Getting Started with VSTO

Getting Started with VSTO

Copyright © by Application Developers Training Company

Objectives
• Find out what kinds of solutions you can build
using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the
2007 Microsoft Office System
• See how to create a simple Visual Studio Tools
(VSTO) for Office solution
• Investigate the components that make up a
VSTO solution
• Learn some basic concepts of writing managed
code solutions using Visual Studio and the .NET
Framework


Agenda
• Building Solutions with Microsoft Office
System
• Creating Your First VSTO 2005 SE Project
• Introducing Managed Code


Building Solutions with Microsoft Office
System
• VBA has made it possible to create solutions
that build on what Office provides
 Powerful but …
 Dated
• Visual Studio Tools for Office
 Document-based solutions for Excel 2003 and Word
2003
 Add-in solutions for most Office 2003 and Office
2007 products
 Ability to use VB.NET, C#, and the .NET Framework


Document-level:
What Can You Do with VSTO? Excel 2003, Word 2003
Application-level:
Visual Studio 2005 Outlook 2003
Tools for the Microsoft
Office System
(VSTO 2005)
Visual Studio 2005 Tools
Visual Studio 2005 for the 2007 Microsoft
Team System Office System
(VS2005 Team) (VSTO 2005 SE)
Visual Studio 2005
No built-in VSTO
Professional Application-level solutions:
functionality
2003 and 2007
(VS2005 Pro)
InfoPath 2007 Forms

Starting with a Full Version of VSTO
• VSTO 2005 or Team System
• Document-level solutions
 Word 2003 Professional
 Excel 2003 Professional
 InfoPath 2007
• Application-level solutions (add-ins)
 Word 2003/2007  Outlook 2003/2007
 PowerPoint 2003/2007
 Excel 2003/2007
 Visio 2007
 InfoPath 2007


Starting with Visual Studio 2005
Professional
• Document-level solutions: None
• Application-level solutions (add-ins)
 Word 2003/2007
 Excel 2003/2007
 InfoPath 2007
 Outlook 2003/2007
 PowerPoint 2003/2007
 Visio 2007


What’s included in VSTO 2005 + VSTO
2005 SE
• VS 2005 IDE
• Templates for the solution types mentioned
• VB and C# programming languages
• Designers for WinForms, WebForms, database
and data access, and classes
• Support for XML and XSLT
• SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
• Deployment Tools
• Access 2003 Developer Extensions and
Runtime

Choosing a Development Language
• You can use either Visual Basic or C#
• Personal preference, but…
 If you use C# there are issues surrounding working
with the Office object models that you need to know
about
 If you use VB you should at least know how to read
C# so you can read examples
• In this course, we'll use mostly VB


Agenda
• Building Solutions with Microsoft Office System
• Creating Your First VSTO 2005 SE
Project


VSTO 2005 SE Prerequisites
• For Office 2003 solutions, you need one of:
 Microsoft Office 2003, Professional Edition
 Standalone version of Word 2003 or Excel 2003
• For Office 2007 solutions, any edition of Office
2007 will work
• Even though you can run Office 2003 and Office
2007 side-by-side, you can only develop VSTO
2005 SE solutions for one or the other


VSTO 2005 SE Prerequisites
• In any case, be sure .NET Programmability
Support is installed with the product
 .NET Programmability Support = Primary Interop
Assemblies (PIAs)
 PIAs allow communication between managed code
(.NET) and unmanaged code (COM)
 In Office 2003, do a Custom install
 In Office 2007, PIAs are installed by default
• PIAs can also be downloaded and installed
separately, or as part of a custom setup for your
solution

Office Edition Prerequisites: User's
Computer
• Application-level solutions written for Office
2003 will run on any edition of Office 2003
• Document-level and application-level solutions
written for Office 2003 will run on any edition of
Office 2007


Creating a New Document-Level
Solution
• Excel 2003 and Word 2003 only
• Either documents (.doc or .xls) or templates
(.dot or .xlt)
• Document-level solutions will work in Office
2007, but you need to develop them in Office
2003


The Document
• VSTO 2005 SE adds an ActiveX control
 Runtime Storage Control
 Embedded application manifest + cached data sets
• Custom property named _AssemblyName
 Always has a value of * (an asterisk)
• Custom property named _AssemblyLocation
 GUID
 Identifies the Runtime Storage Control


