Anatomy of a Mail app

Who am I?

• I am the founder of the Atlanta SharePoint User Group and have been a staple in the local .NET and SharePoint communities since the days of SharePoint 2003. I have been working exclusively with SharePoint since 2005 and am an 8 time SharePoint MVP. My IT career began in 1999 when I first moved to the United States from Canada after being recruited by an international consulting firm. After getting settled in, I started putting in my time (roughly 10 years) at various local firms, including Definition 6, Intellinet, and Slalom Consulting. My current employer, B&R Business Solutions, is a New Jersey based consulting company with a deep focus on SharePoint. My specialty is custom development, but I have worked in many other areas, including product development, architecture, project management and business analysis to name a few.

• When not sitting in front of my multiple monitors in my home office, coding away like mad, I enjoy spending time with my exceptionally awesome and beautiful daughter Lily and gallivanting around the globe (mostly just back to Canada) to visit and spend time with my fiancé Gillian.

• You can find me moderating or speaking at the monthly meeting of the Atlanta SharePoint User Group (@atlspug, #atlspug), online via Twitter (@jdattis), LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/jakedanattis/), at a SharePoint Conference or SharePoint Saturday, or on Skype (jdattis).

• I live in Roswell, Georgia, where the sun is hot and my [cool weather] fescue lawn is both my love and my evil nemesis.

What could possibly happen?

My car…

Agenda

• Roadmap for Apps for Office, VSTO, and VBA

• Mail apps for Outlook

• Types of Mail apps

• Demo – A Mail app

• Demo – Manifest & API

• Adding an attachment

• Modifying message body

• Managing user settings

• Demo – Putting the puzzle together

• Resources

Roadmap for Apps for Office, VSTO, and VBA

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros• In-product experience

• Visual Basic 6

• Decade+ old technology

• Limited in terms of UI customizability, tooling and framework support

• Code is typically stored and distributed directly in a document

• Application-level solutions are possible, but not the norm

• Involves IT and Group Policy

• Maintenance virtually impossible after initial distribution

Managed add-ins built with Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)• Full language support of C# and Visual Basic

• Tight integration with the Office client applications

• Rich APIs

• Customization of the user interface

• Can also target Office 2007 and Office 2010

• Can deeply interact with other programs or resources on the host computer

• Requires an “installation”, therefore likely involves IT

• May have upgrade requirements and other dependencies

• Runs with the same security privilege as any other desktop program

• Might affect performance and/or stability of the host Office application

Apps for Office

• No need to install an add-in

• No need to enable a macro

• Download, install and use from Office Store or corporate app catalog

• Friction-free ease of distribution

• Run in a sandbox (no, not the SharePoint sandbox )

• Use in Office 2013 and a growing selection of Office Web Apps

• Built with “any” web technology

• Leverage your existing development skills

• Connect rich web content and services contextually with Office

Comparison

Apps for Office VSTO VBA

Automation and interaction with the host computer

Interaction with the web

User Interface customization

partial* partial

Interaction with the Office client object models

partial*

Offline Availability partial**

Support for latest tools and technologies

Support for team development and source-control

Comparison

Apps for Office VSTO VBA

Ability to target multiple host applications with one codebase

Ability to run code at application-level, across documents

partial

Security and sandboxed environment

Ease of distribution, lifecycle, and telemetry

Built-in monetization opportunity

Cloud and Desktop Compatibility

Office 2013+, and web-based O365 clients

Office 2007+(desktop only)

Office 2000+ (desktop only)

Mail apps for Outlook

• A web page that is hosted inside Outlook

• Made available by Outlook contextually with respect to the item the user is currently viewing or composing

• Started by the user

• Purpose is to enhance the browsing or authoring experience

• Runs seamlessly across the Outlook rich client, Outlook Web App and OWA for Devices

• Installed once per mailbox, available in all of the above

• Supported by email messages, meeting requests, responses and cancelations, and appointments

Types of Mail apps

Read

• Activated when the user is viewing a message or appointment

Compose

• Activated when the user is composing a message or appointment

Architecture Components

• An Exchange Server

• The user’s mailbox

• App manifest

• An Outlook client

• User views or composes a message or appointment

• A web server

• Mail app source files

• Just a plain old web application using the technology of your choosing

• CDN

• JavaScript API for Office

• Other (if needed)

• SharePoint

• SQL

• etc...

Component interaction

Demo – A Mail app

Demo – Manifest & API

Demo – Putting the puzzle together

Resources

• Roadmap for Apps for Office, VSTO, and VBA

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/officeapps/archive/2013/06/18/roadmap-for-apps-for-office-vsto-and-vba.aspx

• Mail apps for Outlook

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/fp161135(v=office.15).aspx

• Apps for Office

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/office/dn448457

• Apps for SharePoint

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/office/dn448479

• Office Dev Center

• http://dev.office.com/