DEV390

Extending Word and Excel with Visual Studio Tools for Office

Ken GetzSenior ConsultantMCW Technologies, LLC

Me.About

Senior Consultant with MCW Technologies, LLC

Microsoft Regional Director, SoCal

Technical editor for Access-VB-SQL Advisor (www.advisor.com)

Author of several developer’s books on ASP.NET, VB, Access, and VBA

ASP.NET, VB.NET, ADO.NET, VB6 and Access video training for AppDev (www.appdev.com)

www.mcwtech.comwww.developershandbook.com

Agenda

Review Visual Studio Tools for Office

Calling a Web Service

Word and SQL Server

Creating an Excel Chart

Working with Menus

Using Office Controls

Language Issues

Simple Deployment Issues

Visual Studio Tools for Office

Extends .NET development to Microsoft Office 2003

Facilitates smart client application development with Office 2003 and the .NET Framework

Visual Studio Tools for Office

Developers using VS .NET 2003 can write code to run in reaction to Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Excel 2003 events

Use Visual Basic .NET or Visual C# .NET

Code can run in Word and Excel

Not a replacement for VBA

Existing event code in VBA?Order of event handling with managed code non-deterministic

Call a Web Service

Suppose you have a Web service that returns a DataSet

Need to display data in Excel

No simple solution for working with DataSet in Excel

Can easily retrieve and display data using Visual Studio Tools

Demo

Set Up the Demo

Create new Excel projectAdd Web Reference

http://www.mcwtech.com/NorthwindData/Products.asmx

Rename to NorthwindData

Retrieve list of average salesFill range with results

Format range

Notice Imports statement

Demo

Excel Objects

ThisApplication, ThisWorkbook

Excel.RangeOffset

CurrentRegion

AutoFormat

Font

Columns

Note use of enumerationsIntellisense doesn’t do the job

How Does It Work?

Developer creates assembly, sets document properties, perhaps deploys assembly to centralized location

End user opens documentOffice uses document properties to locate and download assembly

.NET security verifies assembly is OK to run

Code Loading Process

User opensdocument

CustomProps?

Trusteddoc?

Trustedcode?

New / Openevent fires

No

STOP

No

STOP

STOP

Downloadassembly

No

UnloadAppDomain

Fail

Hook upevents

Yes

Fail

Yes

CreateAppDomain Fail

Load CLRYes

Fail

Word and SQL Server

Create new Word project

Add Web Reference

Create TableAdd data to cells within table

Demo

Word Objects

ThisApplication, ThisDocument

Word.RangeInsertBefore, InsertParagraphAfter

Font

Word.TableCell

Creating Excel Chart

Chart object in Excel completely programmable

Can embed on existing sheet, or can create separate Chart sheet

Worksheet and Chart both inherit from Sheet base class

Cast Sheet object as correct type as needed

Example creates chart on new sheet

Creating a Chart

Create new chart (on its own sheet)

Use Excel macro recorder to create codeSometimes it’s just easier!

Requires cleanup and modification

Add code to reset workbookSo you can run the demo more than once

Demo

Working with Menus

Office CommandBar object model required

Somewhat obtuse

Collection of menu controls of various types

Must know name of top-level menuUse tools within application to find this

Wouldn’t it be better to run sample code from menu, rather than on open?

Creating Menus

Retrieve reference to top-level menu

Call Controls.Add method to add new CommandBarControl

Cast as CommandBarPopup

Call Controls.Add method to add CommandBarButton

Must remove the menu when workbook closes

Hook up Click event somehow Demo

Using Office Controls

Add COM reference to MS Forms 2.0Watch out for multiple instances in registry

Select first reference

Import Microsoft.Vbe.Interop.Forms or MSForms

Depending on which instance you select

Call FindControl method (provided by template) to retrieve reference

Hook up event handler Demo

Dialect Dyslexia

Normally, language doesn’t matterVisual Basic .NET is easier in this context

C# developers at a slight disadvantage

Problem areas:Parameterized properties

Optional parameters

Passing parameters (Word likes ref)

Variant members

Late binding

Parameterized Properties

If a property accepts a parameterAnd the parameter isn’t an indexer

C# can’t handle it

PIAs provide accessor methods, instead:Offset becomes get_Offset

Range becomes get_Range

Value property in Excel accepts parameter

C# developers can use Value2 property

Parameterized Properties

' Visual Basicrng.Offset(0, col).Value = _ dt.Columns(col).ColumnName

// C#rng.get_Offset(0, col).Value2 = dt.Columns[col].ColumnName;

Optional Parameters

VBA (and VB.NET) support optional parameters

Must be at the end of the parameter list

C# does not, so must include all parameters

Can pass Type.Missing to indicate missing value

Some methods have a large number of optional parameters (up to 30 or more!)

