VSTO How to hide FormRegion in Reply email [in InlineResponse also]? - outlook

Question

So, as the subject says...what is the easiest way to hide FormRegion if email is in Reply mode whether its in a new window or with InlineResponse?

Answer 1

Just set the FormRegion.Visible property which returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the form region is visible or hidden.

Answer 2

Went back to test the approach in my answer after the question from #EugeneAstafiev and -- of course -- this was more complicated than I first thought... but I did get it working with some additional code.
The issue is that when the user clicks "Reply", it opens a new inspector window with a new instance of the FormRegion. So setting the Visible property to false in the event handler sets it only on the current "Read" mode inspector window -- rather than the new "Compose" mode inspector window that gets opened. So, instead the code samples below set up a bool flag property in ThisAddIn called LoadFormRegion that can be toggled to "false" when the Reply or ReplyAll event is fired.
Also, I noticed that setting Visible to false on the FormRegion still draws the area of the FormRegion on the inspector window, just with nothing in it. To completely prevent the FormRegion from loading, you can test for "Compose" mode and then the ThisAddin.LoadFormRegion flag in the FormRegionInitializing event handler located inside of the "Form Region Factory" at the top of the code page -- which is usually folded away from view. In that code block, setting "e.Cancel = true" will prevent the FormRegion from loading at all.
Here is the revised code for the FormRegion, which now subscribes to all three email button click events (Reply, ReplyAll, Forward), and sets the ThisAddIn.LoadFormRegion flag accordingly:
namespace TESTINGOutlookAddInVSTO
{
partial class FormRegion1
{
#region Form Region Factory
[Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.FormRegionMessageClass(Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.FormRegionMessageClassAttribute.Note)]
[Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.FormRegionName("TESTINGOutlookAddInVSTO.FormRegion1")]
public partial class FormRegion1Factory
{
// Occurs before the form region is initialized.
// To prevent the form region from appearing, set e.Cancel to true.
// Use e.OutlookItem to get a reference to the current Outlook item.
private void FormRegion1Factory_FormRegionInitializing(object sender, Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.FormRegionInitializingEventArgs e)
{
if (e.FormRegionMode == Outlook.OlFormRegionMode.olFormRegionCompose)
{
var myAddIn = Globals.ThisAddIn;
if (myAddIn.LoadFormRegion == false)
{
e.Cancel = true;
}
}
}
}
#endregion
// Occurs before the form region is displayed.
// Use this.OutlookItem to get a reference to the current Outlook item.
// Use this.OutlookFormRegion to get a reference to the form region.
private void FormRegion1_FormRegionShowing(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
// Reset ThisAddIn.LoadFormRegion flag to true (in case user starts
// composing email from scratch without clicking Reply, ReplyAll or Forward)
var myAddin = Globals.ThisAddIn;
myAddin.LoadFormRegion = true;
var myMailItem = this.OutlookItem as Outlook.MailItem;
// Track these events to set the ThisAddIn.FormRegionShowing flag
((Outlook.ItemEvents_10_Event)myMailItem).Reply += myMailItem_Reply;
((Outlook.ItemEvents_10_Event)myMailItem).ReplyAll += myMailItem_ReplyAll;
((Outlook.ItemEvents_10_Event)myMailItem).Forward += myMailItem_Forward;
}
// Sets FormRegionShowing flag on ThisAddin
private void SetFormRegionShowing(bool show)
{
var myAddIn = Globals.ThisAddIn;
myAddIn.LoadFormRegion = show;
}
private void myMailItem_Forward(object Forward, ref bool Cancel)
{
SetFormRegionShowing(true);
}
private void myMailItem_ReplyAll(object Response, ref bool Cancel)
{
SetFormRegionShowing(false);
}
private void myMailItem_Reply(object Response, ref bool Cancel)
{
SetFormRegionShowing(false);
}
// Occurs when the form region is closed.
// Use this.OutlookItem to get a reference to the current Outlook item.
// Use this.OutlookFormRegion to get a reference to the form region.
private void FormRegion1_FormRegionClosed(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
}
}
}
And here's the new code for ThisAddIn to setup the LoadFormRegion property flag:
namespace TESTINGOutlookAddInVSTO
{
public partial class ThisAddIn
{
private bool loadFormRegion;
public bool LoadFormRegion { get => loadFormRegion; set => loadFormRegion = value; }
private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
LoadFormRegion = true;
}
private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
// Note: Outlook no longer raises this event. If you have code that
// must run when Outlook shuts down, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=506785
}
#region VSTO generated code
/// <summary>
/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
/// the contents of this method with the code editor.
/// </summary>
private void InternalStartup()
{
this.Startup += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Startup);
this.Shutdown += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Shutdown);
}
#endregion
}
}
Tested the above and works nearly perfectly... I noticed that if there is a "Draft" reply in the user's Inbox created before the add-in was loaded, clicking on that email to continue editing in the Preview window or a new inspector window will cause some wonky display issues with the FormRegion. However, once I closed out that draft, then everything seemed to return to normal.