Share Content of WebView Control in Windows Store Apps Using C#

I have already described in my earlier articles how to use Share Contract in Windows Store apps using C# and also given the details of all the data formats that you can share to others via email by using Share Contract.  You can find this here.

Today I will describe the Share Contract with the WebView control. We can also share the content of a WebView control using Share Contract. WebView may contain either the HTML format data or it may contain the Navigate URL of a website.

Applications that use the WebView can share the contents of the WebView control via the Share contract. To share the content of a WebView control, select some part of the WebView content and share this using Share Contract.

The following are the steps to share the selected content of a WebView control using Share Contract in C#/XAML.

Step 1

Create a new Windows Store Application using C#.

Step 2

Here I design my MainPage.xaml with buttons to share content and an WebView control. I give some URL of that control to show the webpage.

<Page

    x:Class="ShareContentwithWebViewControl.MainPage"

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

    xmlns:local="using:ShareContentwithWebViewControl"

    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

    mc:Ignorable="d">

 

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Red" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0,50,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top">

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>

            <RowDefinition Height="800"/>

            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>

        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Margin="0,10,0,0" Grid.Row="1">

            <Button x:Name="ShareContent" Content="Share Content" Margin="0,0,10,0" Click="Share_Click"/>

        </StackPanel>

        <Border BorderThickness="1" BorderBrush="#FF707070"  Grid.Row="0" Margin="10,0,0,0">

            <Grid>

                <WebView x:Name="WebView7"   Width="1000" Height="800"/>

            </Grid>

        </Border>

    </Grid>

</Page>

Step 3

In the .cs file you need to add the neccessary namespaces to your app so you can create and process the objects related to sharing.
 

using Windows.ApplicationModel.DataTransfer;

Step 4

Now, we open the view for Share on button click using the GetForCurrentView() method of the DataTransferManager class.
 

private void Share_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

{

    dataTransferManager = DataTransferManager.GetForCurrentView();

    DataTransferManager.ShowShareUI();

}

Step 5

Create an Event handler of the DataRequested event in the click event. This event occurs when you share the content.

  dataTransferManager.DataRequested += dataTransferManager_DataRequested;

Step 6

Here is the coding of the DataRequested event that we defined previously.

First I get the DataPackage object from the webview control that contains the the selected contents; see:

DataRequest request = args.Request;

DataPackage p = WebView7.DataTransferPackage;

Check if any content is selected or not. If selected give it to the DataRequest object to share to other people via email; that is done with:
 

if (p.GetView().Contains(StandardDataFormats.Text))

{

     p.Properties.Title = "WebView Sharing Excerpt";

     p.Properties.Description = "This is a snippet from the content hosted in the WebView control";

     request.Data = p;

}

else

{

    request.FailWithDisplayText("Nothing to share");

}

Here is full code:
 

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.IO;

using System.Linq;

using Windows.ApplicationModel.DataTransfer;

using Windows.Foundation;

using Windows.Foundation.Collections;

using Windows.UI.Xaml;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Primitives;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Data;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Input;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Media;

using Windows.UI.Xaml.Navigation;

 

namespace ShareContentwithWebViewControl

{   

    public sealed partial class MainPage : Page

    {

        public MainPage()

        {

            this.InitializeComponent();

        }

        DataTransferManager dataTransferManager = null;    

        protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)

        {          

            WebView7.Navigate(new Uri("http://www.c-sharpcorner.com"));

        }     

        private void Share_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

        {

            dataTransferManager = DataTransferManager.GetForCurrentView();

            dataTransferManager.DataRequested += dataTransferManager_DataRequested;

            DataTransferManager.ShowShareUI();

        } 

        void dataTransferManager_DataRequested(DataTransferManager sender, DataRequestedEventArgs args)

        {

            DataRequest request = args.Request;

            DataPackage p = WebView7.DataTransferPackage;

 

            if (p.GetView().Contains(StandardDataFormats.Text))

            {

                p.Properties.Title = "WebView Sharing Excerpt";

                p.Properties.Description = "This is a snippet from the content hosted in the WebView control";

                request.Data = p;

            }

            else

            {

                request.FailWithDisplayText("Nothing to share");

            }          

        }

    }

}

Step 7

Now my app is ready to share contents of the WebView control through Share Contract. Run the app, select the content from the WebView control and press the button.



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