Has anyone here tried customizing the formula builder to provide the user options (e.g. drop down menu) for possible parameter choices?
I have one generic function that takes a "code" as a parameter that tells the function what to compute. I could define a UDF per code, but it would explore pretty quickly (I have over 900 codes right now), so I'm trying to figure out how to assist the user in choosing the right codes through the formula wizard.
I have little bit similar situation; where I want to give Wizard to users where they will select input parameters and values for each of parameters. And this wizard will be available through one of the ExcelCommand which will invoke WinForm; where user can select their options and then that data will be pasted on current sheet. Which will become driver for calling ExcelFunctions... Similar to Bloomberg add in...
I just though of sharing this; I would appreciate if you guys share your experience and pros/cons of this approach
On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:22:19 AM UTC-4, Farhan Ahmed wrote:
> Has anyone here tried customizing the formula builder to provide the user > options (e.g. drop down menu) for possible parameter choices?
> I have one generic function that takes a "code" as a parameter that tells > the function what to compute. I could define a UDF per code, but it would > explore pretty quickly (I have over 900 codes right now), so I'm trying to > figure out how to assist the user in choosing the right codes through the > formula wizard.
Can you please share tips on how you accomplished this?
I'm specifically looking for guidance on how to create a customized UI for the user to enter the parameters. If I understand correctly, there are a few options:
1. Write UI code (using Windows.Forms) from within the ExcelDNA add-in.*Nikee - Is this what you are doing? * 2. Use VSTO to create a COM-addin that implements the UI (can use the designer from within VS, which is nice) and then have the Excel Addin talk to it somehow. *I am trying this strategy but am stuck trying to get the ExcelDNA add-in to talk to the VSTO add-in. Any guidance here?* 3. Use the Custom UI interfaces in ExcelDNA to do everything. Not sure how flexible this is
On Friday, June 29, 2012 12:15:01 PM UTC-5, Nikee wrote:
> I have little bit similar situation; where I want to give Wizard to users > where they will select input parameters and values for each of parameters. > And this wizard will be available through one of the ExcelCommand which > will invoke WinForm; where user can select their options and then that data > will be pasted on current sheet. Which will become driver for calling > ExcelFunctions... Similar to Bloomberg add in...
> I just though of sharing this; I would appreciate if you guys share your > experience and pros/cons of this approach
> On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:22:19 AM UTC-4, Farhan Ahmed wrote:
>> Has anyone here tried customizing the formula builder to provide the user >> options (e.g. drop down menu) for possible parameter choices?
>> I have one generic function that takes a "code" as a parameter that tells >> the function what to compute. I could define a UDF per code, but it would >> explore pretty quickly (I have over 900 codes right now), so I'm trying to >> figure out how to assist the user in choosing the right codes through the >> formula wizard.
Your plan 2. will be hard to make work. Mixing Excel-DNA and VSTO in
one add-in is not really possible.
However, you could certainly use the Windows Forms designer in Visual
Studio to create forms that you display from your Excel-DNA add-in,
either as a pop-up window or as part of a Custom Task Pane. So using
the designer would apply to your option 1 too.
Depending on the complexity of your function arguments, you could
probably make something on a Ribbon that does this too - some text
boxes and dropdowns and a button to insert the function. I have no
experience doing this myself.
There is another option I should mention again here - using the dialog
support in the C API. This is tricky to make work - I posted some
pointers in the earlier discussion here:
https://groups.google.com/group/exceldna/browse_frm/thread/296059b299... One advantage of the C API dialogs is that you get a refedit control
that allows the users to point to and select a sheet region, just like
the regular function wizard.
-Govert
On Jun 29, 10:37 pm, Farhan Ahmed <Far...@ycharts.com> wrote:
> Can you please share tips on how you accomplished this?
> I'm specifically looking for guidance on how to create a customized UI for
> the user to enter the parameters. If I understand correctly, there are a
> few options:
> 1. Write UI code (using Windows.Forms) from within the ExcelDNA add-in.*Nikee - Is this what you are doing?
> *
> 2. Use VSTO to create a COM-addin that implements the UI (can use the
> designer from within VS, which is nice) and then have the Excel Addin talk
> to it somehow. *I am trying this strategy but am stuck trying to get the
> ExcelDNA add-in to talk to the VSTO add-in. Any guidance here?*
> 3. Use the Custom UI interfaces in ExcelDNA to do everything. Not sure
> how flexible this is
> Any others I am missing?
