document.addEventListener('click', interceptClickEvent);"
End Sub

Code to retrieve the click link URL and Navigate to it

Then, we use the Browser’s On Click event to retrieve the clicked URL from the hidden input (that we created earlier) and navigate to it.

Private Sub EdgeBrowser0_Click()
    Dim sHref As String
    Dim bNavigate As Boolean

    sHref = Me.EdgeBrowser0.RetrieveJavascriptValue("document.getElementById('clickedLinkHref').value")
    
    If Left(sHref, 7) = "http://" Or Left(sHref, 8) = "https://" Then
        bNavigate = True
    End If
    If Left(sHref, 4) = "www." Then
        bNavigate = True
        sHref = "https://" & sHref
    End If
    If Left(sHref, 1) = "/" Then
        bNavigate = True
        sHref = GetBaseURL(Me.EdgeBrowser0.LocationURL) & sHref
    End If
    
    If bNavigate Then
        sHref = WinHTTP_GetRedirectURL(sHref)    'Deal with redirects!
        Me.EdgeBrowser0.Navigate sHref
    End If
End Sub

So a little JS and VBA and we are back in business.

You can get a copy of the GetBaseURL() function from my article:

VBA - Extract Base URL From A Full URL
Ever needed to get the Base URL (also referred to as Origin) from a full URL? So given a URL like:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101527321033.aspx?av=ZAC

get/return:

http://office.microsoft.com

Well, it truly isn’t hard once you know how. …

Continue reading →

and the WinHTTP_GetRedirectURL() from:

VBA - Determine URL Redirect Address
Have you ever needed to check and see if a URL got redirected, and if so what the final resulting URL was? Well, I did and here’s how I solved the issue!  

I’m still hoping Microsoft will see the light, either remove the Trusted Domains completely or at least provide a property to enable/disable the feature this way the developer could decide what is appropriate for their scenario.

Hopefully, this will help a few of you out there to make the New Web Browser control usable for actual navigation.

19 responses on “Access Modern Web Browser Control – Bypassing Trusted Domains”

  1. Tatum Caldwell

    Wow, wow, WOW! Based on your earlier post and video and some testing I had done I was ready to write off the new control as simply unusable.

    Thank you for figuring this out. I tested it and it works perfectly for my needs.

    1. Daniel Pineault Post author

      I must say, I originally thought the new control was the answer to my prayers, as they say. A 10 out of 10.

      Then I started trying it out. Once I hit the Trusted Domains issue it quickly fell to a 6 out of 10. Then I did more advanced testing an found it doesn’t support all JavaScript, so it fell to a 5 out 10. With this workaround I think it brings it back up to a 6-7 out of 10.

      All of that to say, I too am a little disappointed. They took a nice step forward, but why couldn’t they complete the job properly. As always, I’m assuming it is due to external constraints that the Access Dev Team have no control over. Wouldn’t be the 1st time.

      Anyways, glad you find this useful.

    2. Daniel chen

      hi
      reading this article is nothing short of
      thank you from the bottom of my heart.
      you did a wonderful job.
      on the other hand, the document is a nothing short of certificate of poverty for Microsoft.
      I have identified the major reasons for this control to even called browser.
      1. trusted domain.
      2. zero access to the DOM.
      3. too many issues with Java script.

      the verdict.
      Microsoft, go to the drawing table and give us a real edge browser control we can use, with documentation and examples.

      1. Daniel Pineault Post author

        You missed a couple issues, but yep, I’m also a little disappointed with Microsoft’s offering. I had expected a proper Web Browser control, one that could do everything Edge can do. Sadly, that is NOT what we got. Furthermore, I highly doubt we will see any improvements on the truly important issues. Bugs will be dealt with (eventually), but most of the true issues (Trusted Locations, No mixed content, JS not working), they will say are for security and will remain.

  2. FrankRuperto

    No one should have to implement workarounds to begin with. If the intention is to restrict users from wandering to other URL’s then a simple parameter should be available to enforce that condition.

  4. Andrea

    Hello,
    I’m trying to use this formula to get the edge browser to work.
    I’m at the point where I’m inserting WinHTTP_GetRedirectURL() part, and whenever I try to run it, what I get is an error saying:
    Compile-error User-defined type not defined.
    and it points me to this part of the code:
    Dim oWinHttp As WinHttp.WinHttpRequest

    Could you help me out with this? Thank you

  5. daniel chen

    Hi
    i have followed your instructions and got all code in place
    the EdgeBrowser0_DocumentComplete eventlistener “click” goes through properly.
    for some reason the EdgeBrowser0_Click will not work
    i put a break on
    sHref = Me.EdgeBrowser0.RetrieveJavascriptValue(“document.getElementById(‘clickedLinkHref’).value”)
    the program don’t seam to stop there or get the sHref
    i have added error stem and it does not capture it
    i run debug and no errors.

    i have office 365 the latest and the browser work good with the intital “source control”

    Any Idea?
    Thanks

    2. Daniel Pineault Post author

      You’re in luck, I had already created the database (just hadn’t posted it yet). Until I get it online here, you can quickly grab a copy from my OneDrive at: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjYnefG2siYSkQLJgOvPFY6IX_f5?e=r95xZz. Just remember, the page has to be fully loaded before this setup will work.

      Also, I have found the Edge Browser click event to be shall we say temperamental and not always reliable. Sometimes I’ve had to close the form and reopen it to get it to respond properly, I’m still investigating as I am hoping to find a reproducible scenario, up until now it seems random.

  6. joe NC

    I have been using the “Access Modern Web Browser Control” on my forms for a long time with no real issues, but last week Microsoft did some updates, and not I can’t seem to get them to work. Is anyone else having new issues?? the browser is just freazing. 99 % of the time it doesnt show any site.

    1. Daniel Pineault Post author

      I haven’t played with the control in several weeks, so I can’t really comment. I try performing an Office Repair and see if that doesn’t help. If it doesn’t then rollback you build no. and wait for MS to cleanup their mess.

      1. Joe Nc

        how can i rollback the build, i looked for info on that and i did not find anything that worked.
        thanks again for your help.