External application with web UI

[balintTX9QH]

Hello!

I would like to create an External application which opens a dialog and do some stuff after it. My dialog would be a WebView or something like that. Is it possible? Could someone recommend a good example. Which direction is worth to follow? I search on Autodesk APP Store and found BimObject or ProdLib plugins, which have really nice UIs. Are they use WPF or some web framework?

[jeremytammik]

Does your question have anything whatsoever to do with the Revit API?

If so, would you care to explain what?

[BobbyC.Jones]

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@balintTX9QH wrote:

Could someone recommend a good example. 

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The DockableDialogs example in the SDK is WPF.  It's good in that it shows the various API's necessary to build an external app, but it was not designed to be a great WPF reference.

[jeremytammik]

I see some results seaching for 'revit api wpf sample':

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=revit+api+wpf+sample

Haven't checked them out in detail myself.

Some are shared by The Building Coder as well:

https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/wpf

It would indeed be great to have one single recommended best-practice starting point.

Have you checked out Ali Asad's suggestion?

https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2019/01/room-boundaries-to-csv-and-wpf-template.html#3

This StackOverflow thread discusses how to create one starting with the DockableDialogs SDK sample:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40096793/best-starting-point-for-wpf-revit-add-in

Cheers,

Jeremy

[balintTX9QH]

Hello Jeremy.

Thank you for your reply.

Yes. Because I would like to start an ifc export process with revit API, then upload the created model to my server. It needs a quite nice UI. Have you checked the example plugins? BIMObject and Prodlibs. Do you think they develop UI with WPF? I suspect some web framework or something like that.

[balintTX9QH]

Hello Guys!

I hope I find the solution. With DotNetBrowser I can integrate a Chromium-based browser into Revit app. I tried it and it works fine.

https://www.teamdev.com/dotnetbrowser

If anyone has experience with using this, please share. Thank you for your previous replies.

Cheers, Balint

[jeremytammik]

Thank you for sharing your solution!

I shared it and out discussion for posterity here:

https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2019/09/ui-top-forms-buttons-web-etc.html#4

So you are using a commercial component?

That is obviously simpler than the recent similar non-commercial DIY approach using CefSharp:

https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2019/04/set-floor-level-and-use-ipc-for-disentanglement.ht...

[balintTX9QH]

Hello Jeremy.

I am going to use DotNetBrowser commercial component instead of CefSharp open source. I have tried CefSharp but unfortunately I ran into a frequent problem, that CefSharp.Core.dll could not be loaded. That means one of the components is missing. I had no time to investigate where the exact problem is. For me DotNetBrowser is more clear and well documented. They have really good examples and quite good interaction with JavaScript.

I think it would be really helpful for other developers to share a complete solution about this topic. Maybe a correct solution for CefSharp also would be useful. If you think I will be happy to share my experiences.

Cheers,

Balint

[jeremytammik]

Dear Balint,

I totally understand your choice.

Yes, I think a small working sample snippet showing how you use it might be interesting for all.

The thread I pointed out above does explain how ton solve the problem you describe with CefSharp. Sample solution source code is provided.

Cheers,

Jeremy