Melody's VSTA Blog

Add-in Management Options

There are many different ways to manage add-ins. Below are some common add-in management styles which can be used alone, combined, or used side by side. 1) Basic: all interactions between the host and add-ins are executed in the Startup and Shutdown methods...

Published Tue, Aug 24 2010 2:50 PM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, add-in, Proxy, ShapeAppCSharp

Binding Redirects

As mentioned in Gary's blog Dependent Assembly Binding Redirect (by version) , it is possible to use a configuration file to change which version of an assembly to use. This can be very helpful in "tight versioning" scenarios (see blog Proxy...

Published Tue, Jul 27 2010 11:21 AM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, Proxy, Binding Redirect

Alternatives to Invoking to Run a Method in an Add-in

In scenarios where a method or macro within an add-in needs to be run several times in a short time span, for example 60 times a second, invoking the method may not be the best option. The invoke call, as seen in the ShapeAppMacroRecordingCSharp sample...

Published Fri, May 14 2010 10:49 AM by Melody

NoRuntime ProxyShim Style Integration

The ShapeAppCSharpMacroRecordingCSharp-NoRuntime sample (not included in SDK, please contact info@summsoft.com for more information) has many benefits over the normal SDK style integration. These benefits include less memory usage (up to a factor of 10...

Published Fri, May 07 2010 1:52 PM by Melody

Filed under: Proxy, VSTA 1, VSTA 2, UpgradeHelper, NoRuntime

Communicating with a COM host through a VstaIntegration library

When using a VstaIntegration library with some COM hosts, such as the MyAppVB6 sample , there are two ways to communicate: 1) Through public methods and properties. 2) Through public events. Some instances where raising a public event from the VstaIntegration...

Published Thu, Apr 22 2010 9:47 AM by Melody

How To Stop a Macro Method During Execution

In order to stop a “macro” method during execution the macro method must be invoked on a separate thread. This is because macro methods invoked on the same thread as the host will block the host. In the ShapeAppCSharp SDK samples macro methods...

Published Thu, Mar 25 2010 3:51 PM by Melody

How to Determine if a Project isDirty

As previously noted the isDirty property of a project is for “Microsoft Internal Use Only” and does not actually return valid information. Instead you can determine this by querying for unsaved ProjectItems. The property MacroProjectSaved...

Published Fri, Mar 19 2010 1:04 PM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, Project, isDirty

How to: Prompt the User to Save Unsaved Files

A useful function the DTE has a built in is to prompt the user to save any unsaved files. It is a good idea to make this call in when shutting down the DTE, for example in the disconnect method of the VstaDesignTimeIntegration class. EnvDTE. vsPromptResult...

Published Fri, Jun 19 2009 11:14 AM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, Save

Frequent Events and Garbage Collection

When an event will be fired many times it is a good practice to do periodic garbage collection. When a VSTA add-in hooks into an event which is fired many times this becomes even more important because the memory usage for the host process will grow very...

Published Wed, Jun 17 2009 10:46 AM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, Event, Memory Usage

VSTA Configuration Entries: ItemTemplatesLocation versus VSItemTemplatesLocation

The ItemTemplatesLocation entry in the VSTA host configuration hive is used to specify the location of item templates which will only be available through the VSTA host they are registered under. This is different than the VSItemTemplatesLocation entry...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 11:55 AM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, ItemTemplatesLocation, VSItemTemplatesLocation

The Host Item Node in VSTA Projects

Within a VSTA project there is a Host Item Node. This displays in the Project Explorer as a subfolder within the VSTA project and contains the main code file as well as any DPM files. By default the folder's name is the HostID and the icon is the...

Published Tue, May 26 2009 12:39 PM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, addin

Saving DTE and other COM Event Hook-ups

To avoid losing an event hook-up from a COM source it is necessary to hold a local reference to the source of the event to avoid unwanted garbage collection. This is a concern for VSTA hosts hooking into DTE events as well as VSTA add-ins which use a direct reference to a COM host instead of a proxy....

Published Wed, Apr 29 2009 11:00 AM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, addin, Proxy, COM, EnvDTE, DTE, COM Event

VSTA v 2 Proxy Names- Unique Names for Proxy Versions

For VSTA v 2 Visual Basic add-ins, unique version specific proxy names are required for registration in the VSTA pipeline. Also, each host should use host specific names for all proxies. If multiple versions of a proxy will be used by VSTA v 2 Visual...

Published Tue, Apr 28 2009 11:00 AM by Melody

VSTA and Packaging

A new sample and video are available which demonstrate packaging a VSTA add-in within a document using System.IO.Packaging. Packaging is also used by Office 2007 documents including the "docx", "docm", "xlsx", and "xlsm"...

Published Tue, Apr 07 2009 1:08 PM by Melody

Filed under: vsta, Packaging, DynamicProgrammingModel, DPM

VSTA v 2 in Visual Basic 6.0 sample now available

A new VB6 VSTA v 2 sample is available for download. Below is from the READ ME.doc included in the sample: There are many ways to integrate VSTA v 2.0 with a VB6 application. This sample demonstrates an advanced integration option (with seamless non-destructive...

Published Mon, Apr 06 2009 2:30 PM by Melody

Filed under: VSTA v 2, Visual Basic 6.0, COM, VB6

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Archives