COM Add in or ECE?

[Mahesh]

Hi ,
Can anybody tell me what are the advantages of COM add-in over ECE?

Which of the above given approach is preferrable in which conditions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[cainrandom]

Hi ,
 Can anybody tell me what are the advantages of COM add-in over ECE?

Which of the above given approach is preferrable in which conditions?

Thanks in advance.

COM add-ins are definitely better-supported these days, and there's a
lot more literature about and tools for developing them. I also
believe Microsoft has said that support for ECE's in Outlook may be
discontinued in the near future. If you're starting from scratch and
don't need anything that can only be done via ECE (and I'm not sure
there are features only available via ECE), I'd definitely go with a
COM add-in.

 

[Mahesh]

Thanks for the Reply,
I searched a lot but couldn't found advantages and disavantages of using
COM add in over ECE?

can you please tell me ?

 

[Dmitry Streblechenko]

Let me reiterate what Cain said:
1. ECE will (very likely) not be supported in the next version of Outlook
2. There isn't much support available for ECE
3. You must use C++ or Delphi to write an ECE - ECE is as pure Extended MAPI
as it gets
4. ECE is an old API unchnaged from the days of the 16 bit Exchange Client
(the Outlook predecessor).
5. Outlook 2007 lets you do everything ECE can.

Unless you need to support Outlook 97/98, don't go with ECE.

--
Dmitry Streblechenko (MVP)
http://www.dimastr.com/
OutlookSpy - Outlook, CDO
and MAPI Developer Tool
-

 

[Dave Vespa [MSFT]]

Hi Mahesh,

Microsoft recommends that all new development for Outlook be Addin's (VSTO
or COM Addins).

If there is a particular feature that ECE's have that Addins don't, please
tell us:

http://blogs.msdn.com/stephen_griffin/archive/2007/10/12/whither-ece.aspx

Dave