> On Friday, June 29, 2012 12:15:01 PM UTC-5, Nikee wrote:
> > I have little bit similar situation; where I want to give Wizard to users
> > where they will select input parameters and values for each of parameters.
> > And this wizard will be available through one of the ExcelCommand which
> > will invoke WinForm; where user can select their options and then that data
> > will be pasted on current sheet. Which will become driver for calling
> > ExcelFunctions... Similar to Bloomberg add in...
> > I just though of sharing this; I would appreciate if you guys share your
> > experience and pros/cons of this approach
> > On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:22:19 AM UTC-4, Farhan Ahmed wrote:
> >> Has anyone here tried customizing the formula builder to provide the user
> >> options (e.g. drop down menu) for possible parameter choices?
> >> I have one generic function that takes a "code" as a parameter that tells
> >> the function what to compute. I could define a UDF per code, but it would
> >> explore pretty quickly (I have over 900 codes right now), so I'm trying to
> >> figure out how to assist the user in choosing the right codes through the
> >> formula wizard.
Regarding option (2), what if I have two add-ins (two DLLs) - one developed
in VSTO that implements the UI and provides interfaces to display the UI,
corresponding get/set functions etc. and the other developed using Excel
DNA that implements the UDF.
Would it be possible to invoke the VSTO add-in functions from the Excel DNA
add-in? Conversely, would it be possible to invoke the UDFs in the Excel
DNA add-in from the VSTO add-in?
Thanks,
Farhan
On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Govert van Drimmelen <gov...@icon.co.za>wrote:
> Your plan 2. will be hard to make work. Mixing Excel-DNA and VSTO in
> one add-in is not really possible.
> However, you could certainly use the Windows Forms designer in Visual
> Studio to create forms that you display from your Excel-DNA add-in,
> either as a pop-up window or as part of a Custom Task Pane. So using
> the designer would apply to your option 1 too.
> Depending on the complexity of your function arguments, you could
> probably make something on a Ribbon that does this too - some text
> boxes and dropdowns and a button to insert the function. I have no
> experience doing this myself.
> There is another option I should mention again here - using the dialog
> support in the C API. This is tricky to make work - I posted some
> pointers in the earlier discussion here:
> https://groups.google.com/group/exceldna/browse_frm/thread/296059b299... > One advantage of the C API dialogs is that you get a refedit control
> that allows the users to point to and select a sheet region, just like
> the regular function wizard.
> -Govert
> On Jun 29, 10:37 pm, Farhan Ahmed <Far...@ycharts.com> wrote:
> > Can you please share tips on how you accomplished this?
> > I'm specifically looking for guidance on how to create a customized UI
> for
> > the user to enter the parameters. If I understand correctly, there are a
> > few options:
> > 1. Write UI code (using Windows.Forms) from within the ExcelDNA
> add-in.*Nikee - Is this what you are doing?
> > *
> > 2. Use VSTO to create a COM-addin that implements the UI (can use the
> > designer from within VS, which is nice) and then have the Excel Addin
> talk
> > to it somehow. *I am trying this strategy but am stuck trying to get
> the
> > ExcelDNA add-in to talk to the VSTO add-in. Any guidance here?*
> > 3. Use the Custom UI interfaces in ExcelDNA to do everything. Not sure
> > how flexible this is
> > Any others I am missing?
> > On Friday, June 29, 2012 12:15:01 PM UTC-5, Nikee wrote:
> > > I have little bit similar situation; where I want to give Wizard to
> users
> > > where they will select input parameters and values for each of
> parameters.
> > > And this wizard will be available through one of the ExcelCommand which
> > > will invoke WinForm; where user can select their options and then that
> data
> > > will be pasted on current sheet. Which will become driver for calling
> > > ExcelFunctions... Similar to Bloomberg add in...
> > > I just though of sharing this; I would appreciate if you guys share
> your
> > > experience and pros/cons of this approach
> > > On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:22:19 AM UTC-4, Farhan Ahmed wrote:
> > >> Has anyone here tried customizing the formula builder to provide the
> user
> > >> options (e.g. drop down menu) for possible parameter choices?
> > >> I have one generic function that takes a "code" as a parameter that
> tells
> > >> the function what to compute. I could define a UDF per code, but it
> would
> > >> explore pretty quickly (I have over 900 codes right now), so I'm
> trying to
> > >> figure out how to assist the user in choosing the right codes through
> the
> > >> formula wizard.
> > >> Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.
