VSTO Backwards compatibility with Outlook 2003 / 2007

[abcomp]

Hi,

I've been reading a lot about the VSTO and have developed some sample
add-ins for Outlook 2003 and more recently Outlook 2007 beta 2. What I
havn't seen is how interoperable my add-in will be between different
versions of Outlook. Are the following statement true?

1. My VSTO Add-in developed with Outlook 2003 will work with Outlook 2007

2. My VSTO Add-in developed with Outlook 2007 will work with Outlook 2003.

For both of the above I'm thinking about just the core events common to both
versions of Outlook (I realise that events specific to a version of Outlook
will only fire in that version of Outlook). I'd like to develop a single
Add-in that can support both versions of Outlook using the VSTO and C#.

My predicament is that for a new project we are having to initially use
Outlook 2003 with a view to upgrading to Outlook 2007 in the future. Do I
start developing with Outlook 2007, but only handle events fired by Outlook
2003 (Outlook 2007 should be released by the time this project goes live) or
do I stick with 2003 and treat 2007 as an upgrade project in the future?


Thanks

Alan

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

1 and 2 should both be correct.

In general if you need to support multiple versions of Outlook with one
codebase you develop with the oldest version of Outlook you need to support
and don't use features of later versions. Of course with the new ribbon that
breaks the old complete compatibility unless you can live with your addin
buttons for Inspectors being relegated to the Addins tab.