I am developing EXCEL VSTO add-in where each user have their own license file to communicate with API. I am new to VSTO add-in development and have no experience on creating installer of VSTO Add-in. Is there any chance that in installer we can provide step where we ask user to upload license file before installation?
There are two main ways for deploying Office solutions:
Deploy an Office solution by using Windows Installer
Deploy an Office solution by using ClickOnce
All the required steps are described in the articles mentioned. It is up to you which one is to choose.
However, MSI (Windows Installer) allows to create a custom UI with custom actions that will work for you best.
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I created VSTO Outlook plugin. In my dev environment, it runs perfect.
How can I packing and deploy the VSTO Outlook plugin (outside my dev environment)?
Regards
Stefan
There are two main ways for deploying Office based COM add-ins:
Create an MSI installer, see Deploy an Office solution by using Windows Installer for more information.
Create a lightweight web-based installer ClickOnce, read more about that technology in the Deploy an Office solution by using ClickOnce article.
I have created an add in and testing it and it works great.
But how do I now deploy it to our users?
If I run the VSTO file as admin it doesnt install it for the other users.
They each have to run the VSTO file.
Thanks for any advice
There are two main ways for deploying VSTO based solutions:
Deploying an Office Solution by Using Windows Installer
Deploying an Office Solution by Using ClickOnce
I have a VSTO document-level customisation which was originally built with VS2005, VSTO 2005 SE and Excel 2003. In that configuration, I published the customisation from VS2005, copied it to where I wanted it on a user's PC, and ran a tool I have developed which set the CAS policy correctly and used the ServerDocument class to add the customisation to the user's workbook. The user could then restart Excel, open the workbook and the customisation would run. We could just copy a new version of the customisation to the same location and it would be used next time the user opened the workbook.
I've now upgraded to (gasp!) VS2008, VSTO 3.0 and Excel 2007. I've reworked my custom policy tool so that it works with the new version of VSTO. I can still attach the customisation to the workbook, but on first opening the workbook it seems to "install" the customisation into the user's AppData\Local\Apps folder. This then causes considerable grief when we want to update the customisation later. This also changes the value of AppDomain.CurrentDomain\BaseDirectory.
Is there a way in VSTO 3.0 to go back to how we used to work, without installing the customisation to the Apps folder?
As I understand it, Microsoft shifted VSTO in VS2008 to use ClickOnce for deployment and Authenticode for Code Access Security (CAS).
However, you can avoid ClickOnce by appending |vstolocal flag to the _AssemblyLocation custom property value of your customized workbook file. This |vstolocal instructs "VSTO to run the solution from the installation folder" according to this VSTO Team blog post on deploying VSTO add-ins to everyone on a machine
The VSTO loader's change from CAS policy to Authenticode may also effect how you sign your assemblies.
I want to build an add-in for Office applications using VSTO. I want to know if the VSTO runtime is installed along with the installation of MS Office 2007 or not. If Office installation does not install VSTO runtime then I will have to make my setups do that.
No, VSTO is not installed by default. Add it as a pre-requisite to ClickOnce or your setup project.
I have created a VSTO application using office 2005 & visual studio 2005 professional.I found there a setup folder.While i am running the *.exe file in client machine,it giving me error."An add-in could not be found or could not be loaded."
What is the architecture of the client machine?
If Vista: do you have the UAC (Security Dialog) disabled?
Also check in the Registry if the Path to the Manifest File is correct.
Is it loading the right Framework Version?
Are you using the Publish feature, or are you trying to create your own MSI?
You need to do some debugging on your side to have this sorted maybe:
Try to uninstall VSTO SE completely and install it again.
Create a new VSTO add-in without any additional code and run it.
Evaluate what happens and perform actions accordingly