Optional Parameters' Visual Basicrng.AutoFormat( _ Excel.XlRangeAutoFormat. _ xlRangeAutoFormatColor2)

// C#rng.AutoFormat( _ Excel.XlRangeAutoFormat. _ xlRangeAutoFormatColor2, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);

Passing Parameters

Most of Word’s methods require parameters passed by reference

VBA and VB.NET make this transparent

C# requires the ref keywordNo literal values!

Passing Parameters

' Visual BasicThisDocument.Range.Delete()

// C#Object start = Type.Missing;Object end = Type.Missing;Object unit = Type.Missing;Object count = Type.Missing;ThisDocument.Range(ref start, ref end). Delete(ref unit, ref count);

Variant Members

Some (not many) Word and Excel properties return/accept Variant values

C# can’t handle VariantsLook for accessor methods, or replacement properties

Variant Members

' Visual Basictbl.Style = "Table Grid 8"

// C#Object style = "Table Grid 8";tbl.set_Style(ref style);

Late Binding

Word dialogs use late binding (“expando interfaces”) to determine members at runtime

C# can’t support late binding

Workarounds include using Reflection to determine available members, or using the Visual Basic .NET CallByName method

No example in this demo

Doesn’t come up often

Deployment Issues

Generally a simple processNeed to be aware of security issues

Policies control behavior

See separate discussion of deployment and security

What about simply handing a document and its assembly to another developer?

Even that requires some knowledge

Debugging and Paths

Need to ensure that path to Excel or Word has been set correctly

Watch for path locationsCheck Project Properties|Configuration Properties|Debugging

Fix path to host application

Finding the Documents

Properties window for projectAssembly Link Location

Office Document

Class Names Can Kill

What if you change the default namespace for your project?

Or the default class name?

Your code won’t run

See DescriptionAttribute in class

<Assembly: DescriptionAttribute( _ "OfficeStartupClass, Version=1.0, " & _ "Class=ExcelProject1.OfficeCodeBehind")>

Loading the Assembly

Creating the project adds two document properties to the Office doc

_AssemblyLocation0

_AssemblyName0

These must match reality

And That’s Still Not Enough

It’s managed codeWon’t run unless you grant permissions

Visual Studio .NET sets up permissions for project in its original folder

What if you move the project?Or hand the project to another developer?

What if you want to run this session’s samples?

Create a Policy

Add a code access groupCreate a new policy?

Easiest, for development purposes, to allow all code within a folder to run

Specify c:\path\* as the location

Specify “FullTrust”

This isn’t a good idea on users’ machinesWorks fine for development

But Wait, There’s More!

Just barely scratched the surface

Word/Excel object models are hugeProvide a ton of useful functionality

Language issues?C# users will want to create “wrapper” classes

What about no-touch deployment?Granting permissions for download code?

Requires an entire separate session

Next StepsNext StepsGet Visual Studio Tools for Office

msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/office

Install Visual Studio .NET 2003 and then full installation of Office 2003

Try out some of the walkthroughs/demos

Take existing Office automation code and try recreating in managed code

Community ResourcesCommunity ResourcesWhite papers:

Visual Studio Tools for Office: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_vsto2003_ta/html/VSTOIntro.asp?frame=true

Introduction to the Word Object Model: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_vsto2003_ta/html/WordObject.asp?frame=true

Introduction to the Excel Object Model: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_vsto2003_ta/html/ExcelObj.asp?frame=true

Ask The ExpertsGet Your Questions Answered

Stop by Ask the Experts area16:00 to 17:00, Wednesday

Community Resources

Community Resourceshttp://www.microsoft.com/communities/default.mspx

Most Valuable Professional (MVP)http://www.mvp.support.microsoft.com/

NewsgroupsConverse online with Microsoft Newsgroups, including Worldwidehttp://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx

User GroupsMeet and learn with your peershttp://www.microsoft.com/communities/usergroups/default.mspx

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© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.This presentation is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.This presentation is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.