Develop Reference

How to set Word Application.Selection focused

I am building a Word VSTO Add-in. There I have a side drawer with some buttons on it. Now when I click on a button it inserts a predefined text in a document selection position. When it inserts the text I would like to bring back focus to the document itself.
How to do that?
My best try so far:
Word.Selection currentSelection = Application.Selection;
currentSelection.Text = ((Button)sender).Tag.ToString();
Application.ActiveWindow.SetFocus();
Application.ActiveWindow.Activate();

It makes sense to call the Activate method prior calling the SetFocus one:
Word.Selection currentSelection = Application.Selection;
currentSelection.Text = ((Button)sender).Tag.ToString();
Application.ActiveWindow.Activate();
Application.ActiveWindow.SetFocus();
Also you may find Windows API functions helpful for such scenarios. For example, the SetForegroundWindow function which brings the thread that created the specified window into the foreground and activates the window. Keyboard input is directed to the window, and various visual cues are changed for the user. You may find the Win32: Bring a window to top thread helpful.

Try Application.ActiveDocument.Activate.

devcomponents adding items to ribbonpanel on the fly

I need to show and hide various buttons that are all on the ribbonbar in designer.
Depending on what the user has selected on the form at the time depends on what i want to show/hide.
I cannot figure out how to get the ribbon to refresh properly, showing both the new button (without scrolling mouse over the new button) and resizing (width ways) to allow the new button to fit properly.
i have looked all over the web for other questions that answer this, and asked devcomponents forums, (still waiting on response from that)

I have figured out what works for this.
ribbon.Refresh()
'refresh size of ribbonPanel1, barlayout for the show/hide of miRoom
RibbonPanel1.PerformLayout()
ribbon.PerformLayout()
my button was within RibbonPanel1, and this was shown by a tabItem on the ribbon, the RibbonPanel1 was also on the ribbon (as otherwise it wont show)

Here is the KB article which covers working from code and other details: http://www.devcomponents.com/kb2/?p=472

Create a Checkbox for a Winform

I searched myself through for about 1 hour only to realise that I might be the biggest beginner, but since everybody must have been at that point in a time, i hope for your patience.
My question: i have an empty Winform which is opened after a button is pressed on a custom created outlook properties button.
the button code:
private void FensterOeffnen(object sender, IRibbonControl control, bool pressed)
{
EinstellungenFenster fenster = new EinstellungenFenster();
fenster.ShowDialog();
}
the Winform code:
public partial class EinstellungenFenster : Form
{
public EinstellungenFenster()
{
InitializeComponent();
Text = "Outlook Add-in Einstellungen";
}
}
the Reason i need a checkbox:
i want to implement a popup (Debug so to say) window on each and every method that i have on my Outlook Add-in if the button is checked, so that if the code stopps working at a certain point after deployment, i can still easily tell where the problem is.
Thanks a lot!

Open the toolbox on vs by going to view and toolbox then expand all windows forms and scroll down to check-box and drag it on to the form.
and then implement the checked procedure by adding on the button clicked
if (Checkboxname.Checked = true)
{
// Do Stuff when checked
}
hope this helps

Winform App - Webpage Interaction

Windows Form Application – Manipulating input-elements in WinForm WebBrowser
Although I am familiar with HttpWebResponse/HttpWebRequest to login to a website, I was trying it now via using the mshtml library and found some weird behavior and I would like to see if someone else might be able to help me out here..
I have an HTML login page with a java backend with a Username field, a Password field and a Button.
The logic is very basic, I have a built a winform app with a built in webbrowser.
At the Document_Completed event I use the following code to enter my settings and to click the button.
private void webBrowser_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (webBrowser.Url.ToString() == #"MyWebPage/signin")
{
HTMLDocument hdc = new HTMLDocumentClass();
hdc = (HTMLDocument)webBrowser.Document.DomDocument;
IHTMLElement elb = hdc.getElementById("login_button");
IHTMLInputElement elu = (IHTMLInputElement)hdc.getElementById("username");
IHTMLInputElement elp = (IHTMLInputElement)hdc.getElementById("password");
try
{
elu.value = "MyID";
elp.value = "MyPwd";
elb.click();
}
catch { }
}
}
Apart for this code being very quick and without error handling, it should do the trick and it does, partially..
There are two scenario's:
I launch the tool, it loads the webpage.
The tool populates the UserID field and the Password field correctly
The tool fails to click the button
I click the button manually, I am logged in, I click logout, I am back at login page
I immediatly logged in again, the tool enters the information
The tool immediatly clicks the button as well.
Is there anyone who might be able to explain me why this happens and how I could get around this with the current setup (hence not using HttpWebRequest). I don't see the difference between loading the page at startup or being redirected after logout, but apparently there is a difference in there or I am doing something wrong.
Any feedback on this matter is very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Kevin
EDIT:
I added a Button to my Windows Form that bas the same backend Code as below in order to click the button on the webpage, this works perfectly.
I triggered clicking this button in the webBrowser_Completed event but it doesn't work.
For some reason, everything I add to the webBrowser_DocumentCompleted event does not allow me to trigger the click event for the button in my WebBrowser control. Once that entire event has completed, if I then try to trigger it it works but I would like to automate this.. Any advice?

This might be a long shot and not the most elegant workaround but how about letting a backgroundworker run for a second in your DocumentCompleted event that then triggers the button that you clicked from it's seperate thread. This might just get this automated.
As this will run from a different thread, keep in mind that you might have to invoke certain controls so this might be another downside to this workaround..
If this doesn't work then, as Regfor previously suggested, Watin.org can help you out.

how about this :
HtmlElement button = webBrowser.HtmlDocument.GetElementById("login_button");
button.InvokeMember("click");
it works in my program.

