I have notice this error happens for ALL modern Outlook Office Add-ins. Searching the net I can also see that many other Modern Outlook Add-ins are having the same issue. We know that this is an Outlook Client issue. You never get the error on OWA.
I have also seen that Microsoft are suggesting
Open Internet Explorer
Click Tools
Click Internet Options
Click Security tab
Select Internet Sites zone
Select Enable Protected Mode (make sure box is un checked)
Click OK
Restart Internet Explorer and Outlook
However, we cannot ask customer to do this. Many are not even using IE. And it doesn't work most of the times!
In our case the Add-in service is running on Azure. We have enabled application insight and are monitoring failures on a daily basis. Our service is running on 20% of the avilable capacity. I feel that we have done all that we could. We are stock! and very frustrated.
Logically, when the Add-in works with no error in OWA, and only fails in the Outlook client this can only mean the error is in Outlook or windows or.... meaning it is a Microsoft error.
This error is by-design for add-ins in Outlook clients that are rendered using IE and do not have Protected Mode enabled. Protected Mode is a security feature when using IE, and it is strongly recommend that it be enabled while using add-ins.
If you do not or cannot enable Protected Mode, a possible workaround is to upgrade to a newer Windows and Office, so add-ins are rendered using Edge Webview instead of IE. Details about what versions that Webview are supported can be found here.
Related
We have a custom Outlook VSTO add-in. We publish to a location which installs based on version, and it has worked perfectly for years. For some reason, the new version we pushed today is not running properly. It installs fine, it appears to be running (i.e. shows in the list of Add-Ins, has delays ignored, and shows as active) but the icon that should show up in the ribbon for a meeting is not appearing. It does work on the developer machines. No errors are logged anywhere, including Application Event Viewer. The install package does seem considerably larger, but there are no massive upgrades, and the machines with the issues have .Net 4.8 as do the development machines.
but the icon that should show up in the ribbon for a meeting is not appearing
By default, if a VSTO add-in attempts to manipulate the Microsoft Office user interface (UI) and fails, no error message is displayed. However, you can configure Microsoft Office applications to display messages for errors that relate to the UI. You can use these messages to help determine why a custom ribbon does not appear, or why a ribbon appears but no controls appear. See How to: Show Add-in user interface errors for more information.
Also you need to make sure that images are available on the end user machine.
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.
I've built and deployed an Outlook 2016 VSTO plugin and built an installer for it using the following walkthrough - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc442767.aspx. The installer has been compiled for x86 and x64 architectures (two separate installs).
However, I'm seeing a variety of different issues when I install in different environments.
In a Windows 7 (x64, Office x32), the plugin loads as expected and works perfectly.
In a Windows 7 (x64, Office x64), the plugin installs, the LoadBehavior is correct, the plugin is loaded in Outlook but it is never displayed? I have tried to disable all other add-ins and still it doesn't show up?
I have tried using the suppressed alerts - How to troubleshoot a VSTO addin that does not load? - but this has not yielded any useful information at this moment.
Some of these peculiarities extend into Windows 10 itself.
What I'm trying to ascertain is why some environments the plugin goes in smoothly and in others why it fails or worst, faults. Are there other keys I need to look at?
Thanks
There are a lot of pitfalls why you may not see the plug-in in Office applications.
The very first option I'd suggest checking - UI errors. By default, if an VSTO Add-in attempts to manipulate the Microsoft Office user interface (UI) and fails, no error message is displayed. However, you can configure Microsoft Office applications to display messages for errors that relate to the UI. You can use these messages to help determine why a custom Ribbon does not appear, or why a Ribbon appears but no controls appear. See How to: Show Add-in User Interface Errors for more information.
Second, make sure that you included all the required prerequisites to the installer. Sometimes the plug-in can't run correclty because any of the dependencies is missed. Or you just use platform-specific assemblies...
Third, make sure no exceptions are fired at startup.
Below you may find some helpful articles:
Troubleshooting COM Add-In load failures
Resolving performance issues with loading Office add-ins (VSTO add-ins or Shared add-ins)
Thanks for the info - the end result issue ended being a combination of registry keys being deployed to the wrong location for x64 platforms on an x86 Office install.
The solution was to cover my bases with both registry hives to ensure things loaded as expected.
We developed an add-in for Outlook which is published in the store already. It has paid and trial versions. License checking in the add-in works fine if the add-in is used from a browser, Outlook for Mac. But if it is Outlook for Windows or outlook.live.com (versions where "add-in commands" feature is enabled and add-in is opened in a side bar) then no license information is passed.
Example:
This correct URL is navigated from Outlook Web and Outlook Mac:
https://serverurl?et=%3cr+v%3d%221%22%3e%3ct..............
This is how the URL looks like for Outlook for Windows:
https://serverurl?_host_Info=Outlook|Win32|16.01|en-US
So, since Outlook for Windows does not supply license information we have to refuse add-in access for our clients on Outlook for Windows.
I found related questions for Excel and Word, but none of them was answered yet. The problem is that it is Outlook that needs to send the data, so we can do nothing in our code to troubleshoot.
Guys, any ideas where the problem is or what to check in the manifest?
Here is the link to the add-in listing in the Office store (TextMiner) if it may help to answer.
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.