Custom properties are not being saved immediately to Exchange Server in Outlook desktop 2016 - outlook

My Outlook web add-in saves emails to an external application.Upon save, it will also write some custom information to exchange server using Office.js's customProps.saveAsync();. So next time the user open the same email, the add-in will look up the properties and if it is not null will remind the user the email has been saved.
Work like a charm in web browser(Office 365).
However in Windows Outlook desktop, the function performs strangely. If I save the email and then immediately move the email to another folder. The customProps.saveAsync(); will fail(nothing saved to exchange server). However, if I re-launch the add-in on the email before moving out to another folder, the custom info will be saved successfully.
Seems to me on Outlook desktop the custom properties will not be written to the exchange server immediately, instead, it will wait until it is being triggered(re-launch add-in etc I do not know the exact mechanism). However, if the email being moved to another folder right after being saved in an add-in, the pending function will be lost.
I found this describing seemingly similar behavior. So I then turned off the "cache" mode in outlook but the problem persisted.
I also tried using EWS's API to perform the "save custom properties", but the problem still persisted.
Am I missing somethinghere or it is Outlook desktop's bug?

You are not missing something - this is definitely a bug in Outlook Desktop. Thank you for reporting the issue. We are investigating and will work on a fix as quickly as we can.
As a workaround in the interim, you can switch messages within the same folder in order to trigger a save. The workaround you found of re-opening an Add-in may also work.

Related

How to Detect if Office 365 web addin is installed or not?

We have a desktop app with which we want to integrate Office 365 calendar. We will have our users provide their consent by authorising the app in office 365. I wonder if I can use any specific permission and/or api that would help us know if our office 365 office.js addin is installed by that user. This works great with VSTO addin as we can get the info from system registry, however, as Office 365 addin is installed on cloud no such registry can be found and we won’t be able to know.
Exchange will create a subfolder for each installed web addin in a special folder named WebExtAddins. The folder is on the same level as the other special folders (e.g. the Inbox), but is hidden. You can see that folder (and its subfolders) in OutlookSpy (I am its author) - click IMsgStore button on the OutlookSpy ribbon, click "Open Folder", double click on the folder named WebExtAddins.
UPDATE April 2022 - it looks like Outlook no longer uses the WebExtAddins folder. Instead, the list of web addins is stored in a hidden (associated) message with the message class of "IPM.Configuration.ExtensionMasterTable" in the Inbox folder. The list is stored in the PR_ROAMING_XMLSTREAM binary property. The format of the property is not documented.
In EWS, the list of installed addins can be retrieved using the GetAppManifests operation. If you are using Outlook Object Model or Extended MAPI, your only option is parsing that blob.
For this particular case (figure out if a web addin is installed), the addin custom storage will be in a hidden (associated) message in Inbox folder with the message class of "IPM.Configuration.ClientExtension.<guid>", where <guid> is your addin's GUID. You should be able to asccess that hidden message using MAPIFolder.GetStorage("IPM.Configuration.ClientExtension.<guid>", olIdentifyByMessageClass) (where MAPIFolder is retrieved from Namespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox))
It seems that there is no good way to check directly now. Just like you said,Office 365 add-in is installed on Cloud. Since it runs through a separate browser process (Like IE). After plug-ins are loaded, we typically see two IE processes in the process manager. Here's a detail. If your Office is 32-bit, then its core process will be a 32-bit one. You can see that if you load multiple plug-ins, the memory it uses will gradually increase. However, it is still a process.
Screenshot:
Also, if your Windows is 64-bit, it will create another 64-bit IE process which is actually a call relationship. As you can see from the diagram below, the 32-bit process is actually calling the 64-bit process.

Programmatically accessing archived mails in an Exchange folder

I am trying to access all the mails in a given folder via the ActiveX interface to Outlook 2013. I use the message API (MAPI) of Outlook to get the desired folder object.
However, when I go through all the items of this folder object, many messages are missing. Indeed, there are messages that are on the MS Exchange server that are not synchronized with Outlook because they are too old. (In Outlook, the folder ends with a link named 'Click here to view more on Microsoft Exchange'. When clicking on the link, the missing messages appear in Outlook. However they are not added to the folder object after this operation.)
How to access those messages? Is it possible via the Outlook ActiveX interface? If not, is there an equivalent interface to the MS Exchange server?
To access older (but not archived) emails, you can either
Set the Exchange account to sync all items in the Exchange account properties dialog. Outlook must be restarted.
Set the Exchange account to sync all items programmatically. You can do that using Extended MAPI (C++ or Delphi only), there is a flag that needs to be set in the MSEMS store profile section (the property tag is 0x66490003). Redemption (I am its author - any language) exposes the RDOExchangeMailboxStore.MonthsToKeepOffline / DaysToKeepOffline properties. Outlook must be restarted.
Open the parent folder in the online mode using the MAPI_NO_CACHE flag when calling IMsgStore::OpenEntry (Extended MAPI, C++ or Delphi only). Redemption (I am its author) lets you pass that flag when you open the folder using RDOSession.GetFolderFromID from any language.

