Embedded Browser using Delphi IDE

[kh...@medxchange.com]

I am doing sustaining SW on a product that was developed using the Delphi 5 IDE.

 

On one of the user pages that this product presents, there is a PDF file that needs to be displayed inside a window. The current implementation uses an embedded browser object called TWebBrowser, which appears to use MSIE dll's. We have Adobe Acrobat 8.0 installed on the target. We simply have the TWebBrowser object navigate to the PDF file and it displays in the user window.

 

But --

 

We have some issues with Adobe Acrobat, particulary on shutdown. The acrobat lingers after the shutdown signal is issued and throws an exception if it hasn't been given several seconds to purge itself of the PDF file.

 

I am looking for an alternative to this implementation that scraps both the Adobe and the MSIE dll's. Chrome has a built in PDF renderer. What would be ideal would be a package for Delphi that implements the Chrome equivalent of the TWebBrowser object (dll file and interface code). If no Delphi I/F code exists exists, but a C# version does, I can work with that as well (although it would be more work on my part to implement).

 

If anybody on this board who knows of such a developer package, please post it here.

 

Also in a sample installation of Chrome, we see that there is a pdf.dll, which is presumably the PDF renderer. Where can I find the developer's interface to this (preferably a Delphi interface)?

 

BTW our target environment is Embedded Windows XP.

 

Thanks,

Karl

 

[PhistucK]

I am not a lawyer, but -

pdf.dll is a proprietary PDF viewer used only in Google Chrome (which is closed source, unlike Chromium, which is the open source project). You cannot use it without an explicit permission from Google. It uses the licensed Fox It PDF rendering library, which is not free to use.

☆PhistucK

[kh...@medxchange.com]

Thank you for that information. Terms and conditions info is part what I need to know. I certainly will not use the pdf.dll if it's proprietary. With any luck there is an embedded Chrome (similar in character to the embedded IE implementation that I've inherited) that I can use.

[PhistucK]

Chrome - no, Chromium - yes.

Look for CEF. I think there is are C# bindings for that, too. Unofficial, though.

☆PhistucK