Outlook 2003 AddIn loads,but no Explorer or Item toolbars showing?

[myleswakeham0]

Hi there, We have an add-in that has been in use for a couple of
years on over 100 sites. Sites typically run Office 2003, and up till
today no problems have been reported with this Add-In. It is
developed in Delphi 7 using the Add-In-Express libraries.

A client has reported that as of November 7th 2007, the toolbars in
our Add-in are failing to show up in Outlook on some of their
computers. As days progressed, more and more of their computers
displayed this behavior until only 1 computer is left now that it
shows up on. I had an opportunity to get a remote connection to one
of these failing computers, and diagnosed the following:

1. Our Add-In is loading and is not disabled in Outlook
2. Part of our add-in implements as an additional Tab in the Options
dialog and this is working fine
3. I was able to manually register the COM objects, and they
registered without incident
4. On starting Outlook, it appears to take a longer than normal time
to startup, but eventually does with no sign of exceptions being fired
5. The Add-In adds a toolbar to Calendar Explorer, Calendar Items and
Mail Items. No toolbars are displaying on any of these views.
6. No toolbar for this add-in is listed for any of these views but
not enabled. There is no sign of the toolbars at all.

So I'm puzzled. With over 100 sites working just fine, this is the
one exception. The fact is that the add-in is loading and is not
firing an exception and being disabled. The add-in is running and
shows up in the Options dialog correctly.

But no toolbars are registered in Outlook 2003 at all for this Add-
In. There are two other add-ins installed in Outlook 2003 that they
use, but this seems to have no affect on whether ours works or doesn't
work.

Does anyone have any idea what could be possibly going on here? Is
there anything special about toolbars in Outlook (ie. registry
settings that are needed to be checked, caching of UI graphics for
this, etc.) that could be the cause of this? From what I can detect
here, the problem is associated with the UI of the toolbars simply not
showing up and not the functioning of the Add-In.

All suggestions, tips, etc. greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Myles

 

[dmitry.kostochko]

Hi there,  We have an add-in that has been in use for a couple of
years on over 100 sites.  Sites typically run Office 2003, and up till
today no problems have been reported with this Add-In.  It is
developed in Delphi 7 using the Add-In-Express libraries.

A client has reported that as of November 7th 2007, the toolbars in
our Add-in are failing to show up in Outlook on some of their
computers.  As days progressed, more and more of their computers
displayed this behavior until only 1 computer is left now that it
shows up on.  I had an opportunity to get a remote connection to one
of these failing computers, and diagnosed the following:

1.  Our Add-In is loading and is not disabled in Outlook
2.  Part of our add-in implements as an additional Tab in the Options
dialog and this is working fine
3.  I was able to manually register the COM objects, and they
registered without incident
4.  On starting Outlook, it appears to take a longer than normal time
to startup, but eventually does with no sign of exceptions being fired
5.  The Add-In adds a toolbar to Calendar Explorer, Calendar Items and
Mail Items.  No toolbars are displaying on any of these views.
6.  No toolbar for this add-in is listed for any of these views but
not enabled.  There is no sign of the toolbars at all.

So I'm puzzled.  With over 100 sites working just fine, this is the
one exception.  The fact is that the add-in is loading and is not
firing an exception and being disabled.  The add-in is running and
shows up in the Options dialog correctly.

But no toolbars are registered in Outlook 2003 at all for this Add-
In.  There are two other add-ins installed in Outlook 2003 that they
use, but this seems to have no affect on whether ours works or doesn't
work.

Does anyone have any idea what could be possibly going on here?  Is
there anything special about toolbars in Outlook (ie. registry
settings that are needed to be checked, caching of UI graphics for
this, etc.) that could be the cause of this?  From what I can detect
here, the problem is associated with the UI of the toolbars simply not
showing up and not the functioning of the Add-In.

All suggestions, tips, etc. greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Myles

Hi Myles,

1. Do you use temporary command bars and controls in your add-in?
2. Please try to remove the outcmd.dat file on that PC. Usually, it is
located at <SYS_DRIVE>:\Documents and Settings\<USER_NAME>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook.


Best regards,
Dmitry Kostochko
Add-in Express Ltd.