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.
Related
We have developed an addin for Word 2016 (relevant for 2013 as well) which consists of a manifest.xml and a web project serving html and javascript. We want to distribute this addin to all the users in an organization.
We do not have any trouble setting up the webservice and pointing the manifest to it, however the issue is distributing the xml and installing it into the Word instances on user's computers.
What is the simplest way for an organization admin to inject this addin into users Word applications?
Have you considered centralized deployment?
The Office 365 admin center makes it easy for an administrator to deploy Office Add-ins to users and groups within their organization. Add-ins deployed via the admin center are available to users in their Office applications right away, with no client configuration required. You can use Centralized Deployment to deploy internal add-ins as well as add-ins provided by ISVs.
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 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.
Here was said All-in-one add-in for outlook that this is possible to create the web-based add-in working both with Mailboxes hosted on Office 365 or Exchange 2013 or greater, and with Outlook 2013 or greater, so with web and desktop Outlook versions.Am I right? Can you provide some references on how to develop such an add-in and then install it for both clients? Thanks you.
Best regards
You can start reading the Official documentation on Office add-ins. These new Office add-ins are web applications "served" inside Office products, you will have to be a little familiar with web technologies to develop.
Regarding Outlook add-in, as written by Eric Legault (in the question link), the add-in is not installed on a specific client but on the exchange account whether it is at organisation level or at user level. Consequently, with one install you will have the add-ins working on all Outlook clients (Desktop, OutlookWebAccess etc.).
Take care: Office add-ins now describes both technologies the new one that we are discussing (formerly app for office) and the old COM add-ins. I have written a blog post to explain the in-and-outs of the two technologies.
You are right. You have the opportunity to create a web-based add-in for Office 365 and Office 2013 desktop. But, Microsoft's JavaScript API has limited functionality. I want to recommend you read the following document first: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/en-us/library/office/fp161015.aspx. If you plan to write a small add-in for yourself, the web-based add-in is a great option.
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.