Distributing IAs for Word 2000

[Evan Stone]

We're having some confusion regarding whether it's legal to generate and
distribute IAs for Office 2000. We would be only deploying them to our
application directory since we want to support XCopy deployment, and the
information up on the Microsoft and MSDN sites is rather... indirect, and
also subject to some interpretation.

In my mind, it seems that there should not be a problem since PIAs do not
even *exist* for Office 2000, but I'm a little befuddled at this point.

Does anyone know what Microsoft's official party line about this (or where I
can find it)?

Thanks!

evan k. stone | software engineer

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Evan,

I believe you are correct: Any IAs you generate using VS can be distributed
with your application. (PIAs (PRIMARY Interop Assemblies) can only be created
by the software manufacturer, but there are no PIAs for Office 2000). The IAs
are part of your application, and should be placed in the solution's folder
(not in the GAC). You also have to make sure your solution points to these,
and isn't allowed to look for them in the GAC.

There have been some discussions in this group, with MS participation, but I
can't point you to any specific message threads. Have you tried a Google
search on all the office.developer groups on this server, on the term IA?

We're having some confusion regarding whether it's legal to generate and
distribute IAs for Office 2000. We would be only deploying them to our
application directory since we want to support XCopy deployment, and the
information up on the Microsoft and MSDN sites is rather... indirect, and
also subject to some interpretation.

In my mind, it seems that there should not be a problem since PIAs do not
even *exist* for Office 2000, but I'm a little befuddled at this point.

Does anyone know what Microsoft's official party line about this (or where I
can find it)?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Evan Stone]

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for the information - I'll check for past threads on the subject.

We are currently handling the IAs we generate as you mention in your reply -
they're in the application/solution folder and NOT in the GAC, however,
regarding this point:

You also have to make sure your solution points to
these, and isn't allowed to look for them in the GAC.

....we're doing the former, but I'm not entirely sure to how about
accomplishing the latter. So there's a way to enforce that the application
does not look for these particular components in the GAC? I was not aware of
that, but that's very cool. Nice to have that kind of control.

Thanks!

evan k. stone | software engineer

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Evan,

So there's a way to enforce that the application
does not look for these particular components in the GAC?

I think so. Something in the properties for the Reference,
as I recall.

-- Cindy