Office (Edit Rich Text & Spreadsheets)

• Sep 02, 2024
• 4 minutes to read

The Office Module integrates the following DevExpress controls into an XAF application:

• ASP.NET Core Blazor Rich Text Editor with Mail Merge support
• WinForms Rich Text Editor with Mail Merge support
• ASP.NET Web Forms Rich Text Editor with Mail Merge support
• WinForms Spreadsheet
• ASP.NET Web Forms Spreadsheet

You can try out the Office Module in the Property Editors and Reports sections of the Feature Center demo installed to the following folder: %PUBLIC%\Documents\DevExpress Demos 24.1\Components\XAF\FeatureCenter.NETFramework.XPO.

Note

XAF does not support the Spreadsheet editor for ASP.NET Core Blazor applications.

Office Module Capabilities

Rich Text Editor

The Office Module provides three platform-specific Property Editors:

ASP.NET Core Blazor

DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Blazor.Editors.RichTextPropertyEditor that uses the DxRichEdit component.

Windows Forms

DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Win.RichTextPropertyEditor that uses RichEditControl.

ASP.NET Web Forms

DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Web.ASPxRichTextPropertyEditor that uses the ASPxRichEdit control.

These editors allow end-users to edit rich text documents stored in different formats.

ASP.NET Core Blazor

Windows Forms

ASP.NET Web Forms

For information on how to access Rich Text Editor controls, refer to the following topic: How to: Access and Customize Rich Text Editor Controls.

Note

Both Blazor Rich Text Editor and DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Blazor.Editors.RichTextPropertyEditor do not support HTML format. If you need to use this format, create a ticket in our Support Center. Set the product field to ‘Blazor / Data Editors for Blazor’ and describe your requirements.

On Linux, the Office Module for Blazor may require additional libraries to be installed. For more information, refer to the following topic: Use Office File API on Linux - Prerequisites.

You can also create Mail Merge templates to generate documents based on data from your application database.

Spreadsheet Editor

The Office Module provides two platform-specific Property Editors:

Windows Forms

DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Win.SpreadsheetPropertyEditor that uses SpreadsheetControl.

ASP.NET Web Forms

DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Web.ASPxSpreadsheetPropertyEditor that uses the ASPxSpreadsheet control.

These editors allow end-users to edit spreadsheet documents.

For information on how to access Spreadsheet controls, refer to the following topic: How to: Access the Spreadsheet Editor Controls.

Windows Forms

ASP.NET Web Forms

Office Module Components

Modules

Platform	Module	NuGet package
platform-agnostic	OfficeModule	DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office
ASP.NET Core Blazor	OfficeBlazorModule	DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Blazor
Windows Forms	OfficeWindowsFormsModule	DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Win
ASP.NET Web Forms	OfficeAspNetModule	DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Web

Application Model Extensions

The Office Module extends the Application Model with the following properties:

Module	Extended node	Extending node	Property
OfficeModule	IModelMember	IModelRichTextFormatSettings	DocumentStorageFormat
	IModelMember	IModelSpreadsheetPropertyEditorSettings	EnableFormulaBar
OfficeWindowsFormsModule	IModelColumn	IModelRichTextColumn	CustomHeight
	IModelPropertyEditor	IModelWinOfficeMenuManagerSettings	MenuManagerType
OfficeAspNetModule	IModelPropertyEditor	IModelWebRichTextPropertyEditorHeightSettings	CustomHeight
	IModelPropertyEditor	IModelWebRichTextPropertyEditorSettings	MenuManagerType
	IModelPropertyEditor	IModelWebSpreadsheetPropertyEditorSettings	CustomHeight
	IModelPropertyEditor	IModelWebSpreadsheetPropertyEditorSettings	MenuManagerType

Add the Office Module to Your Application

Install the appropriate platform-specific NuGet package and use one of the following techniques to add the Office Module:

• You can add modules to your application when you use the Solution Wizard to create a new XAF solution. Select modules in the Choose Additional Modules step.

• In .NET applications, you can call the AddOffice(IModuleBuilder<IBlazorApplicationBuilder>, Action<OfficeOptions>) / AddOffice(IModuleBuilder<IWinApplicationBuilder>, Action<OfficeOptions>) method in your ASP.NET Core Blazor / WinForms application builder.

• If you do not use an application builder, you can add these Modules to the ModuleBase.RequiredModuleTypes collection of the platform-specific Module.
• In .NET Framework applications, you can also use the Module Designer and Application Designer to add a module to your project.

The following additional steps may be required:

ASP.NET Core Blazor Application Without Application Builder

Navigate to the MySolution.Blazor.Server\Startup.cs file and call the AddOffice method in the Startup.ConfigureServices method to register the Office Module services in IServiceCollection:

using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Office.Blazor;
// ...
public class Startup {
    // ...
    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services){
        //...
        services.AddOffice();
    }
    // ...
}