My VSTO 2.0 start up pangs

OK.. so i heard Soma talk about the VSTO 2.0 that is much stable than VSTO with VS 2003. Wanted to develop 2 tools for long:
1. A button that will let me open 2 reply windows instead of one. i have a need for that. one for status intimation and one for action..
2. A program that scans a folder extracts all the mails and saves the content in the a file after parsing the mails..

Nice time to do so with Outlook 2003, VSTO 2.0 and Vs 2005.

After i spent some time looking for VSTO 2.0, i realised it gets installed as a part of VS 2005. You will need Office PIA for development. Install it from the Add/Remove Programs for Office and enable the .NET Programability feature.
For starters, currently VSTO 2.0 only supports Word and Excel. So, essentially i am creating interop assemblies again for Office 2003 (purpose of VSTO 2.0 LOST!!)
Starting with a new project of type "Shared Add-In" under Extensibility. One very important thing to remember:
DO NOT select "Enable Addin for use by ALL" in page 4 of the wizard.. the add-in would not load.. got to learn this from a MS KB article...
Then referenced Outlook 11 COM assembly (why am i talking about VSTO again??).. some very good articles on the web hold my hand as i add code to the project.. using extensibility interface IDEExtensibility2 and corresponding methods..
Created a skeleton project (no functionality except "Hello World" type messageboxes).. compiled it and then created the installable for it from the setup project that is added with project template.. by all means the add-in should have loaded when i started outlook, but it didn't.. a setup issue?
Another article to rescue by Omar Shahine and i know there is a better way to create the installable... adding the output from the project directly to the setup..!!
So, NOW we should be fine... :)
Well, I am not.. For one, closing my Outlook doesn't close it REALLY!! it keeps lurking in the background and i had to close it from the Task Manager (not a good thing to do!!) Why do i need to close Outlook? So that the addin can load...
that is done and now i open Outlook again..
NOW i had not expected this at all :(
My Lookout refuses to start and says there is an version conflict documented here.
It turns out that Lookout is built on Office XP and before it starts it checks for version conflicts and it does not accept any other Office assembly.. BAD for me as i created my whole project with Office 2003 assembly...
I disable my Add-In from Tools -> Options -> Other -> Advanced Options -> COM Add-Ins but can't see my Look out coming back..
As i discover what can be done.. #$@$##%$$%^&*#$&%^&*%7...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Community Star Discussions and Future

Notes from an Internet Marketing Seminar

Solving the multi-platform challenge in mobile devices