Presence Indicator next to Outlook Contact Item - c#

I am building a custom addin for Outlook at would like to show a colored indicator (cirlce) next to a contacts name showing whether they are at their desk, in a meeting etc.
Is this possible?

VSTO (nor Outlook) doesn't provide anything for that. The best what you can do is to develop a custom task pane or Outlook form region, see Create Outlook form regions for more information.
You may also consider developing an IM integration, see Integrating IM applications with Office.

Related

How to hide an addon Ribbon until we want to display it using Outlook 2013 and C#?

I'm developing a commercial application and I need to setup an authentication in Outlook. A panel use for connection in outlook trigger a server check with an API. But, this panel is display in my ThisAddin code file. However, my addin Ribbon is handle in another file (ACF_Ribbon). I want to hide this Ribbon until the user is authenticated by my panel, then display it if the authentication is done successfully.
Anyone can have a solution ? I found nothing in the MSDN for Outlook.
UPDATE & PARTIAL ANSWER :
As far as I have search, it's nearly impossible using the Ribbon designer due to the fact that the management of the Ribbon is done automaticly.So my actual solution is to disable all button while the authentification isn't done. That's not a solution, but could help if someone have the same matter than me.
Your ribbon must specify the getVisible callback pointing to your function. See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633442%28v=office.11%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 for more details.

How can I display an informative message in an Outlook draft mail window?

How can I show a message like the "Follow up" and "Assign policy" do while composing a new email? (see the highlighted area in the screenshot)
After searching I could not find anything that to lead me in the right direction. It must be something not directly tied with just Inspectors as that area is available also in the Explorer..
The closest thing I found are Form Regions but I would like to use the builtin area for this task. Thanks.
That is MailTips.
The Outlook object model (nor VSTO) doesn't provide anything for that. You may consider using Outlook Form Regions, but they allow placing the form at the bottom of the inspector window.
Add-in Express provides a layout for placing your forms at the top of the inspector windows:
And the last resort is to subclass Outlook windows using Windows API and create an adjacent window, see Creating Adjacent Windows In Outlook for more information.

How to create a explorer alike column in outlook having drag and drop facility?

I want to have an explorer like column (something like list of emails in inbox) that comes with Outlook. In this column I want to populate list of data, where I could drop any email from the my inbox list.
How should I proceed to achieve this, any hints OR links where I could move forward as I am new to Visual Studio development. I went through couple of tutorials where I can design a form (with an icon coming at the tool bar and it opens a different window on click), but I am wondering if it is possible to have a form visible within the same explorer window (on the right hand side ) with a flexibility to show OR hide it.
The reason I want it on the same window is because I want to achieve drag and drop functionality for my emails in inbox to my custom list data in my new column. e.g. associating email X and Y to process Z in column C.
Thanks
You need to develop an Outlook add-in with an adjacent form. Unfortunately the Outlook extensibility model doesn't provide anything for that out of the box, so you need to use Windows API functions or use third-party software to get the form shown in the Explorer window. You can read more about the adjacent forms on the Creating Adjacent Windows In Outlook page where you can also find the sample code. Or may consider using Advanced Outlook view and form regions as an alternative.
FYI Command bars were deprecated and are not used any longer. The Fluent UI is used instead.

How to create an outlook extension using Visual Studio 2013?

I need to create an outlook extension which should have a form with two buttons, and it should appear on the right side of the application, like how the todoist app does(red circled in the screenshot).
I tried creating using the "Outlook 2013 Add in" project type, I was able to create an add-in with some basic functionality, but did not know how do add a UI to it.
On little more googling, I found this, this looked like what I needed but didnt seem to be officially from microsoft/visual studio and appeared to be with some kind of fee too.
I am trying to make my first outlook extension.
Couldnt get any good results when I tried googling for the same, can anyone guide me in this ?
VSTO (nor Outlook) doesn't provide such layout for custom forms. However, you are free to use Windows API functions to subclass the Outlook window and inject your own forms. They call them as Adjacent Windows In Outlook. See the Creating Adjacent Windows In Outlook sample code.
Add-in Express uses the same technology for subclassing Outlook windows. As a result you get a convenient way to place .net controls on a Windows form. For example, I have just tested a sample add-in with an advanced Outlook form placed to the RightReadingPane layout. And here is what I get:

Display outlook folder tree in a form (outlook add-in project)

I want to customize the mail moving functionality of outlook. So to do that I am creating a outlook plugin and when user want to move a mail, I will show a windows form via that add-in.
In that windows form I want to display the current folder tree of outlook as in the following image (this image is from mail move functionality : mail --> right mouse click --> move -> to other folder).
Is there a way that I can get similar tree by extending already having outlook UI component
?
I am using outlook 2010.
Regards.
Have a look at Customize the built-in Outlook Select Names dialog (or any other)
It might be what you are looking for.

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