Outlook 2003 View Control with C#

Question

I want to embed a custom c# windows form (or WPF) user control into an outlook view. I am using Outlook 2003 and Visual Studio 2008.

I did download an example for Outlook 2007 here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/e2eblog/archive/2008/01/09/outlook-folder-homepage-hosting-wpf-activex-and-windows-forms-controls.aspx

and also here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479345.aspx

I tested it and under 2007 it is working, but for 2003 i am getting the following error when i want to open the view:

Could not complete the operation due to error 80131509

I can start it from Visual Studio, it is registering the folder just fine, debugging works and all that. It creates an HTML page that contains my type as an object parameter - but the Initialize method that should be called is either not present (not shown via JS) or it has some errors.

The breakpoints for RegisterSafeForScripting are also never hit - maybe related to that.

Thx in advance!

Answer 1

It sounds like you need to create a Runtime Security Policy for the assembly. Visual Studio / VSTO set this automatically. You can check this by running your project from Visual Studio then opening the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Configuration application under Administration Tools. Browse to Runtime Security Policy and check the Code Groups. VSTO projects are under User > Code Groups > All_Code > VSTOProjects.

Following are my notes.

Code Access Security Policy (caspol) Classes

• Created from Deploying Office Solutions Using Windows Installer Version 3.
• Renamed SetSecurity class to CaspolSecurityPolicyInstaller.

Code Access Security Policy Tool (Caspol.exe)

The Code Access Security Policy tool enables users and administrators to modify security policy for the machine policy level, the user policy level, and the enterprise policy level.

Deploying

Deploying Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Office System SE Solutions Using Windows Installer (Part 1 of 2)

• Article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332051.aspx
• Download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83721
  • Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition Sample: Deploying Office Solutions Using Windows Installer Version 3 (OfficeVSTO2005SEWindowsInstallerV3.msi)

Answer 2

First thank you AMissico - and i will look into the description and links you provided as well. The follwinng code did for me the trick (but the button controls and others have broken layout - but WFP works so i will use wpf). I have to refactor the code but it was the working version for me...

The example i finally found that worked after tweaking it a bit for me: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=078124E9-1E88-4F51-8C98-3C1999CFE743&displaylang=en

The following file is more or less taken from the above example

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using MSOutlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace Outlook2003KnowledgeBaseAddIn.Setup
{
    public sealed class FolderHomePage
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// List of web view files that have been written out during this Outlook intance
        /// </summary>
        private static List<string> listWebViewFiles = new List<string>();

        /// <summary>
        /// Registers a specific managed type as a folder home page. Returns a file path for the folder home page
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="viewType">Type of the home page control. 
        /// Control must be ComVisible should be registered safe for scripting</param>
        /// <returns>file path to the folder home page</returns>
        public static string RegisterType(Type viewType)
        {
            if (viewType == null)
                return null;

            //TODO: ensure that viewType inherits from System.Windows.Forms.Control

            //Create the Local App Data directory for the Web view files to reside in
            string webViewDirectory = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData), Properties.Resources.WebViewDirectoryName);
            if (Directory.Exists(webViewDirectory) == false)
                Directory.CreateDirectory(webViewDirectory);

            //Create the web view file name based on the viewType guid in the web view directory
            string webViewFile = Path.Combine(webViewDirectory, viewType.GUID.ToString("N") + ".htm");

            //if the file has been written out already in this session, return
            if (listWebViewFiles.Contains(webViewFile))
                return webViewFile;

            //If the file exists, delete it (for versioning reasons)
            if (File.Exists(webViewFile))
                File.Delete(webViewFile);

            //Open a file stream and text writer for the Web view stream
            FileStream stm = new FileStream(webViewFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
            TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(stm, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII);

            //Look to see if the viewType has an init method that takes a single Outlook App parameter
            System.Reflection.MethodInfo initInfo = viewType.GetMethod("Initialize", new Type[] { typeof(MSOutlook.Application) });

