Automated Builds

[bluenoser]

Hi everyone,

Is there a list somewhere that details the exact process required to install
a COM Add-In? I'm currently working on automating our build process and need
to know how to do this starting from a fresh checkout/compile and ending with
the installer that our customers will receive.

Is it even possible with the command-line tools? I'd like to avoid having
Visual Studio installed on the build machine if at all possible.

Oh, and another question: is there any way to fool the compiler into
thinking that different Outlook versions are installed?

Thanks in advance,

Aaron

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You might want to mention what versions of Outlook you want to support and
what language you're using for development.

I develop for Outlook using VB 6 and use InstallShield to create MSI
compatible installations. An equivalent (but less full featured) free
installer package is available both from Visual Studio 6 and from the .NET
versions of Visual Studio. You don't have to install Visual Studio on the
client machines, in fact that's a license violation.

Always compile on a machine that has the oldest version of Outlook installed
that you want to support. Otherwise things won't work on versions older than
your installed version. That's if you use early binding. For late binding
you can compile with any version of Outlook installed. Just don't use
methods, properties or events that are in later versions, or at least not
with early binding and doing version testing in your code.

If you're using .NET code then you have other problems, such as making sure
the correct PIA's are installed on the target machines for the Outlook
versions and also making sure that the version of the framework you're using
is installed on the clients. There's special .NET information at
http://www.microeye.com/resources/res_outlookvsnet.htm.

 

[bluenoser]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for your quick response, and sorry about the lack of info. I was
hoping someone would just have a handy KB article that my attempts to search
failed to find.

We're targetting Outlook XP/2002 and Outlook 2003 with an add-in written in
C#. My plan is to use NAnt to compile the various projects and then create
the installer possibly with WiX or other (3rd-party) installer tool that
supports the command-line. I didn't mean installing Visual Studio on client
machines, just on the machine responsible for compiling the code. However,
that would mean purchasing another license and we'd like to avoid that if
possible.

I'm definitely investigating late binding, and in particular, this approach
looks very interesting:

http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/SafeCOMWrapper.asp

The main issue is ensuring that the proper .dlls and type libraries have
been registered properly. Is there a step-by-step process that I can do from
the command-line to duplicate what the setup project does?

Thanks,

Aaron

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I haven't done any command line installations, as I mentioned I use
InstallShield. You'd have to experiment on what you needed to do for that.

The link I pointed you to at MicroEye should have all the information you
need as to the required DLL's and PIA's. You would also need to use shims
and to isolate the process so your addin isn't sharing process space with
other Outlook addins.