An Easy Way to Embed Word in a Web Page

Notice that in the set side of the property, the code is written to remove the tilde from in front of the file path if the tilde is present.If the tilde is left intact after setting the property to point to a file using the URL Editor, the tilde would otherwise be included in the HTML rendered to the page and the file would not found.It is necessary to strip this character from the file path in order to use the URL Editor to set this property at design time.

The last bit of code needed to finish the control is contained in a region called "Rendering". This region contains a single method used to override the RenderContents method.Within RenderContents, a string builder is created and then populated with the HTML needed to render the control on a page.In this instance, the simplest way to display the MHT file is through the use of an IFrame.Looking at the string builder, note that the IFrame contains the source property which points to the file path property added earlier in this project. Further, the width and height of the IFrame is set such that the width of the control is fixed at 100% while the height of is set to the actual height of the control.After the string builder is populated, the content is dumped into a div.The entire control is constructed within a try catch block, if the try fails, the catch block will render out "Display Word MHT Control" into a box on the page in lieu of showing the control.When the control is first added to the page, it does not point to a file and so the try will fail, this prevents an error from occurring during that initial placement of the control.

Code:Default Page

The default page included in the web project is provided to serve as a test bed for the control.The page contains only a panel used as a banner and the custom control with its file path property also pointing to the MHT file.The MHT file was added to the web site content and is also included in the web project.When this site is viewed, the control will display the Word document in the defined area.

Summary

This article demonstrates an approach that may be used to develop a custom control through which Word documents may be embedded into a web page.The purpose of the control is to allow the Word document to be included within a web page as opposed to the alternative of opening the document into a separate page or evoking a download to the document for local viewing in Word or the Word Viewer. Naturally, the code included in the custom control could be added directly into any page and the same effect could be achieved, however, by adding the code once into a custom control, the developer need only drop the control into the form and set the file path and dimensions to display Word documents without repeating the manual addition of the code each time it is needed.

The control may be used with Word doc files, however without the conversion to MHT format, the browser will attempt to download the file locally for viewing. If the intent is to embed rather than download, this approach is valid.