            //If the viewType doesn't have an Init method, just write out the html page header
            //TODO move HTML code to resource strings
            if (initInfo == null)
            {
                writer.WriteLine("<html><body rightmargin = '0' leftmargin ='0' topmargin ='0' bottommargin = '0'>");
            }
            //If the viewType does have an Init method, write script to trap the Body.OnLoad event and call the Init method
            //passing in the window.external.OutlookApplication object as the parameter
            else
            {
                writer.WriteLine("<html><body rightmargin = '0' leftmargin ='0' topmargin ='0' bottommargin = '0' onload='OnBodyLoad()'>");
                writer.WriteLine("<script>\n\tfunction OnBodyLoad()\n\t{\n\t\tvar oApp = window.external.OutlookApplication;");
                writer.WriteLine("\t\t{0}.Initialize(oApp);", viewType.Name);
                writer.WriteLine("\t}\n</script>");
            }

            //Write out an object tag that loads up the viewType as a com object via its class id
            writer.WriteLine("<object classid='clsid:{0}' ID='{1}' VIEWASTEXT width='100%' height='100%'/>", viewType.GUID, viewType.Name);
            writer.WriteLine("</body></html>");

            //Close the file
            writer.Close();
            stm.Close();

            //save this file name so we don't write it out multiple times per outlook session
            listWebViewFiles.Add(webViewFile);

            return webViewFile;
        }

        private const string CATID_SafeForScripting = "7DD95801-9882-11CF-9FA9-00AA006C42C4";
        private const string CATID_SafeForInitializing = "7DD95802-9882-11CF-9FA9-00AA006C42C4";

        /// <summary>
        /// Registers a managed type that's exposed for COM interop as safe for initializing and scripting
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="comType"></param>
        public static void RegisterSafeForScripting(Type comType)
        {
            Guid clsid = comType.GUID;
            Guid interfaceSafeScripting = new Guid(CATID_SafeForScripting);
            Guid interfaceSafeForInitializing = new Guid(CATID_SafeForInitializing);

            ICatRegister reg = (ICatRegister)new ComComponentCategoriesManager();
            reg.RegisterClassImplCategories(ref clsid, 1, new Guid[] { interfaceSafeScripting });
            reg.RegisterClassImplCategories(ref clsid, 1, new Guid[] { interfaceSafeForInitializing });
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Unregisters a managed type that's exposed for COM interop as safe for initializing and scripting
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="comType"></param>
        public static void UnregisterSafeForScripting(Type comType)
        {
            Guid clsid = comType.GUID;
            Guid interfaceSafeScripting = new Guid(CATID_SafeForScripting);
            Guid interfaceSafeForInitializing = new Guid(CATID_SafeForInitializing);

            ICatRegister reg = (ICatRegister)new ComComponentCategoriesManager();
            reg.UnRegisterClassImplCategories(ref clsid, 1, new Guid[] { interfaceSafeScripting });
            reg.UnRegisterClassImplCategories(ref clsid, 1, new Guid[] { interfaceSafeForInitializing });
        }

    }


    [ComImport(), Guid("0002E005-0000-0000-C000-000000000046")]
    class ComComponentCategoriesManager
    {
    }

    [ComImport(), Guid("0002E012-0000-0000-C000-000000000046")]
    [InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
    interface ICatRegister
    {
        void RegisterCategories(int cCategories, IntPtr rgCategoryInfo);

        void UnRegisterCategories(int cCategories, IntPtr rgcatid);

        void RegisterClassImplCategories(
                [In()] ref Guid rclsid,
                int cCategories,
                [In(), MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] Guid[] rgcatid);

        void UnRegisterClassImplCategories(
                [In()] ref Guid rclsid,
                int cCategories,
                [In(), MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] Guid[] rgcatid);

        void RegisterClassReqCategories(
            [In()] ref Guid rclsid,
            int cCategories,
            [In(), MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] Guid[] rgcatid);

        void UnRegisterClassReqCategories(
            [In()] ref Guid rclsid,
            int cCategories,
            [In(), MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] Guid[] rgcatid);
    }

