See also "Using Tcl to write WWW client side applications within the WWW browser", "BrowseX", "Invoking browsers", ...
I'll explain this at some point:
package require tcom
wm overrideredirect . on
pack [canvas .c -background blue -height 20 -width 20]
proc paste_on_top_IE toplevel {
set application [::tcom::ref getactiveobject \
InternetExplorer.Application]
wm geometry . +[$application Left]+[$application Top]
raise .
update idletasks
after 300 [list paste_on_top_IE $toplevel]
}
paste_on_top_IE .
Notice the use made of tcom.
[Eventually explain Browser Helper Objects, XUL, toolbar SDK, ...]
Communication with an existing browser instance, as opposed to invoking browsers:
Yes, it does, eventually. There is a Tcl-extension that does the same thing (communicating with Netscape using X Window Properties) without starting another instance of Netscape, which works much faster (almost instantly and without any overhead). I haven't tried it with recent versions of Tcl/Tk, though.
ftp://ftp.procplace.com/pub/tcl/sorted/net/netscape-remote-v1.2/
Jacob Levy Pat Thoyts and I were hacking around on the Tcl chat. The goal was to write some Tcl code that makes Internet Explorer go to a website while sending an HTTP REFERER header under the control of the directing Tcl program. Pat came up with the following, using tcom:
package require tcom ;# Use tcom
set url http://www.targetsite.com/ ;# The site to visit
set referer http://www.referringsite.com/ ;# The "faked" referring site
set flags 0 ;# Any flags to send
set targetframe "" ;# Where to display visited site
set postdata "" ;# Any post-data to send
set headers "Referer: $referer\n" ;# Headers to send (incl
;# "faked" referer)
set ie [tcom::reference createobject "InternetExplorer.Application"]
$ie Visible 1
$ie Navigate $url $flags $targetframe $postdata $headersYou can try and see what happens, by hitting http://mod3.net/cgi-bin/test3.cgi which is a CGI script that will print out the CGI environment. You'll see that it sends whatever HTTP Referer you said to send.