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share code 02-Sep-2010 22:33

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Code level: advanced Code area: Outlook and .NET Printer Friendly Version
Title: Inspector wrapper w/ Wordmail VSTO 2005 vb.net
Description: The sample builds on Sue's inspector wrapper code and adds support for wordmail. The code structure is identical to the original code: three code modules -- ThisApplication.vb, InspectorHelperClass.vb, and InspectorWrapper.vb The approach is minimalistic, I left out some things that were in Sue's original sample. Developed and tested using vb.net, VSTO 2005, and OL2003.
Date: 05-Feb-2008 07:04
Code level: advanced
Code area: Outlook and .NET
Posted by: Stephan Mankart
Body: '=============== This Application.vb ==================================================== Imports Microsoft.Office.Core Imports Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook Public Class ThisApplication Public WithEvents _allInsp As Outlook.Inspectors Public _allInspHelper As New InspectorHelperClass Private WithEvents _oWord As Word.Application Public _maxid As Integer 'keeps track of the number of inspectors created Private Sub ThisApplication_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup _allInsp = Globals.ThisApplication.Inspectors End Sub Private Sub ThisApplication_Shutdown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Shutdown _allInspHelper = Nothing _allInsp = Nothing End Sub Private Sub allInsp_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Inspector) Handles _allInsp.NewInspector Dim itm As Object Dim id As String On Error Resume Next itm = Inspector.CurrentItem Dim loc_doc As Word.Document If TypeOf itm Is Outlook.MailItem Then id = _allInspHelper.AddInsp(Inspector) _maxid = CStr(id) ElseIf TypeOf itm Is Outlook.ContactItem Then id = _allInspHelper.AddInsp(Inspector) End If loc_doc = Nothing itm = Nothing End Sub End Class '======================== This.Application.vb end ================================================ '========================= InspectorWrapper.vb ================================================= ' 'Added by Stephan Mankart ' ' adapted from http://outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=1344 by Sue Mosher ' ' who adapted from ' http://www.slovaktech.com/code_samples.htm#InspectorWrapper by Ken Slovak ' and http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnhcvb04/html/vb04c10.asp ' '================================================================================================= Imports Microsoft.Office.Core Imports Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook Public Class InspectorWrapperCollection Inherits DictionaryBase Public Overloads Sub Add(ByVal myWrap As InspectorWrapper, ByVal myKey As String) MyBase.Dictionary.Add(myKey, myWrap) End Sub Default Public Property item(ByVal theKey As String) As InspectorWrapper Get Return CType(MyBase.Dictionary.Item(theKey), InspectorWrapper) End Get Set(ByVal value As InspectorWrapper) MyBase.Dictionary(theKey) = value End Set End Property Public ReadOnly Property keys() As ICollection Get Return MyBase.Dictionary.Values End Get End Property Public Sub Remove(ByVal theKey As String) MyBase.Dictionary.Remove(theKey) End Sub End Class Public Class InspectorWrapper #Region "InspectorWrapper declarations" Private WithEvents _thisInsp As Outlook.Inspector Private WithEvents _thisMail As Outlook.MailItem Private WithEvents _thisContact As Outlook.ContactItem Private WithEvents _cbb As Office.CommandBarButton Private WithEvents _oword As Word.Application Private _obj As Object Private _intID As Integer 'id of inspector Private _tagBar As String = "My Bar" 'unique name for all controls is important. later a id is attatched Private _hasMailInspector As Boolean Private _hasWordEditor As Boolean #End Region #Region "InspectorWrapper class properties" Public Property MailItem() As Outlook.MailItem Get MailItem = _thisMail End Get Set(ByVal value As Outlook.MailItem) _thisMail = value _hasMailInspector = True End Set End Property Public WriteOnly Property ContactItem() As Outlook.ContactItem Set(ByVal value As Outlook.ContactItem) _thisContact = value _hasMailInspector = False End Set End Property Public Property Inspector() As Outlook.Inspector Get Inspector = _thisInsp End Get Set(ByVal value As Outlook.Inspector) _thisInsp = value End Set End Property Public Property Key() As Long ' key is used to set unique tag for each CommandBar object Get Key = _intID End Get Set(ByVal value As Long) _intID = value End Set End Property #End Region #Region "InspectorWrapper class basics: new(), finalize()" Public Sub New() On Error Resume Next _thisInsp = Nothing _thisMail = Nothing _thisContact = Nothing _cbb = Nothing _obj = Nothing _hasWordEditor = False End Sub Protected Overrides Sub Finalize() On Error Resume Next _thisInsp = Nothing _thisMail = Nothing _thisContact = Nothing _cbb = Nothing _obj = Nothing End Sub #End Region #Region "Inspector event handlers" Private Sub _thisInsp_Activate() Handles _thisInsp.Activate Dim loc_doc As Word.Document If _thisInsp.IsWordMail Then 'i.e. item is mailitem and has wordmail editor If _oword Is Nothing Then loc_doc = _thisInsp.WordEditor _oword = loc_doc.Application End If End If loc_doc = Nothing End Sub Private Sub _thisInsp_Close() Handles _thisInsp.Close On Error Resume Next removeToolbar() Globals.ThisApplication._allInspHelper.KillInsp(_intID, Me) If Globals.ThisApplication.Inspectors.Count = 1 Then 'just to ensure that all toolbars are destroyed For Each bar As Office.CommandBar In _thisInsp.CommandBars If bar.BuiltIn = False Then If bar.Name.Contains(_tagBar) Then bar.Delete() End If End If Next End If _thisInsp = Nothing End Sub #End Region #Region "Wordwindow event handler" Private Sub _oword_WindowActivate(ByVal Doc As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document, ByVal Wn As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Window) Handles _oword.WindowActivate 'distinguishes between events fired by wordmail editor or word itself. 