Problems with .NET and COM Addins...

[Joe Messina]

I am having some problems with the sample COM application that is attached to the "What's New in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 for Developers?" article. The article can be found here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/un...en-us/odc_ol2003_ta/html/odc_olwhatsnew2k3.as

The first problem is the fact that Outlook will not completely unload itself from memory despite having the "correct" code in the close event of the explorer and the inspector object. As far as I can tell it looks like all objects are destroyed. I was experimenting with some minor changes and I think it is working a lot better now.

The second problem I have seen so far is if I open a note item, then close that item by pressing the close button and then exit Outlook 2003 I will get an error message say that it "Could not complete the operation. One or more parameters are not valid." After clicking Ok you will get the following error "The note will close and your changes will not be saved." This is really odd and it does not matter if you change the note or not

The addin capabilities within Office was a great idea, but it appears to have many problems still. I was hoping 2003 would have many of the problems fixed. I was also disappointed to see a change in the way Outlook 2003 behaves if there is another instance of it running in memory. In prior versions of Outlook, it would continue to load in those situations, now you get an error stating "The operation failed.". I have seen third party hacks that will help ensure Outlook unloads properly.

QUESTION

I was able to duplicate this behavior on multiple machines, are others able to duplicate them? If so, does anybody have a fix for these proplesms? I have never tried to write a VB6 addid so I don't know if some of these problems related to .NET Addins. Does any body know? Does anybody have a sample application that does not have these problems

 

[Mark S.]

"The operation failed.

I've noticed that message while developing an add-in too. It can indicate that the prior add-in has not been fully unloaded..

As for Outlook 2003, I can run multiple instances of the application.

 

[Terje Krång]

Joe,

What did you do to make Outlook close correctly? I am using the Explorer
close event handler, GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers() and GC.Collect(), and
even a Debug.Write() (I shit you not, that Debug.Write is consequently
helping Outlook to shut down properly -- without it, it takes 6-7 seconds)
... But still, it seems to be very unstable. Loading an XML document (doc =
new XmlDocument(), doc.LoadXml(xml)) is enough to get Outlook into trouble,
again with 6-7 seconds to shut down.


Terje

I am having some problems with the sample COM application that is attached

to the "What's New in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 for Developers?"
article. The article can be found here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/un...n-us/odc_ol2003_ta/html/odc_olwhatsnew2k3.asp

The first problem is the fact that Outlook will not completely unload

itself from memory despite having the "correct" code in the close event of
the explorer and the inspector object. As far as I can tell it looks like
all objects are destroyed. I was experimenting with some minor changes and
I think it is working a lot better now.

The second problem I have seen so far is if I open a note item, then close

that item by pressing the close button and then exit Outlook 2003 I will get
an error message say that it "Could not complete the operation. One or more
parameters are not valid." After clicking Ok you will get the following
error "The note will close and your changes will not be saved." This is
really odd and it does not matter if you change the note or not.

The addin capabilities within Office was a great idea, but it appears to

have many problems still. I was hoping 2003 would have many of the problems
fixed. I was also disappointed to see a change in the way Outlook 2003
behaves if there is another instance of it running in memory. In prior
versions of Outlook, it would continue to load in those situations, now you
get an error stating "The operation failed.". I have seen third party hacks
that will help ensure Outlook unloads properly.

QUESTIONS

I was able to duplicate this behavior on multiple machines, are others

able to duplicate them? If so, does anybody have a fix for these proplesms?
I have never tried to write a VB6 addid so I don't know if some of these
problems related to .NET Addins. Does any body know? Does anybody have a
sample application that does not have these problems?