How do I implement a fixed task pane in Outlook Web edition - outlook

How do I implement a fixed task pane in Outlook Web App?
Read the official documentation to see that the classic Outlook web App does not support a fixed task pane.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/dev/add-ins/outlook/pinnable-taskpane
But I wonder how I can upgrade to Modern Outlook on the Web?
Our Server is installed with Exchange Server 2016 CU16

Related

Outlook Add-in Desktop : Office.context.ui.close() not working on desktop version

I'm building an outlook add-in for web and desktop users.
And I'm struggling to find the method that closes the add-in for the desktop version
In my Add-in, I inserted a button that invokes
Office.context && Office.context.ui && Office.context.ui.closeContainer();
onClick to close the add-in.
This works on the web version of the add-in but not on the desktop one,
Is there a problem with my code or is the desktop version not supporting this method ?
Environment setup :
Microsoft Outlook 2016 (16.0.5182.1000)
Exchange 2016 (build version 15.1.2375.7) on-premise
It should work for task panes on the desktop. Here is the description for the closeContainer method:
Called from a task pane: The task pane will close. Any dialog opened by displayDialogAsync will also close. If the task pane supports pinning and was pinned by the user, it will be un-pinned.
But the minimum requirement set is 1.5 where Outlook 2016 is not supported.
Also you may find a similar thread here.

Outlook Add-in displayDialogAsync works in browser client not in full client

I have an Add-in I have written for Microsoft Outlook. The Add-in runs in a task pane. I have a button on the html in the page that opens a new window using Office.context.ui.displayDialogAsync. This button works fine in the web client, but when clicked in the full Outlook client, a window appears and disappears in a split second. This Add-in was developed outside VS so not sure how I can debug apart from in web client, which not does have the issue.
The domain is the same, and the domain is in the appDomain of the XML manifest. The URL is also https.
Does anyone have any ideas, have I missed something that says this isn't available in full client and only available in web client?
About Outlook version:
Version 2102 (Build 13801.21004 Click-to-Run)
Microsoft Office for Outlook 365 MSO (16.0.13801.21002) 64-bit
If I clock Office Updates, it tells me Office is up to date.
Update
I have another machine with Outlook installed, and I have discovered the dialog opens fine on the full outlook client. Looking at the version for that version of outlook (logged in to the same Office 365 account), the version shows as:
Version 2110 (Build 14527.20226 Click-to Run)
Microsoft Office for Outlook 365 MSO (Version 2110 Build 16.0.14527.20168) 64-bit
So it looks like maybe the earlier build had an issue in Outlook?
Would you like to share a screen recording in the machine where the API is not working?
Besides, you could also try a test add-in with this: Manifest.
It's an app command so you can click "Show Taskpane" first, and then click "launchDialogSameOrigin" button in the taskpane. You can observe whether the dialog is working correctly in this add-in.
Thanks.

Is centralized deployment supported for outlook web-addins

Can we deploy outlook web-addins for O365 accounts using centralized deployment as described here ?
Three/Four months before, if I tried to install outlook add-in using this method, installation itself would fail. Now, I don't get any errors while installing, but the add-in does not appear in Outlook clients (Outlook 2016 in Windows and OWA in browsers).
Are centralized deployments supported for Outlook add-ins now? Also, are there any client side requirements? I found some related information here. But I am doubtful if it is up-to date.
Thanks for the query bala. Centralized deployment for Outlook add-ins is not supported as of now and will come very soon. There are no specific client requirements other than minimum requirements for add-ins.

Side loading an Outlook javascript add-in

I am having a horrible time getting started at creating an add-in for Outlook. I want to use the new html/javascript/manifest approach. I have been able to create a manifest and application which works great with outlook.live.com. Where I am completely getting stuck is with desktop Outlook. How do I install/debug my add-in with desktop Outlook?
I cannot find anything in the UI which will let me add this style of add-in. Additionally the Microsoft documentation did not make things any clearer. Their docs seem to hint using this type of add-in is only possible if you are connecting to an Exchange server.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Yes the add-in will load on Outlook desktop only if your mailbox is Exchange. I am not sure the add-ins work with a personal Microsoft account (e.g hotmail.com, outlook.com) and Office desktop. Keep in mind that the support of mail add-ins for personal account is relatively new (officially announced in march 2016).
To develop your add-in I suggest you to use a organizational account (i.e. Office365 account). Support for organizational account has been released in 2013 and is a much more mature solution for you to get started. You can have a free dev account at dev.office.com.
Edit: October 2016 personal account are supported now by "Personal mailbox accounts" aka outlook.com accounts
Let us keep in mind that a mail add-in is not installed on a mail client (desktop, OWA) but on the mail account. When you "install" an add-in you only set a xml file on your mailbox that basically says "there is a web add-in out there called X and that is served at this url...". Then, if you install add-in X on your mailbox smaclell#mytestcompany.onmicrosoft.com, this add-in will load the add-in web iframes whether you are consulting your mailbox with Outlook Web Access (OWA) or Outlook Desktop.
To install the add-in for one user mailaccount, you have to use the Outlook Web Access. See this blog post. Note also that you can install the add-in for the whole organisation (Admin > Exchange Admin > Add-ins). Finally, Visual Studio is also able to push the manifest to your office 365 mailbox. To have this you need Office Development Tools.
For debugging in Outlook Desktop, I know two approaches.
Use the Office Developement Tools with visual studio
and select your sample add-in project as 'Starting project' and in properties select 'Office Desktop'.
Plain web development.
Personally, I do not use really much the Office Development Tools. I install manually my add-in with "https://localhost:XXXX" for url and I start the web project on IIS express to do the debugging. For stepping into the source code, I use the debugger of my browser (Chrome, Edge, IE etc.) when browsing in OWA. When I need to step into source code specifically on Desktop (For windows or for Mac) I use Vorlon.js see also this blog post.
My advice is also to test/debug frequently with IE 11 (still available in Win10!) and OWA. Indeed, the browser used internally by Office Desktop for the add-ins is IE.

All-in-one add-in for outlook

I want to develop all-in-one add-in for Outlook. This means that this add-in will be available for all Outlook clients (desktop, web).
I read here that i can do this. I already created add-in for Outlook Web Application and tried to deploy it to desktop client, but didn't figure how to make it. So how to make it set on desktop and outlook.com? Is that really possible? And if yes, how it can be done?
Technically you can't make an add-in that will work 100% on all clients. The web-based add-ins currently only work with Mailboxes hosted on Office 365 or Exchange 2013 or greater, and with Outlook 2013 or greater. Outlook.com integration is coming this spring. COM/desktop add-ins work with Outlook 2000-2016, but not in OWA.
To deploy an add-in you need to either publish it to the Office Store or an Exchange Server. See here for more info: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/fp123515.aspx.
To install a self-published add-in that is not in the Office Store you just add the manifest file from the "Manage add-ins" page in OWA: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/fp142256.aspx
Note also that you must host your web add-in code in your own web server, and secured with an SSL certificate.

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