Not Showing Outlook Addin

I have created outlook addin for Outlook 2013 64 bit.
In that Addin, i have created Form region with custom controls.
Then with the reference of http://blogs.msdn.com/b/emeamsgdev/archive/2013/11/21/outlook-deploying-an-outlook-2013-add-in-using-installshield-le.aspx i created setup file for Addin.
Now i installed it in my computer and everything works fine.
However when i try to install it on client computer, it doesn't show addin in outlook.
and i am not able to find any reason.?
I have also created registry for my addins
If it simply doesn't load, without errors, it only means one thing, outlook is unaware of your addin, cause even when addins are not working, outlook gives you an error or turns the LoadBehaviour regkey to '2'.
On your client, you should check that the registry values are set properly.
**HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\Outlook_PROJECT_ADDIN
If your addin doesn't work, check to see if those values exist, and if they do, what happens when outlook loads ? does LoadBehavior turns to '2' instead of 3 ?
If so, and it works perfectly on your pc, it probably means you have issues with the Manifest regkey, make sure the manifest points to a valid local location followed by a |vstolocal
so its syntax should be something like:
file:///C:/Outlook_Proj.vsto|vstolocal
Also make sure you have .Net Framework v4.0 installed on your target PC.
If you're trying to install it to a network drive, make sure you remove the '|vstolocal| thingy, and add the network drive to the trusted zone in Internet Explorer Settings.
Hope the following steps will help you solve this problem if you are still facing it.
Run the deployed setup with administration rights.
If it is not shown under Add-ins, open the setup folder and double click on the .vsto file then select install.
If you can see the addin among the others, and is not functioning it means it is disabled. To enable the add-in(since you are using outlook 2013), go to File -> Slow and Disabled Add-ins, and you shold see your add-in on the pop-upped window. Enable it.
Create the VSTO_SUPRESSDISPLAYALERTS = 0 enviorment variable to get any VSTO alerts. Take a look in the Windows event viewer and off course be sure of being installed the pre requisistes like Office Primary assembles and VSTO for office. Another think, check if your adding was not crashed once and move to inactive add-in list. Search registry for Resiliency key.

Outlook add-in creating spurious folders in new PSTs

I'm maintaining an Outlook 2010 addin produced by my company. Some of our clients have reported that spurious folders named &Dont prompt me about this again., &Dont prompt me about this again.1, &Dont prompt me about this again.2, etc. are appearing. I was able to duplicate this issue by creating a new PST file; each time I re-open Outlook, a new folder is created.
Some research indicates that people have reported similar issues with Outlook Social Connector and the Norton Antispam Outlook Addin. I verified that neither of the above is causing our issue. It seems to me that this is an issue among Outlook add-ins. Is there something we can do to fix it in our Outlook add-in?
When you execute the method 'GetDefaultFolder' with any value, if the folder doesn't exist in the new .pst file, the Outlook create it:
Outlook.NameSpace ns = OutlookApp.Session;
Outlook.Store store = ns.Stores[1];
store.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderDrafts);
Sometimes, for no reason, the Outlook creates strange folders, like in my question:
Outlook.Store.GetDefaultFolder creates a stranger folder
I'm still dont understand why...

outlook addin goes straight to inactive application addins

My Outlook addin MSI installs the addin (It is listed in Add\Remove programs) but sends it straight to inactive application addins.
How can I fix this?
Check the LoadBehavior key value for your plugin.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\%your add in%\LoadBehavior
If you see the registry hive for you add-in - it's most likely to be installed correctly.
The LoadBehavior value should be 3 before you start Outlook. If it's not, set it to 3.
If it goes to 2 when you start Outlook - it is definitely trying to run it, so it's good news in a way.
You will need to do some diagnostics there - try instantiating your add-in from vbs
set c = CreateObject("EnthusiasticDeveloper.OutlookAddIn")
This should give you no errors.
If it doesn't and the object is instantiated - you need to put diagnostics in your add-in.
It is being called by Outlook and your most likely to get enough control to instantiate log4net.
HTH
It seems the MS Outlook started evaluating the add-ins that directly affect product overall performance and set them as inactive. I found this article that indicates the windows registry entry for DisabledItems (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems). It is much likely to your add-in be listed on this folder. Backup the related entry before removing it.
See detailed information on this accessing:
http://www.outlook-apps.com/inactive-outlook-add-ins/
Cheers,
Vieira
This probably happens because the load behavior is not set correctly. This article can help you: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsto/ff937654.aspx#Create

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