Knowledge Base

How To Invoke Internet Explorer from Java and Navigate to a URL

Article ID: 252030

Article Last Modified on 6/14/2006

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Java Virtual Machine

This article was previously published under Q252030

SUMMARY

This article describes how to invoke Microsoft Internet Explorer from Java and navigate to a URL.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Invoke Internet Explorer

In Microsoft Visual J++ 6.0, create a new empty project.
Add a new class to the project named Navigate.java.

Paste the following code into the file:

   import com.ms.com.*;
   import shdocvw.*;
   public class Navigate
   {
      IWebBrowserApp testBrowser = null;

      public static void main( String args[] )
      {
          IWebBrowser2 testBrowser = (IWebBrowser2)new InternetExplorer();
          testBrowser.getApplication();
          testBrowser.setVisible(true);
          Variant var = new Variant();
          var.putEmpty();
          testBrowser.Navigate("http://www.msdn.microsoft.com",var,var, var, var);
      }
   }

Click Project, and then click Add COM Wrapper to add the Component Object Model (COM) wrappers for the Microsoft Internet Controls (Shdocvw.dll).
Compile and test the new project.

NOTE: The IWebBrowser2 interface replaces the IWebBrowserApp and IWebBrowser interfaces.

NOTE: In this example, the last four parameters of the Navigate method are optional. As a result, we create a Variant and call its putEmpty() method to act as the arguments that we are not supplying.