Outlook 2003 Plugin from visual studio 2008

[Bob S]

I have been working on generating Outlook 2003 add-ins from Visual Studio 2008.
I built the project using the File->new-Project and selected
Visual C#->office->2003->Outlook 2003 Add-in. Using pieces from a Microsoft
sample which displays all the button faces available and then tracking down
the changes needed since VS 2005 VSTO Beta, I got a working Add-in. The
Solution has the Add-in project and a setup project. Building both produces
two outputs. The setup project has both a .MSI and a setup.exe file. If I
use F5 to run, Outlook is started and the plugin installed and it works fine.
I can use tools->options "Other" Tab, "Advanced" button, "Com Add-in"
button to remove the plugin and all is good.

Here is where things start to go amiss. Starting with the plugin not
installed, If I
run the setup.exe or do an install in the MSI file, the Add-in shows up in the
Com Add-in section that I can use to delete it. However, It I try to set
the check box it shows the message "Not Loaded. A runtime error occurred
during loading of the COM Add-in". The event log shows the following for
that time stamp:

The description for Event ID ( 1033 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be
found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or
message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able
to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and
Support for details. The following information is part of the event:
ShowButtonFacesSetup, 1.0.0, 1033, 0, (NULL), , .

I seem to be close, but no cigar. I generated a test key (.snk file) with
Visual Studio and it added it into the project.

Can someone give me some pointers on what I need to do to install from the
MSI file or point to to appropriate documentation to get past this problem?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Matt]

I have been working on generating Outlook 2003 add-ins from Visual Studio2008.
I built the project using the File->new-Project and selected
Visual C#->office->2003->Outlook 2003 Add-in.  Using pieces from a Microsoft
sample which displays all the button faces available and then tracking down
the changes needed since VS 2005 VSTO Beta, I got a working Add-in.  The
Solution has the Add-in project and a setup project.  Building both produces
two outputs.  The setup project has both a .MSI and a setup.exe file.  If I
use F5 to run, Outlook is started and the plugin installed and it works fine.
 I can use tools->options "Other"  Tab,  "Advanced" button, "Com Add-in"
button to remove the plugin and all is good.

Here is where things start to go amiss.  Starting with the plugin not
installed, If I
run the setup.exe or do an install in the MSI file, the Add-in shows up in the
Com Add-in section that I can use to delete it.  However, It I try to set
the check box it shows the message "Not Loaded. A runtime error occurred
during loading of the COM Add-in".  The event log shows the following for
that time stamp:

The description for Event ID ( 1033 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be
found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry informationor
message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able
to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and
Support for details. The following information is part of the event:
ShowButtonFacesSetup, 1.0.0, 1033, 0, (NULL), , .

I seem to be close, but no cigar.  I generated a test key (.snk file) with
Visual Studio and it added it into the project.

Can someone give me some pointers on what I need to do to install from the
MSI file or point to to appropriate documentation to get past this problem?

Thank you for your time.

Hard to say, but I doubt it is the MSI. That's an error for custom
installers,
and I doubt it has much to do with Outlook. I've written a few, the
problems
generally come down to one of two things:

1. Security : The plugin needs to be trusted for Outlook to load it
properly.
2. Runtime : The Office runtime DLL's need to be installed.

If both of those are ok, I'd look at the installer only then. I'll bet
it is #1, particularly
if the thing works in the debugger. Take a look here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6exya3kf.aspx

Matt

 

[Bob S]

Hi Matt,
The Document you referenced helped a lot and had pointers to other docents.
The document that did the trick was a step by step showing the arcane
incantation to get the security descriptors set up correctly.


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332052.aspx

 

[Matt]

Hi Matt,
The Document you referenced helped a lot and had pointers to other docents.
The document that did the trick was a step by step showing the arcane
incantation to get the security descriptors set up correctly.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332052.aspx

When I used to write these things regularly, my favorite site was
outlookcode.com.
You might refer there, they have some great examples and tutorials.

Matt