> > >> Thanks,
> > >> Farhan
> --
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VSTO has some useful high-level wrappers for interacting with ribbon
interfaces more easily. I don't think it offers anything else for UI
customization that you can't do as easily with Excel-DNA.
> Would it be possible to invoke the VSTO add-in functions from the Excel DNA add-in?
I'm not sure - it will probably be quite hard.
> Conversely, would it be possible to invoke the UDFs in the Excel
> DNA add-in from the VSTO add-in?
Yes, by calling via COM as
myResult = Application.Run("MyFunction", Myparam)
-Govert
On Jun 29, 11:11 pm, Farhan Ahmed <far...@ycharts.com> wrote:
> Regarding option (2), what if I have two add-ins (two DLLs) - one developed
> in VSTO that implements the UI and provides interfaces to display the UI,
> corresponding get/set functions etc. and the other developed using Excel
> DNA that implements the UDF.
> Would it be possible to invoke the VSTO add-in functions from the Excel DNA
> add-in? Conversely, would it be possible to invoke the UDFs in the Excel
> DNA add-in from the VSTO add-in?
> Thanks,
> Farhan
> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Govert van Drimmelen <gov...@icon.co.za>wrote:
> > Hi Farhan,
> > Your plan 2. will be hard to make work. Mixing Excel-DNA and VSTO in
> > one add-in is not really possible.
> > However, you could certainly use the Windows Forms designer in Visual
> > Studio to create forms that you display from your Excel-DNA add-in,
> > either as a pop-up window or as part of a Custom Task Pane. So using
> > the designer would apply to your option 1 too.
> > Depending on the complexity of your function arguments, you could
> > probably make something on a Ribbon that does this too - some text
> > boxes and dropdowns and a button to insert the function. I have no
> > experience doing this myself.
> > There is another option I should mention again here - using the dialog
> > support in the C API. This is tricky to make work - I posted some
> > pointers in the earlier discussion here:
> >https://groups.google.com/group/exceldna/browse_frm/thread/296059b299...
> > One advantage of the C API dialogs is that you get a refedit control
> > that allows the users to point to and select a sheet region, just like
> > the regular function wizard.
> > -Govert
> > On Jun 29, 10:37 pm, Farhan Ahmed <Far...@ycharts.com> wrote:
> > > Can you please share tips on how you accomplished this?
> > > I'm specifically looking for guidance on how to create a customized UI
> > for
> > > the user to enter the parameters. If I understand correctly, there are a
> > > few options:
> > > 1. Write UI code (using Windows.Forms) from within the ExcelDNA
> > add-in.*Nikee - Is this what you are doing?
> > > *
> > > 2. Use VSTO to create a COM-addin that implements the UI (can use the
> > > designer from within VS, which is nice) and then have the Excel Addin
> > talk
> > > to it somehow. *I am trying this strategy but am stuck trying to get
> > the
> > > ExcelDNA add-in to talk to the VSTO add-in. Any guidance here?*
> > > 3. Use the Custom UI interfaces in ExcelDNA to do everything. Not sure
> > > how flexible this is
> > > Any others I am missing?
> > > On Friday, June 29, 2012 12:15:01 PM UTC-5, Nikee wrote:
> > > > I have little bit similar situation; where I want to give Wizard to
> > users
> > > > where they will select input parameters and values for each of
> > parameters.
> > > > And this wizard will be available through one of the ExcelCommand which
> > > > will invoke WinForm; where user can select their options and then that
> > data
> > > > will be pasted on current sheet. Which will become driver for calling
> > > > ExcelFunctions... Similar to Bloomberg add in...
> > > > I just though of sharing this; I would appreciate if you guys share
> > your
> > > > experience and pros/cons of this approach
> > > > On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:22:19 AM UTC-4, Farhan Ahmed wrote:
> > > >> Has anyone here tried customizing the formula builder to provide the
> > user
> > > >> options (e.g. drop down menu) for possible parameter choices?
> > > >> I have one generic function that takes a "code" as a parameter that
> > tells
> > > >> the function what to compute. I could define a UDF per code, but it
> > would
> > > >> explore pretty quickly (I have over 900 codes right now), so I'm
> > trying to
> > > >> figure out how to assist the user in choosing the right codes through
> > the
> > > >> formula wizard.
> > > >> Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.
> > > >> Thanks,
> > > >> Farhan
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Excel-DNA" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to exceldna@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> > exceldna+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
> > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/exceldna?hl=en.