'handles only events of currently active wordmail editor If Wn.EnvelopeVisible Then 'i.e. wordmail editor in outlook Dim loc_mail As Outlook.MailItem loc_mail = Globals.ThisApplication.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem If _thisMail.EntryID = loc_mail.EntryID Then 'to ensure that only currently active item is handled CreateToolbar() handleToolbarVisibility(Globals.ThisApplication._maxid) End If loc_mail = Nothing Else 'i.e. word itself. handleToolbarVisibility(Doc) End If End Sub #End Region #Region "Procedures to create/remove toolbars and handle their visiblity in the wrapped Inspector" Private Sub _cbb_Click1(ByVal Ctrl As Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBarButton, ByRef CancelDefault As Boolean) _ Handles _cbb.Click MsgBox("You pressed a button in Inspector No. " & Me.Key) End Sub Public Sub CreateToolbar() 'add a toolbar to the main Inspector bar Dim _tag As String Dim loc_tagBar Dim myToolBar As Office.CommandBar On Error Resume Next _tag = "This string is unique to this button" & CStr(_intID) loc_tagBar = _tagBar & " (" & CStr(Me.Key) & ")" 'check for the toolbar existing already and do not create ' it if does exist. myToolBar = Globals.ThisApplication.ActiveInspector.CommandBars(loc_tagBar) 'causes system argument exception when bar doesn't exist If myToolBar Is Nothing Then myToolBar = _thisInsp.CommandBars.Add(Name:=loc_tagBar, Temporary:=True, Position:=MsoBarPosition.msoBarTop) Else myToolBar.Enabled = True myToolBar.Visible = True Exit Sub End If _cbb = myToolBar.FindControl(Type:=Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, Tag:=_tag) If _cbb Is Nothing Then ' add the button to the toolbar _cbb = myToolBar.Controls.Add(Type:=Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, _ Temporary:=True) With _cbb .Tag = _tag .Caption = "Test button" .TooltipText = "Tooltip for " & .Caption .Style = MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonCaption 'without setting style, the caption disappears in case of wordmail editor End With End If myToolBar.Visible = True myToolBar = Nothing End Sub Private Sub handleToolbarVisibility(ByVal maxid As Integer) 'handles toolbar visibility for inspectors featuring wordmail Dim loc_tag Dim loc_ToolBar As Office.CommandBar On Error Resume Next For i As Integer = 0 To maxid If i <> CStr(Me.Key) Then loc_tag = _tagBar & " (" & i & ")" loc_ToolBar = Globals.ThisApplication.ActiveInspector.CommandBars(loc_tag) 'causes system argument exception if bar doesn't exist If loc_ToolBar IsNot Nothing Then loc_ToolBar.Visible = False loc_ToolBar.Enabled = False End If End If Next End Sub Private Sub handleToolbarVisibility(ByVal Doc As Word.Document) 'handles toolbar visibility for word windows For Each bar As Office.CommandBar In Doc.CommandBars If bar.Name.Contains(_tagBar) Then bar.Visible = False bar.Enabled = False End If Next End Sub Private Sub removeToolbar() Dim myToolBar As Office.CommandBar Dim loc_tagbar As String loc_tagbar = _tagBar & " (" & Me.Key & ")" myToolBar = _thisInsp.CommandBars(loc_tagbar) If myToolBar IsNot Nothing Then myToolBar.Delete() myToolBar = Nothing End If End Sub #End Region End Class ' ============================== InspectorWrapper end =================================== ' ============================== InspectorHelperClass.vb ============================ ' adapted from http://outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=1344 by Sue Mosher Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook Imports Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word Public Class InspectorHelperClass Public Shared InspectorsList As New InspectorWrapperCollection Private intID As Integer Public Function AddInsp(ByVal Inspector As Outlook.Inspector) As String Dim iWrap As New InspectorWrapper() Dim itm As Object Dim id As String On Error Resume Next 'set the Inspector in the class iWrap.Inspector = Inspector 'test which Outlook item type is here itm = Inspector.CurrentItem If TypeOf itm Is Outlook.MailItem Then iWrap.MailItem = TryCast(itm, Outlook.MailItem) iWrap.MailItem.Save() 'inserted to make sure that non-trivial mailitem.entryid exists ElseIf TypeOf itm Is Outlook.ContactItem Then iWrap.ContactItem = TryCast(itm, Outlook.ContactItem) End If itm = Nothing iWrap.Key = intID id = CStr(intID) 'add the class to the collection with a ' unique Key value. InspectorsList.Add(iWrap, id) 'create buttons and menus for the Inspector if user doesn't use wordmail If Inspector.IsWordMail = False Then iWrap.CreateToolbar() End If AddInsp = id intID = intID + 1 iWrap = Nothing itm = Nothing End Function Public Sub KillInsp(ByVal intID As Integer, ByVal inspWrap As InspectorWrapper) Dim inspWrap2 As InspectorWrapper On Error Resume Next inspWrap2 = InspectorsList.Item(CStr(intID)) ' check to make sure we're removing the ' correct Inspector from the collection. If Not inspWrap2 Is inspWrap Then Err.Raise(1, Description:="Unexpected Error in KillInsp") Else InspectorsList.Remove(CStr(intID)) End If inspWrap = Nothing inspWrap2 = Nothing End Sub End Class '============================ InspectorHelperClass.vb end =============================
All 18comments

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	Stephan Mankart 05-Feb-2008 07:16 For getting this to work, I learnt most from posts by Ken Slovak... if you have to dig deeper in the issue of wordmail support, you should check out his many posts on the issue.