Sharepoint Ribbon: Circumventing Context sensitivity

I'm new to sharepoint development and I'm trying to modify the behaviour of the Sharepoint ribbon. As you all know, the ribbon is such that when something else gains focus(e.g a list item), the ribbon automatically switches to an appropriate tab or tab group(e.g the List tools tab group).
I'd like to disable this constant switching of tabs and make the browse tab to always be the active tab, unless the user explicitly clicks on another tab.
I've tried doing the following in the Page_Load() of a Usercontrol, but it only works once, when the page is initially loaded. What am I doing wrong? More importantly, how could I do it right, if at all?
Basically, I'm hoping someone could point me to the event that's fired when the context changes and the ribbon switches, and how I could hook up to this event and force the ribbon to switch back to the browse tab.
protected void Page_Load()
{
string showBrowseTabScript = string.Empty;
showBrowseTabScript = #"
function ShowBrowseTab() {
var ribbon = SP.Ribbon.PageManager.get_instance().get_ribbon();
SelectRibbonTab(""Ribbon.Read"", true);
}
SP.SOD.executeOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(function() {
var pm = SP.Ribbon.PageManager.get_instance();
pm.add_ribbonInited(function() {
ShowBrowseTab();
});
var ribbon = null;
try
{
ribbon = pm.get_ribbon();
}
catch (e) { }
if (!ribbon) {
if (typeof(_ribbonStartInit) == ""function"")
_ribbonStartInit(_ribbon.initialTabId, false, null);
}
else {
ShowBrowseTab();
}
},
""sp.ribbon.js"");
";
this.Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptBlock(this.GetType(), "BrowseTabScript", showBrowseTabScript, true);
}

Here is my solution to the problem, in case anyone is interested.
Taking Ken Henderson's suggestion into consideration, I was able to achieve what I've been trying to do, although I achieved this by modifying the code of the SP.Ribbon.js and SP.Ribbon.debug.js files. I'm using the SP.Ribbon.debug.js to show my solution below, since it is not as cryptic as the SP.Ribbon.js.
Basically, I use the code below to trick the ribbon into thinking that the User is on a different tab and has clicked on the "Browse" tab. You will notice that I set the old tab information in the code. It will still work without me doing this, but I did it just in case the ribbon needs that information for something else I'm not aware of. This code, in combination with the Page_Load() function I posted in the first post, cause the ribbon to behave just like I needed it to.
SP.Ribbon.PageManager.prototype = {
executeRootCommand: function (commandId, properties, commandInfo, root) {
ULSMg8: ;
var $v_0;
if (!SP.ScriptUtility.isNullOrUndefined(commandInfo) && commandId !== 'RibbonEvent' && (commandId !== 'CommandContextChanged' || (!SP.ScriptUtility.isNullOrUndefined(properties) && properties['ChangedByUser']))) {
// My changes to SP.Ribbon
if (properties["ChangedByUser"] === false) {
properties["ChangedByUser"] = true;
var $NewContextId = properties["NewContextId"];
var $NewContextCommand = properties["NewContextCommand"];
properties["OldContextId"] = $NewContextId;
properties["OldContextCommand"] = $NewContextCommand;
properties["NewContextId"] = "Ribbon.Read";
properties["NewContextCommand"] = "ReadTab";
SelectRibbonTab("Ribbon.Read", true);
}
// End of changes to SP.Ribbon
// the rest of the code has been ommitted for clarity
return $v_0;
}
}

To the best of my knowledge SharePoint doesn't expose any events to detect when the ribbon tabs update (either tabs adding/removing or which is active). At least I was unable to find any a few weeks ago when I was trying to detect when tabs were added/removed (I didn't care which was active just the number/width of them).
(Sorry for the lack of details, the SharePoint dev environment at the office is unavailable at the moment so I can't look up the details very easily.)
There are two possiblities for solving this problem (each has risks/problems):
Override JS Functionality
Figure out what JavaScript function is being called when the user clicks on an item that updates the ribbon. You might be able to replace that function with your own that provides the behavior you want. This would be similar in concept to a custom master page that scrolls on the window and has to change the behavior of the width sizing. I'm unable to verify the details at the moment but it looks like the function is called SingleItemSelect in core.js.
This could be a problem if you have exceptions to when to override this behavior and if MS changes anything in the future you're implementation may break and/or need to be updated.
Add your own event handler
In your JavaScript code try to find an appropriate DOM event to attach an event handler to in the ribbon to detect when MS's code changes the ribbon. There is a good chance given the limitations of the DOM events that there will not be an event to attach a handler to. You may end up adding a function that is called periodically (polling loop/timer) that detects ribbon tab changes and resets the active one.
Honestly this will not work well since there will be flickering as MS's ribbon code changes the active tab and your's changes it back. Additionally you'll need to detect when the user clicks on a tab so that you don't undo their changes.
Wrap up
Honestly I would push back and get this requirement changed so that the ribbon behavior works the way MS designed and not try to fight it. If the ribbon showing up when the user clicks on an item is really an issue then I would propose to the client that instead of forcing the Browse tab as active to add an additional link in the ribbon area somewhere that allows the ribbon (or at least the part that expands over the title area) to be toggled as hidden/shown independently of what MS's JavaScript is doing to the ribbon.