Opening a .XFDL file in a webbrowser

Question

I'm trying to open a .XFDL document in a webbrowser using visual basic.  The file is in My.Resources, so I've had to convert it in order to open. The problem when I debug is that is displays in the browser as near endless code that I don't understand. Here is my code that works with .pdf files that I'm trying here: (A2_1 is the .xfdl file).

 

Public Class DAForms
    Private PDFDocument As String
    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        AxWebBrowser1.Visible = True
        PDFDocument = System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName
        Dim s As System.IO.FileStream = System.IO.File.OpenWrite(PDFDocument)
        Dim bw As New IO.BinaryWriter(s)

        bw.Write(My.Resources.A2_1)
        bw.Close()

        AxWebBrowser1.Navigate2(PDFDocument)
    End Sub
End Class

 Thanks for your time!

Dustin

Answer 1

A webbrowser is nothing more than reusing the inbuild IE in the OS.

So if you have this kind of problems, try it first in IE, the results will be the same.

 

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Success
Cor

Answer 2

I thought the same thing, but it works well opening it with Internet explorer...

Answer 3

Did you ever get your answer to this?

I am betting its because you are trying to open it from disk -

XFDL isnt natively supported by browsers (that I know of) but by specific clients - the most uobiquitous is Lotus Forms Viewer.

What happens if you manually save it to disk and then double click it... does it open in a viewer? If so, you should be able to openit programatically via a ProcessStart -

PDFDocument = Path.ChangeExtension(Path.GetTempFileName(), "xfdl")
File.WriteAllBytes(PDFDocument, My.Resources.A2_1)
Process.Start(PDFDocument)

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Answer 4

@Blair, Nice to hear from you again man! I have not gotten an answer, but I will definitely try this. My focus has shifted to trying to use visual studio to create a website. Actually, do you have any knowledge in the area? (using visual studio to create an .asp.net website) Or do you have any suggestions as to where I should begin?

I'll post a reply to the question above when I try it out! Thanks again!

Answer 5

If you need lotus forms viewer, you can download v3.5.1 here:

http://www.e-publishing.af.mil/shared/media/epubs/resource/Viewer_DSig_3.5.1.333.exe

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gimme some slamming techno!!!!