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Save a bitmap of a web page

Submitted By: gabehabe

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Views: 4,315

Language: C#

Last Modified: September 24, 2008

Snippet

/*
* Author: Danny Battison
* Contact: gabehabe@googlemail.com
*/
/// <summary>
/// A method to capture a webpage as a System.Drawing.Bitmap
/// </summary>
/// <param name="URL">The URL of the webpage to capture</param>
/// <returns>A System.Drawing.Bitmap of the entire page</returns>
public System.Drawing.Bitmap CaptureWebPage(string URL)
{
// create a hidden web browser, which will navigate to the page
System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser web = new System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser();
web.ScrollBarsEnabled = false; // we don't want scrollbars on our image
web.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true; // don't let any errors shine through
web.Navigate(URL); // let's load up that page!
// wait until the page is fully loaded
while (web.ReadyState != System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1500); // allow time for page scripts to update
// the appearance of the page
// set the size of our web browser to be the same size as the page
int width = web.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Width;
int height = web.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Height;
web.Width = width;
web.Height = height;
// a bitmap that we will draw to
System.Drawing.Bitmap bmp = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(width, height);
// draw the web browser to the bitmap
web.DrawToBitmap(bmp, new System.Drawing.Rectangle(0, 0, width, height));
return bmp; // return the bitmap for processing
}

Copy & Paste

/*
 * Author: Danny Battison
 * Contact: gabehabe@googlemail.com
 */

/// <summary>
/// A method to capture a webpage as a System.Drawing.Bitmap
/// </summary>
/// <param name="URL">The URL of the webpage to capture</param>
/// <returns>A System.Drawing.Bitmap of the entire page</returns>
public System.Drawing.Bitmap CaptureWebPage(string URL)
{
	// create a hidden web browser, which will navigate to the page
	System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser web = new System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser();
	web.ScrollBarsEnabled = false; // we don't want scrollbars on our image
	web.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true; // don't let any errors shine through
	web.Navigate(URL); // let's load up that page!
			
	// wait until the page is fully loaded
	while (web.ReadyState != System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
		System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
	System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1500); // allow time for page scripts to update
	// the appearance of the page
			
	// set the size of our web browser to be the same size as the page
	int width = web.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Width;
	int height = web.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Height;
	web.Width = width;
	web.Height = height;
        // a bitmap that we will draw to
	System.Drawing.Bitmap bmp = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(width, height);
	// draw the web browser to the bitmap
	web.DrawToBitmap(bmp, new System.Drawing.Rectangle(0, 0, width, height));
			
	return bmp; // return the bitmap for processing
}

Comments
gbertoli3 2008-09-26 07:58:56
You're on a roll!
Lotharyx 2008-11-24 15:48:19
This would be great if it actually worked. Unfortunately, it doesn't. From Microsoft .NET documentation of the System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser class: DrawToBitmap - Infrastructure. This method is not supported by this control. (Inherited from WebBrowserBase.) As documented, the DrawToBitmap method of the WebBrowser object is not implemented. Try this code and you'll get a blank bitmap (yes, this is experience speaking).
gabehabe 2008-11-25 06:12:27
Works for me, I've used it a bunch of times. The only problem can be when scripts need to be run, it might not allow time for all of them to load. Trust me on this one, I test my snippets a bunch of times before submitting them. ;)
bongenie 2008-11-29 20:26:39
I don't have a C# compiler and I don't know how to use one... But I'm very interested in this code. Is there any possibility to have this function in a dll file to use it from an other language ? Thanks to everyone could help me Daniel
chaitanyavswi 2009-08-01 08:58:32
ActiveX control '8856f961-340a-11d0-a96b-00c04fd705a2' cannot be instantiated because the current thread is not in a single-threaded apartment.