Outlook Add-In Ribbon button that is always active - outlook-addin

How to define Outlook Add-In manifest so that the Add-In Ribbon button is always active regardless of if an mail or calendar item is selected? Insights add-in provided by Microsoft is doing it somehow as it is always active, while the Report Message add-in button is only active when an item is selected.
The Rule element is mandatory, and there is no "wildcard" to always enable the Add-In via Rules at least, so there is probably some other way.
<Rule xsi:type="RuleCollection" Mode="Or">
<Rule xsi:type="ItemIs" ItemType="Message" FormType="Read"/>
</Rule>
Current manifest:

Currently the feature of enabling an add-in without selecting an item, you requested, is not a part of the product.
We track Outlook add-in feature requests on our user-voice page. Please add your request here with the label “Type: product feature request”.
Feature requests on user-voice are considered, when we go through our planning process.

Related

Determine which action has been selected on Outlook Add-in icon click

I am implementing Action Commands on Outlook Add-in.
As you can see from the image below. my add-in gives you 3 options when you click on it and this choice will determine how the add-in will perform and what results you will get.
My problem is I am not sure how to pass the chosen tab value from manifest to my Add-in Application. I played with a bit and I think the value I need is under
event.source.id
I open my add-in regardless of the choice so I am using but I need pass the selected value for the future use.
<Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane">
<SourceLocation resid="messageComposeTaskPaneUrl" />
</Action>
Now question is how do I pass that id to the Add-in application.
You should be using a different Action node (link) for each of your Add-in Commands. Normally developers have a different URL for each TaskPane Add-in Command, or a different FunctionName for each UI-less Add-in Commands.) This is a better solution than trying to check the title.
If you still want to use the same URL for each of your Add-in commands, you could try embedding information as a query string in your resid definition, e.g.
<Resources>
<bt:Urls>
<bt:Url id="readTaskPaneUrl" DefaultValue="https://yourpage.html?mode=Reply"/>
..
</bt:Urls>
..
</Resources>
But it is recommended that you use unique URLs instead.

Can we open task pane from the dialog window in Office js?

Is there a way to open task pane from the dialog window in Outlook?
We perform the login operation in the Dialog window, however, by the nature of the add-in the Login is directly prompted from the ribbon. Hence, the user does not realise that there is a task pane where more customizations are possible. We want to open the taskpane post login (without requiring the user to click the icon on ribbon)
Currently the you requested, is not a part of the product. We track Outlook add-in feature requests on our user-voice page. Please add your request there. Feature requests on user-voice are considered when we go through our planning process.

Outlook Web Add-in: Can we add an entry into context menu?

I didn't find this functionality in Outlook web add-in documentation. But it's worth to ask...
We want to add a new entry into Outlook right click menu (context menu), so that it can open a hyperlink (url is different based on what you highlighted) to integrate with our web portal.
I understand contextual outlook add-in is the closer solution.
But it's not the user experience we want.
Instead of highlight everything based on RegEx, we would like to support users to intentionally trigger the add-in by highlighted keyword and right click on the context menu.
Wondering if it's possible today for the latest Outlook desktop app.
User scenario:
User highlights a keyword in email reading/writing mode
User right click the mouse
The context menu shows up with having our custom menu item
When user clicks on our custom menu item, it opens a browser with an url based on what user highlighted.
Outlook context menu cannot be extended at the moment. Available extension points are:
MessageReadCommandSurface
MessageComposeCommandSurface
AppointmentOrganizerCommandSurface
AppointmentAttendeeCommandSurface
Module (Can only be used in the DesktopFormFactor.)
MobileMessageReadCommandSurface
Events
DetectedEntity
You probably should add your business case into Office development user voice request: Outlook Web Add-in: Add Context Menu Mail Item Extension Point or at least upvote it.

Outlook add-in button on calendar overview

Is it possible to add a button to the command ribbon for the calendar overview in outlook. The PrimaryCommandSurface extensionpoint doesn't seem to be supported in Outlook add-ins. Adding a button to the appointment edit window isn't enough, because I need to perform an action for the whole calendar.
Currently the feature you requested, Outlook add-in button on command ribbon for calendar overview, is not a part of the product. However, we track Outlook add-in feature requests on our user-voice page. Please add your request there. Feature requests on user-voice are considered when we go through our planning process.
[Outlook Add-ins Engineering Team]

Reload Office content Add-In from powerpoint #24

I have office web add-in added in my PowerPoint slides (multiple instances of add-in). Need some settings that will be common across all add-in instances. for that tried to use VSTO Add-In and save those in settings file of it.
Now the issue is how i can pass those settings to each content add-in instances so i can read those in each add-in instance.
OR
Is there a way where i can get handle of content add-in's context menu buttons 'Reload', so after any change from VSTO Add-In, can i just call 'Reload'. I can move settings in DB if needed.
Content Add-In Reload option
Appreciate any insights on this.
You need to store these externally. Settings are scoped to a single Add-in (technically to a single manifest id). From the documentation:
The settings created by using the methods of the Settings object are saved per add-in and per document. That is, they are available only to the add-in that created them, and only from the document in which they are saved.