Is it possible to start a new process and set it's main window as a child window of my MDI application?
The scenario is: I have a MDI application and I want to start Adobe Acrobat as a child window of my MDI application.
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Do you need the full Acrobat product, or just a way to view PDFs? – Reed Copsey Mar 28 '09 at 14:07
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In theory, I believe it's possible using SetParent.
However, in practice, this may be a bit more difficult than you'd expect. Also, you'll need to do work to syncronize the styles, etc.
Just a thought, though - If you are trying to embed Acrobat Reader (not full Acrobat), you may be able to do this easier by embedding a webcontrol and having the acrobat reader plugin used in that...
Here are some samples of people making this work (at least partially):
Related SO question with workarounds for specific issues.
CodeProject article using SetParent
Experts-exchange question about embedding a java app in a win32 app.
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Reed Copsey
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I don't believe this is possible, at least not using SetParent. To quote from the SetParent documentation:
An application can use the SetParent function to set the parent window of a pop-up, overlapped, or child window. The new parent window and the child window must belong to the same application.
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There are many examples of this working online, though. For example, see: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/ByPassAutomation.aspx?display=Print – Reed Copsey Mar 28 '09 at 13:57
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That being said, I don't think it's a very good idea in general, but it does appear to be a way to work. – Reed Copsey Mar 28 '09 at 13:58
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I don't think what you want is easily done, but it could be an option to try to integrate one of the open-source PDF-viewers (if you're prepared to go GPL as that is probably the license on most of them). Some links:
ChristopheD
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