Hacking Internet Explorer 6.0 / 7.0, Feeds Manager, ClickOnce Broken, and a DOS Hole?
Technorati Tag:IE7
Developers who are interested in playing with "add on" concepts in Internet Explorer 7 would be well-advised to take a look at the MSFeeds.dll COM Interfaces. Here are a few screen caps of the COM-Interop generated assembly classes you will get when you set a COM reference to the MSFeeds management COM server DLL. There are three main classes, the first is the FeedManagerClass:
FeedManager provides methods to add, sync and delete feeds from the Feed folder, as well as maintenance items such as IsSubscribed. Next is the FeedFolderWatcher:
FeedFolderWatcher offers management of Downloading and monitoring the Feeds Folder, along with a rich set of events related to same. Finally, you have the FeedWatcherClass:
FeedWatcher handles granular tasks / events such as the status of a downloading feed, the FeedItemCount and error handling.
With a .NET class library wrapping these COM methods/ delegates / interfaces, developers should be able to build neat "Add on" applications that use and work with the same infrastructure that Internet Explorer 7.0 uses.
BTW, you can find the feed management folders here:
Your feeds themselves are actually stored in this folder (and any subfolders you've created, such as "subscriptions") in an "Mostly Text" proprietary format. Updating information is stored as cookies.
UPDATE: This API is documented here, so it's not as "hacky as I originally indicated.
There are a lot of hacks, but let me present mine, which is so incredibly easy, you'll wonder why you didn't think of it:
In your Windows folder, there should be an unistall folder for the IE 6.0 you had. It will look something like "C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallie7bet2p$"
Make a shortcut to the IExplore.exe executable in that folder, and you are done!
Does IE 7.0 Beta break ClickOnce?
I've noticed after installing IE 7.0 Beta that it cannot handle HTTP ClickOnce deployments. The Publish.htm page loads fine, but both the Launch and the Install options fail miserably. Anybody else notice this?
This is on the local machine of course -- it worked great with IE 6.0.
Blocks AdSense Ads with default Security Settings?
That's another little issue I'm not sure I am happy with. IE 7.0 with the default security settings appears to SILENTLY BLOCK all google adsense ads, until the user puts
pagead2.googlesyndication.com
into their trusted sites list. Hmmm...
Private Researcher Finds DOS Hole in IE 7.0 Beta minutes after Installation
This EWeek article explains all.
I was just reminded by Julie Lerman that when you install ASP.NET 2.0 on IIS 6.0, ensure that your 1.1 Apps and your 2.0 apps run in separate App Pools. Not doing so can result in unusual BTH (Bad Thing Happened) behavior that is extremely difficult to diagnose.
This thing has nice features and all, but there is just too much interference with Visual Studio.NET 2005. So, off it goes. Keep up the good work, IE team. Just let me know when you are done and it is REALLY ready for production. And just to add insult to injury, now that I've uninstalled IE 7.0 and rolled back to IE 6.0, my ClickOnce deployments on this machine ARE STILL BROKEN!
Developers who are interested in playing with "add on" concepts in Internet Explorer 7 would be well-advised to take a look at the MSFeeds.dll COM Interfaces. Here are a few screen caps of the COM-Interop generated assembly classes you will get when you set a COM reference to the MSFeeds management COM server DLL. There are three main classes, the first is the FeedManagerClass:
FeedManager provides methods to add, sync and delete feeds from the Feed folder, as well as maintenance items such as IsSubscribed. Next is the FeedFolderWatcher:
FeedFolderWatcher offers management of Downloading and monitoring the Feeds Folder, along with a rich set of events related to same. Finally, you have the FeedWatcherClass:
FeedWatcher handles granular tasks / events such as the status of a downloading feed, the FeedItemCount and error handling.
With a .NET class library wrapping these COM methods/ delegates / interfaces, developers should be able to build neat "Add on" applications that use and work with the same infrastructure that Internet Explorer 7.0 uses.
BTW, you can find the feed management folders here:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds\<subfolderName>
Your feeds themselves are actually stored in this folder (and any subfolders you've created, such as "subscriptions") in an "Mostly Text" proprietary format. Updating information is stored as cookies.
UPDATE: This API is documented here, so it's not as "hacky as I originally indicated.
Running Both IE 7.0 and IE 6.0?
There are a lot of hacks, but let me present mine, which is so incredibly easy, you'll wonder why you didn't think of it:
In your Windows folder, there should be an unistall folder for the IE 6.0 you had. It will look something like "C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallie7bet2p$"
Make a shortcut to the IExplore.exe executable in that folder, and you are done!
Does IE 7.0 Beta break ClickOnce?
I've noticed after installing IE 7.0 Beta that it cannot handle HTTP ClickOnce deployments. The Publish.htm page loads fine, but both the Launch and the Install options fail miserably. Anybody else notice this?
This is on the local machine of course -- it worked great with IE 6.0.
Blocks AdSense Ads with default Security Settings?
That's another little issue I'm not sure I am happy with. IE 7.0 with the default security settings appears to SILENTLY BLOCK all google adsense ads, until the user puts
pagead2.googlesyndication.com
into their trusted sites list. Hmmm...
Private Researcher Finds DOS Hole in IE 7.0 Beta minutes after Installation
This EWeek article explains all.
IMPORTANT! App Pools and ASP.NET 1.1 Vs 2.0
I was just reminded by Julie Lerman that when you install ASP.NET 2.0 on IIS 6.0, ensure that your 1.1 Apps and your 2.0 apps run in separate App Pools. Not doing so can result in unusual BTH (Bad Thing Happened) behavior that is extremely difficult to diagnose.
FINAL NOTE: 2/8/2006: Bye Bye IE 7.0 Beta 2!
This thing has nice features and all, but there is just too much interference with Visual Studio.NET 2005. So, off it goes. Keep up the good work, IE team. Just let me know when you are done and it is REALLY ready for production. And just to add insult to injury, now that I've uninstalled IE 7.0 and rolled back to IE 6.0, my ClickOnce deployments on this machine ARE STILL BROKEN!
Are you sure the google thing is a problem. I ran with the default beta 2 settings and did not see this as an issue.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is (I believe) that IE 7.0 imports your current security settings on installation. I am not sure if it does it all exactly the same, since IE 7.0 has a somewhat different security model.
ReplyDeleteCan you run both IE 6.0 and 7.0 simultanously??
ReplyDelete