Known File-types Previewer

[Andrea Anastasescu]

Hi there,

I have to integrate a previewer into a desktop application, that retains
some links to resources (local files, internet-links, personal mails - this
is not of certain concern).
This window should be able to give a preview of the document: be it an
office (word, excel), an image file etc.
Is there a convenient mode for this in .NET applications?
The preview should be done in the application's window, it is not acceptable
to open the file outside the process (like:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start( file_path ); that is based on shell
associations)
I am trying to use a webbrowser control, but i wanted to know your opinion
on this, and wether there may be another solution than trying to show all
documents inside a web-browser.
(There is still a problem like that in the attached image - certainly I
can not modify settings on the users's computer - but I will try to find a
workaround).

Thanks,
Andrea

 

[Andy]

Your application can host the ActiveX control which will display the
preview. This is what the webbrowser does anyway.. loads an ActiveX
viewer control. your applciation though will have to know a head of
time what applications it can use to preview, and those apps will have
to be installed already.

HTH
Andy

 

[Andrea Anastasescu]

Hi,

Well, I presume that the user has a version of Office, for example, but I
actually don't know which version.
I would be interested to know how is the webbrowser handling this.
I think that I can use the file-type associations to learn the type of
aplication that is tied to a file type but what to do next? How to use that
application, or what ActiveX to use to show the content of the file.
For the first step, let just look at Office files

Thanks,
Andrea