Creating an Excel Automation Add-In using C#

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Emmanuel - 02 Dec 2004 13:13 GMT

Hi,

Does anyone know where can I find documentation on how to create an Excel
automation add-in ?

Attention: I am talking about an Excel Automation add-in and not a standard
COM Add-In.
I want to be able to create my own Excel functions that are served by my
.NET dll.

The only thing I have found so far is an article at
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/excelnetauto.asp

Please help

Thanks

Emmanuel

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Paul Clement - 02 Dec 2004 15:08 GMT

¤ Hi,
¤
¤ Does anyone know where can I find documentation on how to create an Excel
¤ automation add-in ?
¤
¤ Attention: I am talking about an Excel Automation add-in and not a standard
¤ COM Add-In.
¤ I want to be able to create my own Excel functions that are served by my
¤ .NET dll.
¤
¤ The only thing I have found so far is an article at
¤ http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/excelnetauto.asp
¤
¤ Please help

Did you check out the Microsoft KB article listed:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q285337/

Paul ~~~ pclement@ameritech.net
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

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Emmanuel - 02 Dec 2004 15:50 GMT

Hi Paul,

Thanks but I have already checked this article.

This article does not use .NET and I do not consider it as
documentation on how to create an automation add-in in Excel using C#
or even .NET Framework in general.

There are many questions involved such as:

Q1. If I want to create a function say: add(double x, double y) that
returns
the sum of x and y, which is the right way to create the function ?
If the fuction is created like that:
public double Add( double x, double y )
{
return x + y;
}
it does work for "=Add(1,2)" but NOT for "=Add(A1,A5)".
I discovered by myself how to achive this but without documentation.

Q2. If the data supplied by my application change, how can I force Excel to
recalculate all my add-in functions. F9 does not work. The only way I
have found so far is to select the cell that has the function, then
press F2
then press ENTER.

Q3. For some strange reason when I select the Add-in functions from
Tools->Add-In->Automation... (Excel 2003) I get the message
"Cannot find add-in 'mscoree.dll'. Delete from the list?" If I answer
No the function seem to work OK.

Anyway I think that some documentation would clear up some issues.

Thank you

Emmanuel

First of all it is

> ? Hi,
> ?
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> Paul ~~~ pclement@ameritech.net
> Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

Reply to this Message

Paul Clement - 02 Dec 2004 20:13 GMT

¤ Hi Paul,
¤
¤ Thanks but I have already checked this article.
¤
¤ This article does not use .NET and I do not consider it as
¤ documentation on how to create an automation add-in in Excel using C#
¤ or even .NET Framework in general.
¤
¤ There are many questions involved such as:
¤
¤ Q1. If I want to create a function say: add(double x, double y) that
¤ returns
¤ the sum of x and y, which is the right way to create the function ?
¤ If the fuction is created like that:
¤ public double Add( double x, double y )
¤ {
¤ return x + y;
¤ }
¤ it does work for "=Add(1,2)" but NOT for "=Add(A1,A5)".
¤ I discovered by myself how to achive this but without documentation.
¤
¤ Q2. If the data supplied by my application change, how can I force Excel to
¤ recalculate all my add-in functions. F9 does not work. The only way I
¤ have found so far is to select the cell that has the function, then
¤ press F2
¤ then press ENTER.
¤
¤ Q3. For some strange reason when I select the Add-in functions from
¤ Tools->Add-In->Automation... (Excel 2003) I get the message
¤ "Cannot find add-in 'mscoree.dll'. Delete from the list?" If I answer
¤ No the function seem to work OK.
¤
¤ Anyway I think that some documentation would clear up some issues.
¤

Actually I posted the wrong KB article. I was looking at the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302896
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302901

However, this article probably does not address your questions and I haven't seen any more
comprehensive documentation.

