Outlook plugin

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frank.leahy
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:49 pm

Outlook plugin

Postby frank.leahy » Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:51 pm

Has anyone used InstallAware to install and Outlook plugin?

Thanks,
- Frank Leahy

CandiceJones
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Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:03 pm
Contact:

Postby CandiceJones » Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:23 am

I think this is pretty straightforward, just need to create some registry keys to register the plug-in.
Candice Jones
InstallAware
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astupoli
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Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:54 pm

Postby astupoli » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:17 pm

Hi,

I have a similar question. I downloaded the trial version of IA to reproduce the setup project for an Outlook add-in I created using the standard Visual Studio 2005 features.

This is what is not clear to me from your brief answer:

- first, do yo have an example? Has anyone done this before using IA?

- I tried using the "import msi" feature in IA and I get an error. I was expecting to get an IA version of the MSI generated by VS

- related to the previous point, I'm using a product from Add-in Express to create my Outlook add-in. This software provides me a wizard that configures the Visual Studio setup project accordingly, so that their DLLs are properly registered besides my own code. This is why the import wizard is very important for me.

- I also make use of the default setup.exe bootstrap installer generated by Visual Studio that downloads from our website a list of prerequisites including Windows Installer 3.1, .Net Framework 2.0, and the Shared Add-in Support Update for MSFT .Net Framework (KB908002) patch. IA provides me the first 2 prerequisites in the same way, but I don't know how to add the KB patch. Is this supported?

- related to the previous point, will the setup project download all these files from Internet just like the default VS bootstrap does?

- are all the prerequisites files treated only as prerequisites? I mean, that they are not part of my product itself, but just prerequisites the target computer must have installed previously. In other word, when the user goes to uninstall my add-in, will this trigger uninstalling all the prerequisites as well? Just to be clear, I'm expecting that my uninstaller will remove only my add-in and not the prerequisites.

- One of the reasons I'm evaluating IA is because I cannot customize the look and feel of the setup bootstrap. I'm assuming that I will be able to do this with IA, right?

- Another reason is because I would like to add other prerequisites in the feature. For example, detect if Flash Player is installed in the target computer and if not, trigger the corresponding installation.

- I saw another post that it is possible to detect if a program is running so that it can be shutdown before proceeding with the installation. I need to do this with Outlook, but I also need one step forward of this, which is to be able to detect the specific version of Outlook (and/or Office) installed. Is it possible (i.e., do you provide examples)?


Thank you for time. Looking forward to your comments

Esteban
Astudillo at Astupoli

CandiceJones
Posts: 904
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:03 pm
Contact:

Postby CandiceJones » Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:58 pm

I don't have a pre-built sample for you, but I know our sister company had built a product which installed an Outlook add-in, using InstallAware. Like I said, it was just a matter of using the Registry view and/or the Write Registry command for creating the registry keys.

It is best to start your setup program from scratch, if you want to leverage the advantages of InstallAware in your installer. While the Database Import Wizard will convert an MSI/MSM database to MSIcode, not everything can be converted, and this can produce undesired results.

I would contact Add-In Express and ask them for a merge module (MSM) that I can merge with my InstallAware setup to automatically install their components. They should offer those merge modules, or at least instructions for deployment for applications using their components - it would be myopic for them to only support the Visual Studio Installer.

You can add your custom runtime to your InstallAware project - many ways to do this are available. A typical approach is to add the runtime as a support file, and then run it from $SUPPORTDIR$ using Run Program to install the runtime. Many other ways are available; you could even extend the Application Runtimes view and we have a whitepaper available that describes how in detail.

The InstallAware prerequisite installer is a lot more powerful compared to the Visual Studio prerequisite installer. You will get 2x better compression, partial web deployment, and many other benefits - automatically. The technology runtimes will not be uninstalled when you remove your application. Seperate installer windows will not be shown for your technology runtimes, and everything will happen in your InstallAware installer, even capturing the actual progress of the runtime installation. Of course, you can also customize the progress dialog to your liking.

You can check for Outlook using the Read Registry command and shut it down using the Terminate Program command.
Candice Jones

InstallAware

Home of The Next Generation MSI Installer

Get your free copy today - http://www.installaware.com/


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