NetOffice - Custom Task Pane in a Appointment window in Outlook - vsto

Question

I found out that it's possible to add custom task panes to individual windows like e.g. the appointment with this code snippet:
public void Inspectors_NewInspector(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Inspector Inspector)
{
Microsoft.Office.Tools.CustomTaskPane myCustomTaskPane;
if(Inspector.CurrentItem is Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.AppointmentItem ) {
UserControl uc1 = MyUserControl();
myCustomTaskPane = getAddIn().CustomTaskPanes.Add(uc1, "MyPanel",Inspector);
myCustomTaskPane.DockPosition = Office.MsoCTPDockPosition.msoCTPDockPositionRight;
myCustomTaskPane.DockPositionRestrict = Office.MsoCTPDockPositionRestrict.msoCTPDockPositionRestrictNoChange;
myCustomTaskPane.Visible = true;
}
//Additionally You can add a property change listener to the current Item here
}
however, I use 'NetOffice' instead of VSTO to have the add-in compatible with various Outlook versions. And there the add-in doesn't have the CustomTaskPanes property, and the TaskPanes.Add property isn't overloaded to allow adding custom panes on other window than the main explorer.

Answer 1

Ok, worked it out in following way.
In the ComAddin class I have a local variable
Office._CustomTaskPane _taskPane;
and I set the variable on the overriden CTPFactoryAvailable method:
public override void CTPFactoryAvailable(object CTPFactoryInst)
{
_ctpFactory = new NetOffice.OfficeApi.ICTPFactory(this.Application, CTPFactoryInst);
}
Then - when the addin is loaded - I'm adding an event handler to the NewInspectorEvent event:
private void Addin_OnStartupComplete(ref Array custom)
{
var inspectors = Application.Inspectors as NetOffice.OutlookApi.Inspectors;
inspectors.NewInspectorEvent += Inspectors_NewInspectorEvent;
}
In the event handler for creating a new inspector window, I'm creating the pane:
private void Inspectors_NewInspectorEvent(_Inspector Inspector)
{
var ai = Inspector.CurrentItem as AppointmentItem;
if (ai == null)
return;
var ins = Inspector as NetOffice.OutlookApi.Inspector;
_taskPane = _ctpFactory.CreateCTP(typeof(Addin).Assembly.GetName().Name + ".UserControl1", "My title", Inspector);
_taskPane.DockPosition = MsoCTPDockPosition.msoCTPDockPositionTop;
_taskPane.Height = 50;
_taskPane.Visible = true;
}
This draft proof of concept works for me.