Paul ~~~ pclement@ameritech.net
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

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Emmanuel - 02 Dec 2004 21:11 GMT

Paul,

As I have already stated I am not interested in COM Add-in documentation
for dotnet but for documentation for Excel Automation Add-in which is a
different thing.

Thanks for the try.

Anyone else ?

Can anyone answer my questions ?

Please help

Emmanuel

> ? Hi Paul,
> ?
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
> Paul ~~~ pclement@ameritech.net
> Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

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"Peter Huang" [MSFT] - 03 Dec 2004 05:59 GMT

From: v-phuang@online.microsoft.com ("Peter Huang" [MSFT])
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 03:47:28 GMT
Subject: Re: Creating an Excel Automation Add-In using C#
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.interop

Hi

Comments in line.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Signature

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------

>From: "Emmanuel" <Emmanuel@newsgroup.nospam>
>References: <uJ5fFEH2EHA.4028@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl>

<osbuq0dga3igl12rth4is66la9bn6o4sa5@4ax.com>

>Subject: Re: Creating an Excel Automation Add-In using C#
>Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 17:50:22 +0200
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>NNTP-Posting-Host: mail.tricom.gr 83.235.219.178
>Path:

cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTFEED02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP08.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP12
phx.gbl

>Xref: cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.interop:27962
>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.interop
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> it does work for "=Add(1,2)" but NOT for "=Add(A1,A5)".
> I discovered by myself how to achive this but without documentation.

I can not reproduce the problem, the =Add(A1,A5)" or =Add(1,2) will both
work.
Based on my test with samples below.
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/excelnetauto.asp
or
http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_carter/archive/2004/12/01/273127.aspx

You may have a try on another machine to see if that works.

>Q2. If the data supplied by my application change, how can I force Excel to
> recalculate all my add-in functions. F9 does not work. The only way I
> have found so far is to select the cell that has the function, then
>press F2
> then press ENTER.

This may be caused that you did not turn on the Excel automatic calculation
option.
You may navigate to Tools/Options/Calculation
in the Calculation section, please check the Automatic, so that the formula
will be re-calculated automatically.

>Q3. For some strange reason when I select the Add-in functions from
> Tools->Add-In->Automation... (Excel 2003) I get the message
> "Cannot find add-in 'mscoree.dll'. Delete from the list?" If I answer
> No the function seem to work OK.

You may try take a look at the linke below.
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/excelnetauto.asp?df=100&forumid=78701&sele
ct=896559#xx896559xx

Find the "Unable to find mscoree.dll"
=====
When I ran this I received the error "Unable to find mscoree.dll". I did
some research and discovered that some applications are unable to find it
when the full path is not specified in the registry.

To fix this we need to add the following to the end of the RegisterFunction
method:

Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey key =
Microsoft.Win32.Registry.ClassesRoot.CreateSubKey(
"CLSID\\{" + t.GUID.ToString().ToUpper() +
"}\\InprocServer32");
key.SetValue("", @"C:\Windows\System32\mscoree.dll");
======

>Anyway I think that some documentation would clear up some issues.
>
>Thank you
>
>Emmanuel

Reply to this Message

"Peter Huang" [MSFT] - 03 Dec 2004 03:47 GMT

Hi

Comments in line.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Signature

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------

>From: "Emmanuel" <Emmanuel@newsgroup.nospam>
>References: <uJ5fFEH2EHA.4028@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl>

<osbuq0dga3igl12rth4is66la9bn6o4sa5@4ax.com>

>Subject: Re: Creating an Excel Automation Add-In using C#
>Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 17:50:22 +0200
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>NNTP-Posting-Host: mail.tricom.gr 83.235.219.178
>Path:

cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTFEED02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP08.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP12
phx.gbl

This is caused by that factor that using the managed code as automation
Addin, we must use the mscoree.dll's help. while it did not expose the
function, so we just delete it.

>Anyway I think that some documentation would clear up some issues.
>
>Thank you
>
>Emmanuel

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Creating an Excel Automation Add-In using C#

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