Error on modifying the SharePoint excel services viewer (xlviewer.aspx) page

Question

I am working on SharePoint 2013 and am following this
article to modify the xlviewer.aspx page in order to pass into it URL parameters. After following the instruction when I reload the new webpage (MyXLViewer.aspx) I am getting the foll. error:-
Sorry, something went wrong An error occurred during the compilation of the requested file, or one of its dependencies. 'Microsoft.Office.Excel.WebUI.ExcelWebRendererInternal' does not contain a definition for 'RowsToDisplay' and no extension method 'RowsToDisplay'
accepting a first argument of type 'Microsoft.Office.Excel.WebUI.ExcelWebRendererInternal' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) Technical Details
Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.
Correlation ID: db9b709c-966c-80de-156d-15c4b2783b09
Date and Time: 2/3/2014 5:15:03 PM
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Can you please try this and replicate and let me know if you are facing the same issue..? Or whether I am doing something wrong here? Foll.
is the procedure I have followed:-
Create a copy of XLViewer.aspx which is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\15\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS. I named my copy MyXLViewer.aspx. you can try /14/ incase of SharePoint2010..
Open MyXLViewer.aspx in Notepad and do the following;
<%@ Page language="C#" Codebehind="XlViewer.aspx.cs" AutoEventWireup="false"... --> Change This To --> <%@ Page language="C#" Codebehind="XlViewer.aspx.cs" AutoEventWireup="true"...
Placed foll code before head tag closes </head> on
the page:
<script runat="server">
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
if (Request.QueryString["RowsToDisplay"] != null)
m_excelWebRenderer.RowsToDisplay =
Int32.Parse(Request.QueryString["RowsToDisplay"]);
if (Request.QueryString["ColumnsToDisplay"] != null)
m_excelWebRenderer.ColumnsToDisplay =
Int32.Parse(Request.QueryString["ColumnsToDisplay"]);
if (Request.QueryString["ToolbarVisibilityStyle"] != null)
if (Request.QueryString["ToolbarVisibilityStyle"] == "1")
m_excelWebRenderer.ToolbarStyle =
ToolbarVisibilityStyle.FullToolbar;
else
m_excelWebRenderer.ToolbarStyle =
ToolbarVisibilityStyle.None;
</script>

Answer 1

Hi,    
The article you referenced might be applied to SharePoint 2007, however, in SharePoint 2013, the
RowsToDisplay property and
ColumnsToDisplay property are no longer supported, so these properties are not guaranteed
to work as they were in SharePoint 2007.
If you want to customize the Excel Web Access Web Part, it is recommended to take a look at the two documentations about Excel Web Access Web Part custom properties:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint-server-help/excel-web-access-web-part-custom-properties-HA010377893.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint-server-help/excel-web-access-web-part-summary-HA010105454.aspx
Best regards
Patrick Liang
TechNet Community Support
Hello Patrick,
As I have posted in my question I am interested in customizing the Excel viewer aspx page which opens up when you open an excel book via the document library in SharePoint 2013. The solution you are talking about is to modify the properties of the excel
web part and this does not answer my question.
Again, can you tell me if there is any possible way to customize the XLVIEWER.ASPX page sitting in LAYOUTS folder so that I can access certain properties like AllowInteractivity, etc? Or has this been completely discontinued by Microsoft in SharePoint 2013?
If the RowsToDisplay
property and ColumnsToDisplay
property are no longer supported, are there
any other property that this tag supports?
We have opened the xlviewer.aspx page from layouts folder and can see the foll. control:
<Ewa:ExcelWebRendererInternal id="m_excelWebRenderer" runat="server"
AllowInteractivity="false" AllowPivotSpecificOperations="false"/>
However, there is no documentation available from Microsoft or any other dev sites on this control/tag. This
link mentions that the ExcelWebRendererInternal is a totally useless instance.
I need clarification on this.
We also tried to edit the "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\ewa.strings.moss.js" file. But, any edits corrupts what is rendered on the right click of the pivot chart/table on xlviewer.aspx
page.