Lesson 23: Creating a Web Browser

Which browser do you use to surf the Internet? Basically, everyone likes to navigate the Internet using Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, Opera and more. However, isn’t it cool if you can create your very own web browser that you can customize to your own taste? Yes, you can do that in Visual Basic 2019, and pretty easy too.

23.1 Building the Web Browser

In this lesson, we'll create a simple yet functional web browser. First of all, start a new project and name it with any names you like, we are using the name MyWebBrowser. Change the size of Form1 to 800,600 in its properties window. Next, you need to add an engine so that your web browser can connect to the Internet, and this very engine is the web browser control, located on the Toolbox on the left side, set its size property to 600,400 and change its name to MyWebBrowser.

23.1(a) Creating the Interface

The next step is to insert a text box and place it at the top of the web browser control, this will be served as the address bar where the user can enter the URL. Next, place a button beside the text box and change its text as GO and change its name to BtnGo. Finally, add a few more buttons and change their texts to Home, Back, Forward, Refresh and Search respectively.

Figure 23.1: Web browser interface with navigation controls

23.1(b) Browser Navigation Methods

The WebBrowser control comprises various methods like GoHome, GoBack, GoForward, Search, Refresh, Navigate and more. They can be used to write event-driven procedures for the various navigation buttons we place on the web browser.

For the Navigate method, we use the following syntax:

23.1(c) The Browser Code

Here's the complete code to implement the browser functionality:

Public Class Form1

Private Sub BtnGO_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnGO.Click
    ' Navigate to the URL entered in the address bar
    MyWebBrowser.Navigate(TxtURL.Text)
End Sub

Private Sub BtnSearch_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnSearch.Click
    ' Navigate to the default search page
    MyWebBrowser.GoSearch()
End Sub

Private Sub BtnHome_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnHome.Click
    ' Navigate to the home page
    MyWebBrowser.GoHome()
End Sub

Private Sub BtnBack_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnBack.Click
    ' Go back to the previous page
    MyWebBrowser.GoBack()
End Sub

Private Sub BtnForward_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnForward.Click
    ' Go forward to the next page
    MyWebBrowser.GoForward()
End Sub

Private Sub BtnRefresh_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnRefresh.Click
    ' Refresh the current page
    MyWebBrowser.Refresh()
End Sub
End Class

Next Lesson

Learn how to handle errors gracefully in Lesson 24: Error Handling.

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