Problem Statement: Create a macOS Outlook add-in which responds to Calendar move and delete events and calls an API.
Challenge: Most of the links say that this is not possible but there are native Outlook add-ins for Mac already out there. One example is Zoom's New Updates For Outlook Plugin.
Problem with Office-JS add-in: We know that MS is pushing office add-ins for Mac, however there are some limitations which we cannot live with. Office-JS add-in does not react on move and delete events in a Calendar. I understand that there are notifications that can be subscribed to and required action can be taken. This is also a challenge because our clients won't allow to deploy extra components outside network.
Does anyone have any idea on how to create a native macOS Outlook add-in?
The add-in you've given as an example isn't a native add-in. It is a web add-in using Office.js. It does not seem to react to events in the Calendar. It is configured for the Calendar read / write surface, so its button appears in that context.
Currently, there is no way to create "native" add-ins for Mac Outlook. If you can describe your scenario and what you aren't able to achieve with web add-ins, we could try and provide a workaround.
Related
I am trying to create an Outlook add-in with the onSend function. I can see on the GitHub onSend Tutorial that onSend is only supported on Outlook web and 365. Has this been updated now (the readme is 2 years old)? I am trying to debug mine on Outlook desktop 2016 (using Visual Code + Edge extension) and the debugger never reaches the function I created and that is supposed to be reached during the onSend event.
If still not supported, can I still deploy this add-in via 365 (admin) and get it reflected on Outlook desktop 2016?
Thank you very much.
The On-Send feature is supported by the desktop editions of Outlook for Windows. Make sure you deal with the supported version of Windows, Exchange server, Outlook. Read more about that in the On-send feature for Outlook add-ins article.
OnSend is not supported in Outlook Desktop 2016.
So, I use outlook for work (outlook 2010). I have had to add my emails manually to my personal phone via active sync. I am unable to find a way to see my calendar. The ideal way i am hoping is to add my outlook calendar to my google calendar. any suggestions?
I'm developing an Outlook Mail Add-in there is a requirement for me to make the add-in behave differently in the Desktop Outlook client and Web Client.
I was going throgh the Outlook Add-in API documentation but I couldn't find a way to detect the client type. Can anyone tell me if this is possible and how.
Office.context.mailbox.diagnostics.hostName
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.
I am willing to develop an Outlook add-in for both, the web and the desktop version. My questions are:
When I upload a new version of the add-in, is it automatically updated (per default) in the users' devices / outlook web accounts?
Is it the same add-in for both, web and desktop, uploaded to office store?
If you are only updating the source code of the add-in (HTML, JavaScript, CSS) on the web server where you host it, then all users will get that right away since like Dmitry explained, Outlook will download the page like a browser would download it. So you should be careful updating the page of the production add-in - users will get the updates right away (although keep in mind that user's system/browser may cache previous version of the page for some time), so if you break the page or functionality of the add-in, users will get affected immediately, which may result in negative reviews for your add-in in the Office Store.
If you are updating the manifest XML file of the addin, then you need to publish new version of it to Office Store. Once it's published, that new version will automatically be updated for users who already installed an earlier version of the add-in. This automatic update will happen after they login to any of their Outlook clients that support add-ins.
Yes it is the same add-in for both web and desktop - that's the beauty of the new Office add-ins!
Hope this helps.
Web addins are never even stored locally, (desktop) Outlook downloads the addin source code every time it starts up.