Draw buttons on the form using control array method and Excel File.

[candice]

Hi guys,
I want to achieve the following goals:
1,Reading data from Excel file( in this program, the data are X1 X2 X3 X4 and Z that represent the buttons location and text respectively).
2,Using buttonarray to draw series of buttons on the form according to the data input from Excel file. This can be done using a loop.

I followed the MSDN about Creating Control Arrays in Visual Basic. NET. Created a ButtonArray Class and a Form Class. And I also managed to read data from Excel file in an independent program. But I can't merge these two together.

Following is my code:
ButtonArray Class:

[SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff][COLOR=#000000]Imports Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel 
Public Class ButtonArray 
    Inherits System.Collections.CollectionBase 
    Private ReadOnly HostForm As System.Windows.Forms.Form 
    Dim X1 As Integer 
    Dim X2 As Integer 
    Dim Y1 As Integer 
    Dim Y2 As Integer 
    Dim Z As String 


    Public Function AddNewButton() As System.Windows.Forms.Button 
        ' Create a new instance of the Button class. 
        Dim aButton As New System.Windows.Forms.Button() 
        Dim i As Integer 
        Dim oXLApp As Excel.Application 'Declare the object variables 
        Dim oXLBook As Excel.Workbook 
        Dim oXLSheet As Excel.Worksheet 

        oXLApp = New Excel.Application 'Create a new instance of Excel 
        oXLBook = oXLApp.Workbooks.Open("C:\Documents and Settings\intern\My Documents\godblessme.xls") 
        'Open an existing workbook 

        oXLSheet = oXLBook.Worksheets(1) 'Work with the first worksheet 

        For i = 1 To 100 

            X1 = oXLSheet.Cells.Item(i, 1).Value 
            Y1 = oXLSheet.Cells.Item(i, 2).Value 
            X2 = oXLSheet.Cells.Item(i, 3).Value 
            Y2 = oXLSheet.Cells.Item(i, 4).Value 
            Z = oXLSheet.Cells.Item(i, 5).Value 

            Console.WriteLine(Z) 
            ' Set intial properties for the button object. 
            aButton.Top = X1 
            aButton.Left = X2 
            aButton.Width = Y1 
            aButton.Height = Y2 
            aButton.Tag = Me.Count 
            aButton.Text = Z 
            ' Add the button to the collection's internal list. 
            Me.List.Add(aButton) 
            ' Add the button to the controls collection of the form 
            ' referenced by the HostForm field. 
            HostForm.Controls.Add(aButton) 
        Next i 

        Return aButton 
        oXLApp.Visible = True 'Show it to the user 
        oXLSheet = Nothing 'Disconnect from all Excel objects (let the user take over) 
        oXLBook = Nothing 
        oXLApp = Nothing 
        AddHandler aButton.Click, AddressOf ClickHandler 
    End Function 

    Public Sub New(ByVal host As System.Windows.Forms.Form) 
        HostForm = host 
        Me.AddNewButton() 
    End Sub 

    Default Public ReadOnly Property Item(ByVal Index As Integer) As _ 
   System.Windows.Forms.Button 
        Get 
            Return CType(Me.List.Item(Index), System.Windows.Forms.Button) 
        End Get 
    End Property 

    Public Sub ClickHandler(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As _ 
       System.EventArgs) 
        MessageBox.Show("you have clicked button " & CType(CType(sender, _ 
           System.Windows.Forms.Button).Tag, String)) 
    End Sub 

End Class[/COLOR]
[/COLOR][/SIZE]

Form Class:

Public Class Form1 
    ' Declare a new ButtonArray object. 
    Dim MyControlArray As ButtonArray 
#Region " Windows Form Designer generated code " 
    Public Sub New() 
        MyBase.New() 

        'This call is required by the Windows Form Designer. 
        InitializeComponent() 

        'Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call 

        MyControlArray = New ButtonArray(Me) 
    End Sub 
#End Region 

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load 
          Me.Controls.AddRange(MyControlArray)     
    End Sub 
End Class

when running, an error"Value of type 'buttonarraytry.ButtonArray' cannot be converted to '1-dimensional array of System.Windows.Forms.Control'." comes out in the place of

Me.Controls.AddRange(MyControlArray) .

Basicly, in the buttonarrya class I'm trying to read the data in Excel file and add the buttons to a buttonarray, and in the form1 class I'm trying to Add control array to the form.
Any comments?
Any help will be very very appriciated!! Thanks a lot!