navigation to excel file with web browser

[kwints]

Greetings,

New to VB 2008, and VB in general, but loving it so far. I am using a web browser in an MDI window to access an a few excel files with some buttons to call some macros. Right now the excel templates I am using are just in a folder on our server. I am navigating to the files using \\servername\folder\...\...\filename.xlt I would like to associate them with the application so that if i install this somewhere without server access the program will still function.

Thoughts?

[stanav]

Why not using an OpenFileDialog to allow the user to pick the file they want to open? Or use a FolderBrowserDialog to let the user pick a folder and then you show a list of the (excel) files in that folder in a listbox where the user can open each file by click by click on it?

[kwints]

mainly asthetics, they are clicking a button to choose to create a new work order that is the same file every time. And even if i use an open dialog box it still doesnt solve the issue of me installing the app say at another facility that doenst have access to the server, but still having the necessary files to run the program. Is that more clear?

[stanav]

Well, you then need to have a setting for your application where the user can set the path to that excel file when they first run it. What I'd do is:
1. Set the path pointing to the file on the server as the default path
2. On app startup, test if the file exists. If it does, no further action is needed. However, if the file does not exist, you will show a openfiledialog for the user to specify where the file is, you then save that new path to your app settings.

[kwints]

theres no way to have the file attached to the installation so that when the app is installed it can put the file in a C:\Program Files\ app name folder then access the file form there? isn't that what most applications do?

[stanav]

No... Most application will attach a file in the same directory of the exe or some sub directory within the directory of the exe and will programatically refer to the attached file using relative path of the exe (Application.StartUpPath). That way, it doesn't matter where the user install the app, it still can find the file.

[kwints]

could you explain that in more detail, that sounds like exactly what I want to accomplish