The Media Center Sandbox

Hello,
I've got a question concerning accessing the internet within windows media center,
i know wmc can server html pages as well as mcml but it wont look sharp on the logo and media bar..

my question is, is there any tag in mcml that *includes* an html page inside of it ( kinda like an iframe in html ) ?

i got this idea when looking at "Data Provider Credits" inside media center its in:
Tasks -> Settings -> General -> About Windows Media Center -> Data Provider Credits

the frame there looks like its serving an html page through ie, is this true ?
if it is.. any idea how to accomplish this ?

the reason for this is that i want to create a simple web browser inside media center ( that rely on ie to server the pages ofc :) ) but the current solutions at hand like MCEBrowser addon is too complicated and doesn't fit in with wmc looks.

Thanks in advance.

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Xive.

There isn't a tag in MCML that includes HTML that is available to third party developers. The Data Provider Credits page isn't written using MCML within Media Center, it's written using the legacy framework that was in place before MCML.

Cheers,
Andrew

Hey Andy, glad to see you again!
About the question..

What do you think is the best approach to accomplish this,
an HTML based solution like MCEBrowser or there is any other solution that could be done with MCML which i would prefer over HTML.

Thanks again.

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Xive.

You would have you write an HTML to MCML parser, replacing tags in the HTML with layout in MCML. It would be a very time consuming task and one that wouldn't neccessarily work very well, but it's the only way you're going to show "HTML" in a native MCML page.

Cheers,
Andrew

That's not a very robust solution, plus i would face endless bugs from css to js support.
I was thinking of letting IE do the parsing and use the output to be viewed in MCML somehow.

Anyhow thanks for the advise.. looks like an HTML based solution is best for now.

Edit: I just checked the "Data Provider Credits" again with no internet this time .. and it gave IE error screen (Inside MC).
Do we have access to develop or code on that "legacy framework" you mentioned ?

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Xive.

Same answer as before, you have no access to that capability - it's for internal Media Center development only.

Cheers,
Andrew

Ok, i have gone with the html based solution and made a simple browser using an iframe.. but the page doesnt maintain cookies inside media center.. it maintains cookies normally in a web browser..

How can i enable cookies inside the media center session.

Thanks.

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Xive.

Are you saying that when you access through Media Center cookies aren't persisted, but they are when you use IE instead?

Cheers,
Andrew

If you mean by "aren't persisted" that its temporally saved until you close media center.. then, no.

There is no cookie saving at all when i access it through Media Center, although it works fine in IE, yes.

for example.. when you change your preference on Google .. Google tells that "cookies aren't allowed".

ps: i read that cookie support inside MC isn't available in XP, Vista but it is in Win 7
and i'm using Win 7 MC, i just don't know how to enable it.

Thanks.

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Xive.

Cookie support is available for web-based MCML add-ins in Windows 7 (though even that looks like it's dependent on things being done by your web server rather than Media Center itself).

For HTML add-ins I can't see a way of enabling cookies - Media Center restricts what can be done inside an HTML add-in, and it looks like this is one of those things blocked.

A potential (but painful) way around it would be to have your web page host an ActiveX control which in turn hosts an IE browser control, which you can then allow to do whatever you like.

Cheers,
Andrew