Sharing of ribbon between Excel DNA and Javascript Excel addin

[Alex Karatzas]

Hi,

does anyone have any experience sharing a ribbon between an Excel DNA addin and a Javascript Excel addin? These 2 types of addins seem to be using different schemas for their manifest.xml files and I even though I have successfully shared ribbons between Excel-DNA addins by leveraging shared namespaces and the idQ property on the tab, I cant seem to be able to get that to work with either OfficeTab or CustomTab tags in the new JS based world. Thanks

[Govert van Drimmelen]

Hi Alex,

 

It’s not exactly what you’re asking, but it’s possible to have your .xll add-in load instead of the Javascript for the ribbon extension (when it is installed on Windows).

You’d need to do a bit of work to ensure that you have a stable COM ProgId for the Excel-DNA hosted ribbon, and then configure the EquivalentAddIns entries in your Javacript add-in. See

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/develop/make-office-add-in-compatible-with-existing-com-add-in

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/excel/make-custom-functions-compatible-with-xll-udf

 

I haven’t got experience with this myself, but I’d be happy to help.

 

-Govert

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[Alex Karatzas]

Hi Govert,

thank you for responding so quickly!

I read through the links you provided, but my understanding is that this functionality allows the xll to be used instead of the Office addin in Windows, essentially the Office addin wont be loaded. What I am trying to achieve is leverage a rich UI component written in React from inside my existing ExcelDNA addin. Is my understanding incorrect?

I know I could use a Chromium-based web browser component but I am a bit weary of that scenario and was hoping to be able to wrap the React component in a JS Office addin and then interact with it through Excel, either by adding the button exposed by the React addin to my existing xll ribbon or maybe call some macro to open the React UI.

Thanks,

Alex

[Craig Crevola]

Hi Alex

I am assuming you are trying to route commands from your ribbon to your xll. You could try using a messaging based architecture employing zmq as the transport. That could also facilitate two  way messaging if you needed to place items into a UI.

Thanks

Craig. 

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[Alex Karatzas]

Hi Craig,

I have an xll with a ribbon and what I am trying to do is add a button on that ribbon that is defined in the ribbon of a React Office addin, essentially sharing the ribbon between the 2 addins. I have successfully shared ribbons between xlls in the past using shared namespaces and the idQ property but cant seem to be able to do this with a React office addin.

Thanks,

Alex