Multiple WebBrowser controls with multiple Excel files

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JLB - 18 Sep 2006 18:09 GMT

I'm writing an MDI app in VS2005 to interop with Excel 2000. I want to
provide the user with the ability to view and interact with multiple excel
files, each being displayed in its own child window/WebBrowser control. The
problem I am having is that when the second excel file is opened in its
respective window/WebBrowser, the window for the first excel file seems to
lose association to the excel application, and strange things start to happen
(for instance, clicking on a worksheet tab causes the sheet to be deleted,
cannot select a cell or enter data).

Is what I want to do possible?

Thanks in advance.

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jpl - 19 Sep 2006 05:28 GMT

Hi,

I don't know about Excel 2000. But I know it's not possible for Excel 2002
and 2003. My guess is it won't work for 2000 either.

Regards,

Signature

- jpl -

> I'm writing an MDI app in VS2005 to interop with Excel 2000. I want to
> provide the user with the ability to view and interact with multiple excel
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Thanks in advance.

Reply to this Message

JLB - 19 Sep 2006 13:14 GMT

Can you (or anyone else) explain why it won't work?

Thanks,

JLB

> Hi,
>
> I don't know about Excel 2000. But I know it's not possible for Excel 2002
> and 2003. My guess is it won't work for 2000 either.
>
> Regards,

Reply to this Message

jpl - 21 Sep 2006 01:53 GMT

I don't know what happening internally. I can only speculate. There can only
be a single Excel object embedding (OLE) active or visible to Excel in your
application at a time. When I say "visible to" Excel, I mean "assign to"
Excel. When a new Excel OLE is created, the reference to the previous one
from Excel is replaced and no longer there to reconnect. This is what you
start seeing strange things on the first excel ole. Based on this behaviour,
I suggest you work with this limitation instead of fighting again it. You can
still achieve what you want if you are willing to modity your design.

What you need to do is to delete the excel ole and recreate it when user
switch back from other window. It's ugly but it works. If you have a lot of
excel ole windows that need to jump back and forth, you might want to
consider other architecture options.

Signature

- jpl -

> Can you (or anyone else) explain why it won't work?
>
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> >
> > Regards,

Reply to this Message

JLB - 21 Sep 2006 13:33 GMT

Thanks for your reply, jpl.

Your explanation is certainly what I have been suspecting, but what I don't
understand is that Internet Explorer does not behave in the way you and I are
seeing the WebBrowser control behave. You can open multiple excel files in
multiple IE windows and switch between them with no problems. The active IE
window seems to pull the Excel "focus" to it. You can even double-click
*.xls files and they will open in the actual Excel Application (using the
same instance as the 2 IE displayed files), another impossiblity when using
the WebBrowser ctrl. This tells me that the code under the WebBrowser
control is not exactly the same code that IE uses; it may be a part of it,
but it is not all of it.

(As a side note, WebBrowser does not have the same problem with Word files.)

As for your suggested workaround, you took the thoughts right out of my
head. I'm too pressed for time to consider a redesign, so hopefully the
users won't mind the ugliness that will ensue...

Regards.

> I don't know what happening internally. I can only speculate. There can only
> be a single Excel object embedding (OLE) active or visible to Excel in your
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> > >
> > > Regards,

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Multiple WebBrowser controls with multiple Excel files

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