Word Development Mixed Office Environment

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Joel Rumerman - 21 Jun 2004 20:05 GMT

Hi!

I'm trying to develop some MS Word automation from within a VB.NET WinForm
application. My user base has either Office XP or Office 2003 installed. I
currently have Office 2003 installed. Two questions:

1. Is it possible for me to develop against the COM V10 without installing
Office XP? (Can 2003 and XP be installed side-by-side?)

2. If I develop against the Office XP COM V10, will my Office 2003 users be
okay? Are the COM Components backwards compatible?

Thx, Joel

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"Peter Huang" - 22 Jun 2004 06:33 GMT

Hi Joel,

As we know that Office XP and Office 2003 all have a set of PIAs, which can
not be replaced with each other. i.e. we can use one version PIA with
another version of office product. So if we wants to develop an office
application to run both on office xp and office 2003 we need to develop the
application on an machine office xp and office xp PIA. Because the office
COM library is backwards compatible, so the lower version application can
run on the machine with high version, but we can not guarantee the behavior
if we do that in the reverse order.

In all, if you wants your application to run on both office xp and office
2003, I think we would better develop on the machine with office xp and
office xp PIA. Or we can just use latebinding, which we do not need to use
the PIA. But the approach is less efficient.
e.g.
private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    Type t = System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Excel.Application");
    Object o = Activator.CreateInstance(t);
    t.InvokeMember("Visible",BindingFlags.SetProperty,null,o,new
object[]{true});
}

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Joel Rumerman - 22 Jun 2004 17:21 GMT

Peter,

Thanks for the clarification. We realized we probably could develop on
Office XP and have the backwards compatibility of COM Libraries handle
Office 2003 requests, but we had not thought of late-binding. It's just been
so long since I've done it!! We're actually going to take the late-binding
approach because I've already used intellisense to develop the code using
the 2003 PIA and all I have to do now is switch over the object creation
code. Also, the one or two machines that are running Office 2000 will most
likely work too!

Thanks for the help.

-Joel

> Hi Joel,
>
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"Peter Huang" - 23 Jun 2004 02:56 GMT

Hi Joel,

I think you may take a look at the links as below for reference about
late-binding.
INFO: Writing Automation Clients for Multiple Office Versions
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;244167

INFO: Using Early Binding and Late Binding in Automation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;245115

HOW TO: Binding for Office Automation Servers with Visual C# .NET
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;302902

INFO: Develop Microsoft Office Solutions with Visual Studio .NET
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;311452

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Joel Rumerman - 23 Jun 2004 19:15 GMT

Thanks for the links.

I've got the code working using Objects and the CreateObject method (Dim
wordApp as Object = CreateObject("Word.Application")), but I'm attempting to
use the InvokeMember method and I'm struggling with the syntax. Can you
help?

Here's what I have so far.

Dim appType As System.Type =
System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Word.Application")
Dim docType As System.Type = System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Word.Document")

Dim wordApp As Object = Activator.CreateInstance(appType)

Dim docs As Object = appType.InvokeMember("Documents",
BindingFlags.GetProperty, Nothing, wordApp, Nothing)

Dim aDoc As Object = docs.GetType.InvokeMember("Add",
BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, Nothing, docs, New Object() {"C:\Program
Files\Common Files\R&D Cold Storage\RDLabelTemplate.dot", False, 0, True})

appType.InvokeMember("Visible", BindingFlags.SetProperty, Nothing, wordApp,
New Object() {True})

docType.InvokeMember("Activate", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, Nothing, aDoc,
Nothing)

'IT WORKS FINE UP TO HERE. It creates the document using the DOT and
activates it.

Dim tables As Object = aDoc.GetType.InvokeMember("Tables",
BindingFlags.GetProperty, Nothing, aDoc, Nothing)

Dim table As Object = tables.GetType.InvokeMember("Item",
BindingFlags.GetProperty Or BindingFlags.Instance, Nothing, tables, New
Object() {1})

Dim rows As Object = table.GetType.InvokeMember("Rows",
BindingFlags.GetProperty, Nothing, table, Nothing)

.
.
It seems that the aDoc.GetType.InvokeMember("Tables...) doesn't work
properly. There isn't a Word.Tables object and I'm stuck as to why it won't
retrive the property correctly. What am I doing wrong? If I code ...

Dim tables as Object = aDoc.Tables(1) or

Dim tables as Object = aDoc.tables.Item(1)

that works okay, but is there a way to use InvokeMember??

Thanks so much!

-Joel

> Hi Joel,
>
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"Peter Huang" - 24 Jun 2004 03:30 GMT

Hi Joel,

I think you may try the code below.
Dim tbls As Object = docType.InvokeMember("Tables",
BindingFlags.GetProperty, Nothing, aDoc, Nothing)
Dim table As Object = tbls.GetType().InvokeMember("Item",
BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, Nothing, tbls, New Object() {1})
Dim rows As Object = table.GetType.InvokeMember("Rows",
BindingFlags.GetProperty, Nothing, table, Nothing)
Dim ct As Integer = CType(rows.GetType().InvokeMember("Count",
BindingFlags.GetProperty, Nothing, rows, Nothing), Integer)
Console.WriteLine(ct)

The Item should be a method of the Tables object.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Joel Rumerman - 24 Jun 2004 22:30 GMT

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the code. I had used "GetProperty" instead of "InvokeMethod" as
the binding flag on the Item. How can you tell which one to use? I brought
my Word COM library into VS.NET and took a look at the Object Library and it
said that Item was the default property of Tables. I'm assuming that is the
case only for the TLB .NET uses to access the COM object. So how do I find
out which methods are methods, properties, etc?

