How to insert a control built with Interop Forms Toolkit in Excel

Question

Hi,

I created a control with the Interop Forms Toolkit and I can insert the control in a worksheet by these 2 ways:

• The developper toolbar insert an activex control
• With a macro

Now, I want to insert the control, but from an addin CommandBarButton built with VSTO.

It throws an exception with code 0x800A03EC and a message saying unable to insert an object.

Technical informations : I'm using VSTO 2005 SE with VS2005 .Net Framework 2.0 for the addin. The control is built using Interop Forms Toolkit 2.1 in VS2008 .Net Framework 2.0.

I tried the same code to insert my control and a label. The label works, my control doesn't:

void buttonAddin2_Click(...) {
	try{
		Excel.Worksheet sheet = (Excel.Worksheet)Application.ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet;
		sheet.Shapes.AddOLEObject("Forms.Label.1", missing, false, false, missing, missing, missing, 50,50,100,100);
	}
	catch (Exception exc) {
		MessageBox.Shox(exc.ToString());
	}
}

I think I'm missing something, but the error message is not very helpful.

Why it is possible to add my control in Excel via "standard" ways, but not via my addin ? How can I make my addin able to insert my control ? Do I have to update the control ? Is there something to change in the addin to allow it to insert my control ?

And if there is no answer about it, is there any way to get more details about the errors ?

Many thanks,

Julien

Answer 1

Hi,

I've tried another approaches

- I tried to create a macro at runtime, then execute it to insert my control. It doesn't work...

- The addin is an Excel Addin based on VSTO template. So I tried another approach: building an addin based on Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2 interface (a COM Addin) instead of the other one. Now it works ! I've used exactly the same code... it works using the AddOLEObject or executing the macro...

Does anybody have an explanation of this behaviour?

I'm new in extending Office applications and I don't understand why it works when I create a COM Addin based on Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2, and it doesn't using the Excel addin template coming with VSTO ?

What are the key differences between these 2 kind of extensions ?

Thanks,
Julien