}

together with this file:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Security.Policy;
using System.Security;
using Outlook2003KnowledgeBaseAddIn.Setup;
using Outlook2003KnowledgeBaseAddIn.UI;
using Outlook2003KnowledgeBaseAddIn.UI.OutlookIntegration;

namespace Outlook2003KnowledgeBaseAddIn
{
    [System.ComponentModel.RunInstaller(true)]
    public class Installer : System.Configuration.Install.Installer
    {
        public Installer()
        {
        }

        public override void Install(System.Collections.IDictionary stateSaver)
        {
            base.Install(stateSaver);

            try
            {
                ConfigureSecurityPolicy();
                RegisterFolderHomePages();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw new System.Configuration.Install.InstallException("Custom Installer Failed", ex);
            }
        }

        public override void Uninstall(System.Collections.IDictionary savedState)
        {
            base.Uninstall(savedState);

            try
            {
                DeleteSecurityPolicy();
                UnregisterFolderHomePages();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw new System.Configuration.Install.InstallException("Custom Installer Failed", ex);
            }
        }

        private void RegisterFolderHomePages()
        {
            //Utility.FolderHomePage.RegisterSafeForScripting(typeof(FolderHomePages.AccountToday));
            FolderHomePage.RegisterSafeForScripting(typeof(WebViewControl));
        }

        private void UnregisterFolderHomePages()
        {
            //Utility.FolderHomePage.UnregisterSafeForScripting(typeof(FolderHomePages.AccountToday));
            FolderHomePage.UnregisterSafeForScripting(typeof(WebViewControl));
        }

        private void ConfigureSecurityPolicy()
        {
            // Find the machine policy level
            PolicyLevel machinePolicyLevel = GetMachinePolicyLevel();

            // Get the install directory of the current installer
            string assemblyPath = this.Context.Parameters["assemblypath"];
            string installDirectory =
                assemblyPath.Substring(0, assemblyPath.LastIndexOf("\\"));

            if (!installDirectory.EndsWith(@"\"))
                installDirectory += @"\";

            installDirectory += "*";

            // Create the code group
            CodeGroup codeGroup = new UnionCodeGroup(
                new UrlMembershipCondition(installDirectory),
                new PolicyStatement(new NamedPermissionSet("FullTrust")));
            codeGroup.Description = Properties.Resources.CasPolicyDescription;
            codeGroup.Name = Properties.Resources.CasPolicyName;

            // Add the code group
            machinePolicyLevel.RootCodeGroup.AddChild(codeGroup);

            // Save changes
            SecurityManager.SavePolicy();
        }

        private static void DeleteSecurityPolicy()
        {
            PolicyLevel machinePolicy = GetMachinePolicyLevel();

            foreach (CodeGroup codeGroup in machinePolicy.RootCodeGroup.Children)
            {
                if (codeGroup.Name == Properties.Resources.CasPolicyName)
                    machinePolicy.RootCodeGroup.RemoveChild(codeGroup);
            }

            SecurityManager.SavePolicy();
        }

        private static PolicyLevel GetMachinePolicyLevel()
        {
            System.Collections.IEnumerator policyHierarchy = SecurityManager.PolicyHierarchy();

            while (policyHierarchy.MoveNext())
            {
                PolicyLevel level = (PolicyLevel)policyHierarchy.Current;
                if (level.Type == PolicyLevelType.Machine)
                    return level;
            }

            throw new ApplicationException("Could not find Machine Policy level. Code Access Security is not configured for this application.");
        }
    }
}

This method sets up the web view:

private void CreateWebViewFolders()
{
    MSOutlook.MAPIFolder root = Folder.GetRootFolder(Application.Session);

    MSOutlook.MAPIFolder webViewFolder = Folder.CreateFolder(root, Properties.Resources.WebViewFolderName);
    webViewFolder.WebViewURL = FolderHomePage.RegisterType(typeof(WebViewControl));
    webViewFolder.WebViewOn = true;
}