	tabla 05-May-2008 05:33 Works perfect, How can I place the button or bar at the standard toolbar or first on before the standard toolbar?
	Stephan Mankart 14-May-2008 01:55 Sorry for not getting back to your question earlier. The answer is to my knowledge negative, anyway. I don't think it is possible to access the standard toolbar (or hide/delete it) in OL mails with Word as the editor (pls don't ask me why, I don't understand this limitation either). Also, I haven't seen anything that allows you to specify the order of the toolbars, all i know is the 'top', 'bottom'... position tag of a toolbar. If you find something out on any of these points, pls let me know, too.
	Sue Mosher 19-May-2008 11:08 It is definitely not possible to access the Standard toolbar through Wordmail. Any customization needs to be done on a custom toolbar. The value of the CommandBar.RowIndex property determines a bar's position relative to others in the same docking area.
	Rully 05-Jun-2008 01:22 Hi, I had an issue with putting a custom image for the CommandBarButton icon when I am using this code. I had two wrapper classes which is one used for Explorer and one for Inspector. In explorer, I used the previous code released by Sue and it works fine. But for Inspector objects, since I need to embed the WordMail support into the wrapper class, I have to use this code. This code is working great. I just had a small problem when I am calling CreateToolbar function from _oword_WindowActivate event handler, I could not get the custom image that I have in my resource into the button. Is it because when the WindowActivate event called, it's too late to embed the image into the CommandBarButton? If I need to do the button creation before the WindowActivate function yet still able to make use the WordMail support, where should I put the toolbar generation code? Any suggestion would be appreciated.
	Stephan Mankart 05-Jun-2008 01:34 Hi. I have never tried to add an image to the button, so i'm not sure what the problem might be. I think the timing, to insert the image when creating the button sounds perfectly fine to me. did you check, or play around with the button style property? maybe there is one that allows icons to be added. but that's only a wild guess.... sorry can't be of more help here.
	Rully 05-Jun-2008 01:47 Yeah, i supposed the timing could be the issue. Because in the ExplorerWrapper class, I called the CreateToolbar function before the Inspector is loaded/activated. And it worked fine for explorer. But since we called the CreateToolbar in the WindowActivate event to handle the WordMail issue, the image can not be loaded into the button icon. Another issue is with the flickering toolbar, do you have suggestion on how to stop the flickering? It's kinda annoying :)
	Stephan Mankart 05-Jun-2008 01:56 I know what you mean, but I didn't solve this at the time. If I remember well, Ken Slovak posted a comment somewhere, how to minimize the flickering... see if you can find that. And, come back to tell us ;)
	Rully 05-Jun-2008 02:18 I will search for that. I think I've seen it somewhere. He mentioned that there is a property within the Word.Application object that can be set to eliminate the flickering. But I did not use it at the time, because I haven;t got this issue until now. I got another issue that I just found now, if you open more than one inspector (let's say open 3 or 4) and then you close the latest inspector that you opened. After that, when you switching the Inspector window, all inspector toolbars become invinsible. It seems that the _intId is set to be the id of the last opened inspector object, so that when that inspector object deleted. The intId is returned to be 0 or some other numbers. Have you experienced this before?
	Stephan Mankart 05-Jun-2008 02:48 Ups. That doesn't sound good either. I remember vaguely there was something like that, but only in bizare cases and everything came in order when one of the remaining inspector was selected again (gained focus), which happens anyway. To be honest, the project for which I was writing the code, was killed... when wrapping it up I posted the code, so someone else could take advantage of it. If I would have been aware that the code is that buggy, I wouldn't have posted it in the first place... I don't have the time to go back to it at the moment. Maybe at some point in the future, but not in the coming weeks. I hope you can trouble shoot it yourself, and that you share the results with us...
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