I've gotten the code I wanted to use reflection for working correctly. If
you know, what are the performance gains / hits of using reflection (i.e.
InvokeMember) vs. using the Dim wordApp as Object =
CreateObject("Word.Application") and working with the object as you would if
you had intellisense and all that information?

Thanks for all your help so far. This is my first time using reflection on a
COM object so it's taking me some time to get used to it.

-Joel

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>
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"Peter Huang" - 25 Jun 2004 07:12 GMT

Hi Joel,

I think what you observe in the Object Viewer should be the
"Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word", which is an .net wrap assembly for the
Word COM library.
So it has wrap the item as the property, if you use the early binding, i.e.
not use the createobject or invokemember, while use the intellisense
directly, you will go this way.
But if we wants to use the late binding ,we need to go the com library way
directly.

you may take a look at the word vba helper, we will find that the item
should be method of the tables.
You may search tables in the help file below.
The help file is usually located in the path below.
c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\1033\VBAWD10.CHM

As for the Latebinding, we had memtion two methods, use the createinstance
or createobject?
In .NET framework, the two approaches are go the same way, at last, they
both will call the reflection code as we do. Why we can use the
CreateObject in VB.NET is because we need to make the vb.net compatible
with the syntax with VB6, so that the code migration will be easier. i.e.
the Createobject will call the CreateInstance in the .net framework
reflection implementation. So I think there will no large performance hit,
and it seems that use the Createobject approach will be more convenient am
I right?

If we use the intellisense, i.e. do not use the latebinding and reflection,
and add reference to the com library, the performance will be more better.
You may refer to the article I provide in the last reply about latebinding
and earlybinding.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Joel Rumerman - 25 Jun 2004 17:16 GMT

Hi Peter,

I figured that what I was viewing in the Object Viewer was .NET's wrapper
for the COM Object. It would be nice if the Object Viewer gave a direct link
out to the COM Viewer tool that came with VB6, however.

I will say that CreateObject was an easier implementation than the
InvokeMember, but because CreateObject is only there to help migration from
VB6 to VB.NET, I was hesitant to use it. I'm not migrating this application
from VB6 - VB.NET so why use a hack that was put in place to help it? I also
wanted to learn more about Reflection.

Again, the reason I need to use late-binding is because I'm not sure which
version of Office, XP or 2003 I'll be deploying the application against. I
have 2003 installed and to use the .NET wrapper assemblies for Office XP I
would have to reinstall Office XP which is something I'm trying to avoid.
The use of late-binding allowed me to avoid this.

Thanks for all your help. You've been a great resource.

Regards, Joel

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>
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"Peter Huang" - 28 Jun 2004 02:34 GMT

Hi Joel,

I think we can customized the Object Browser in the vs.net by following the
steps below.
1. In the Object Browser, click Customized and then select Add
2. In the component selector dialog, click the COM tab and select the Word
COM library and click OK
3. And now we can browse the Word COM library in the VS.NET IDE Object
Browser.

Also the why the VB.NET using the CreateObject like syntax, one purpose is
to help migrate vb6 application to vb.net application, the other one is to
keep the syntax consistent with VB6, so that the VB users do not need to
make many changes about their programming approach and habits. The .NET
framework's goad is to provide the programmer using different language with
the unified framework, that is to say, even if you are using VB.NET, C#, J#
or what ever, you can keep using your original programming language, so
that we do not need to learn the new syntax.

Use the latebinding will avoid the version issue, but we still need to pay
attention to the problem that the feature in the Office 2003 may not work
in the office xp because of the COM library's back-compatibility.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Joel Rumerman - 28 Jun 2004 17:16 GMT

Peter,

Thanks. Adding the COM library to the Object Browser proves to be extremely
helpful. Although I'm interacting with the Word 11 object in a seemingly
simple way (I'm just building a table on the fly), you are correct in that
because I'm programming against Word 11 I will need to install the
application to a machine running Office XP and run a thorough test of the
code.

-Joel

> Hi Joel,
>
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Rajiv R - 23 Jun 2004 05:44 GMT

Hi,

Is it possible to develop with OfficeXP PIAs without installing OfficeXP on
the development machine?

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Cheers!
Rajiv. R
Rajspace.Org

> Peter,
>
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Joel Rumerman - 23 Jun 2004 18:35 GMT

I don't believe so because the Office XP PIAs are just the type libraries
for the COM Components. You may be able to program with just the PIAs, but
during compiliation or JIT compiliation it would throw errors saying it
can't find the necessary COM components.

-Joel

> Hi,
>
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> > > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
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