Re: Launch an application in an existing Form?

PInvoke.net is not Microsoft documentation; it's more like a wiki--so its
content is whatever someone wants to put up there, right or wrong.

SetParent is probably like cross-thread window communication in Windows;
it doesn't check and assumes you're following the "rules".

I would suspect there's some very distinct things that will cause problems
with using SetParent, things you can't overcome.  If you're lucky you'll
find them early; if you're not, a customer will find them and you'll
realize there really is no way to reliably embed an application in the
window of another.

On Tue, 7 Aug 2007 13:09:37 +0200, Daniel Barla-Szabo
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Yes, I saw that, the MSDN documentation is quite specific on that point.
>
>The strange thing is that on the documentation from pinvoke.net
>(http://pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32/SetParent.html?diff=y) makes no
>mention of this, and in their code sample actually launch notepad and
>use SetParent on its main window.  There are probably certain cases
>where this method isn't guaranteed to work, and Microsoft decided that a
>simple "don't do it" is better than a lengthy explanation of where /
>when you can use it (I think it's reasonable of them).
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to build apps
>and controls [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
>Peter Ritchie
>Sent: 06 August 2007 09:22 PM
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Launch an application in an existing
>Form?
>
>The documentation for SetParent does point out that "The new parent
>window
>and the child window must belong to the same application."
>
>So, while it might appear to work, it's certainly not supported.
>
>On Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:18:40 +0200, Daniel Barla-Szabo
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>Yes, it's possible... It's not often done so it's quite tricky to find
>>documentation on it.  Here's an example:
>>
>>
>>// at the top, import these:
>>
>>using System.Diagnostics;
>>using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
>>
>>
>>// and here's an example dummy form that launches notepad and "docks"
>it
>>inside your form:
>>// just attach the button1_Click code to a button's click event.
>>
>>    public partial class Form1 : Form
>>    {
>>        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
>>        static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWndChild, IntPtr
>>hWndNewParent);
>>
>>        public Form1()
>>        {
>>            InitializeComponent();
>>        }
>>
>>        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
>>        {
>>            ProcessStartInfo info = new
>ProcessStartInfo("notepad.exe");
>>
>>            Process notepadProcess = Process.Start(info);
>>
>>            notepadProcess.WaitForInputIdle();
>>
>>            SetParent(notepadProcess.MainWindowHandle, this.Handle);
>>        }
>>    }
>>
>>
>>
>>Here's another example:
>>
>>http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/AppControl.asp