Products to create an Outlook 2003 Add-In

[Lucy]

Hi,

I am going to create a simple form add-in for Outlook 2003. I would like to
code this is C#. I currently have Windows XP, Office 2007 and Visual Studio
2005 (V8.0).

I know that I need Office 2003 (obviously) and the Visual Studio Tools for
Office (VSTO) extension. Can anyone advise me to which VSTO version I need
and if I should upgrade my Visual Studio to V9.0 (Visual Studio 2008)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Andrei Smolin [Add-in Express]]

Hi Lucy,

If you are not required to use VSTO, have a look at this tool:
www.add-in-express.com/add-in-net/. With Add-in Express 2008 for Office and
..NET you can create add-ins supporting Office 2000-2007 without upgrading
your environment.

If, however, you need to use VSTO, then yes, you need to install Office
2003. When developing for Outlook 2003 only, there's no difference between
VS 2008 and VS 2005 (with VSTO 2005 SE installed, which a free add-on for VS
2005). Looking ahead, I think the add-in for Outlook 2003 will be required
to support Outlook 2007 sooner or later. If you agree with this, you also
need to upgrade to VS 2008 because VSTO 3 provides simpler deployment for
Outlook 2007 add-ins.

As to the .NET edition of Add-in Express, it generates setup projects in the
way that automates almost every step that VSTO 2005 [SE] developers as well
as VS 2008 developers would have to do manually when creating add-ins
targeted to Office 2003 and higher. ClickOnce deployment is supported, too.
Note also a number of components provided for Office and Outlook add-in
developers.

Regards from Belarus (GMT+2),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
www.add-in-express.com

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Why do you need VSTO, unless you want to create a VSTO addin? You can just
as well create a managed code shared addin and shim it using the version 2
Shim Wizard to give the addin its own AppDomain.

If you do want to use VSTO you can use VSTO 2005 SE, which can be downloaded
and runs with VS 2005. It works fine for Outlook 2003 and 2007 addins. You
don't need VS 2008 unless you want to use ClickOnce for deployment or need
the added designer features in the VSTO version for VS 2008.

 

[Lucy]

Hi Andrei and Ken,
Thank you for your informative replies.
I will explain my situation. I am creating a simple form Add-In for Outlook
2003 as a university project. I therefore need to create a setup project for
this add-in so that it can be installed through a CD and available to anyone
with Outlook 2003.
Considering this situation would you still advce not to use VSTO? Or if you
would advice this, is VS 2008 required for the Clickonce deployment feature?

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

For a VSTO addin you need VS 2008 for ClickOnce support. In that case you'd
need VS 2008, Office 2003 and VSTO 3 on the development machine.

For use on VS 2005 with a shared addin or a VSTO addin you would use a setup
project to do the installation. There are walkthrough's available for how to
set up the setup project and for VSTO on how to set up the custom actions to
grant full trust to the assemblies (required for VSTO) using a SetSecurity
project in addition to the usual setup project. VS 2005 comes with setup
project templates.

 

[Lucy]

Ken,

Thank you for your reply. So my options are:

VS 2008
VSTO 3
Office 2003

OR

VS 2005
VSTO SE 2005
Office 2003

The project that I have just completed required me to develop a setup
project with it so I currently know the basics for this, so that shouldn't be
too challenging for me.

Lucy

 

[Andrei Smolin [Add-in Express]]

Hi Lucy,

In this scenario, I'd accept exactly what Ken suggests: use the Shared
Add-in wizard. If you plan to update the add-in then you may want to use
ClickOnce (with VS 2008 or Add-in Express) but note that you must have a
place to locate the update. The location should be accessible for all users,
say a web site or a network location.

Regards from Belarus (GMT+2),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
www.add-in-express.com

 

[Andrei Smolin [Add-in Express]]

Lucy,

From some point of view, VS 2008 and VSTO 3 are the same. And you don't need
VSTO 2005 SE if you use shared add-in. If you still want to use VSTO, you'll
definitely need to follow the steps outlined by Ken.

Regards from Belarus (GMT+2),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
www.add-in-express.com