The Assembly
• Code runs in response to events, like Startup
and Shutdown
• If you open a doc with _AssemblyName = *
 VSTO loader starts the VSTO 2005 SE runtime
(VSTOR)
 VSTOR checks the Code Access Security policy
 VSTOR uses the embedded application manifest to
find the assembly
 Your code runs


Creating a New Application-Level
Solution
• Template adds two projects:
 Project for your solution containing a ThisAddIn class
 Project for setup so you can install on another
computer
• ThisAddIn members include
 Application points to the host application
 Office 2007: CustomTaskPanes allows you to add
task panes to the host app's UI


Loading an Add-In
• Office product checks registry for add-ins to load
 Registry settings point to application manifest
 Application manifest points to deployment manifest
• VSTO add-in loader (AddInLoader.dll) starts
• AddInLoader starts VSTOR
• VSTOR
 Reads application manifest
 Uses deployment manifest to see if newer version is available
 Creates application domain
 Checks Code Access Security policy
• Your code runs


Agenda
• Building Solutions with Microsoft Office System
• Creating Your First VSTO 2005 SE Project


Introducing Managed Code
• Whether VBA or VSTO 2005 SE, you still need
to perform the same tasks
 Provide a UI
 Translate host app's features into code
 Work with variables, conditional logic, looping,
specialized tasks
• If you're coming from VBA
 Forms are entirely new
 Most VBA code will run with little modification, but…
 For many tasks, you can write more robust, more
efficient, and shorter code by using .NET Framework

.NET Framework Basics
• Library of types that integrate with .NET's
Common Language Runtime
• Provides members for everything from data
types to sending e-mail
• Consistent architecture, so it's not as hard to
learn as its size might indicate


.NET Framework Examples
• Working with the String Data Type
• Getting File System Information
• Exception Handling
• Building Your Own Classes
• Working with Windows Forms


.NET Data Types
• .NET Framework provides data types as
members of the System namespace
 System.Boolean
 System.DateTime
 System.Double
 System.String
 …etc.
• You can use familiar aliases, without the
System-dot


Working with Strings
• .NET Framework data types provide
 Variable storage
 Shared members

If result = String.Empty Then
Console.WriteLine("No text entered")
End If

Console.WriteLine( _
String.Format("You typed {0}", result)


Working with Strings
• System.String also provides string methods like
the string functions in VBA
 .Length
 .ToUpper/.ToLower
 .Contains
 .IndexOf
 .Replace
• In Visual Basic, you can still use the VBA
functions


Getting File System Information
• FileSystem functions are available in VBA, but
no fun to use
• .NET Framework's System.IO namespace is
much easier to work with
 Create, copy, move, delete folders or files
 Read/write files
 Get/set file attributes
 Parse paths and file name strings


Exception Handling
• You "catch" errors with a Try…Catch block
Try
' Code that might fail goes here
Catch
' Code that responds to error goes here
End Try
• Use instance of the System.Exception class to
determine what happened
Try
' Code that might fail goes here
Catch ex As Exception
' Can use Exception members to determine error
End Try

Building Your Own Classes
• Your classes
 Inherit from System.Object
 Can inherit from other .NET Framework classes, or
your own
 Can provide multiple constructors, fields, properties,
and methods


Working with Windows Forms
• WinForms are classes that inherit from
System.Windows.Forms.Form
• Many more controls than userforms
• Support data binding to
 Database objects
 Web services
 Objects defined as classes in your solution
o Custom classes
o My.Settings class included in all VB projects


Using a Windows Form in Your User
Interface
• Instantiate with the New keyword
• Use Show method (non-modal) or ShowDialog
method (modal)

Dim frm As New ExceptionsForm
frm.Show()


Binding to the My Namespace
• Example: Add a data bound form to the add-in
created earlier
• Data is a setting in the My namespace
 Store last time form was loaded
 Display that time the next time form is loaded
 Show form when add-in starts up
• Not particularly useful, but you get to use…
 Data Source Configuration Wizard
 Form designer
 Data binding design tools


Getting Started with VSTO

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