My client recently migrated from 32-bit Excel 2016 to 64-bit Excel under Office 365 and retained 32-bit MS Project Standard 2010.
I have VBA code native to MS Project Standard 2010 which manipulates the Excel 2016 Application by early binding via the Excel 16.0 Object Library reference. Following migration of Excel to the Office365 64-bit version the library reference to it (in MS Project Standard 2010) is no longer available. It is not MISSING it is just not available in the list. It won't even load by GUID. I don't have admin rights and can't inspect or edit the registry. My IT support explained that the issue is probably because we are mixing 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
I have worked round the issue by converting code from Early-binding to Late-binding. I probably didn't catch everything (I have created a very lot of code in a very lot of application tools) and my concern is that some feature of my code that has not been converted correctly may not be discovered for some time.
My question is, should the Project 2010 application (Project 14.0) be able to make reference to the 64-bit Excel 16 under Office365 Object Library? If so, what should my IT support guy be looking at to fix the problem please?
If the answer really is no I will just have to stick with the late-binding and do some extensive testing.
You cannot cross-reference between 64-bit libraries and 32-bit libraries in the same host. The host can only use libraries of the same bitness. Late-binding won't help you in this situation - it helps you where there are version mismatching but not when bitness don't match.
If you need to continue automation between Project and Excel, then you may need to have a 32-bit Excel installation, or consider installing 64-bit Project. There's the third option of shelling out to VBScript or Powershell and running it out of process but that can be a lot of work.
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I'm using the Excel Interop API for manipulating excel sheets, because this seems to be the best api for using formulas.
My question is that how wide is the support for this API?
For example if someone who has an older or newer version of Microsoft Office than me, will they be able to use the software?
I'm using it with Office 365.
My question is that how wide is the support for this API?
For example if someone who has an older or newer version of Microsoft Office than me, will they be able to use the software?
The answer is yes, your software can be run with different Office versions. You just need to make sure methods and properties exist in the installed version by checking the host version and making a decision to call a particular method or property introduced in recent versions.
So, I'd suggest using the lowest version of interops libraries which corresponds to lowest Office version supported by your software. By using lowest interop version you can be sure that you deal with properties and methods available in all Office versions and no exceptions will be thrown at runtime.
If you need to use methods and properties available in latest Office versions you may consider using the late-binding technology available in .Net applications with System.Type.InvokeMember method. Read more about that in the Supporting several Office versions in an add-in. Interop assemblies and late binding. article.
Microsoft's vexing dumping of vdproj install projects in VS 2012 leads one to try Installshield LE which is sort of built into VS2012. Sadly, it creates installers that do not work in any way shape or form with 64 bit.
So for instance clicking the Office 2010 installed checkbox only makes a prerequisite for 32 bit Office. It fails to detect 64 bit.
After a lot of chickenless head exploration of Installshield the bottom line is:
1) You need the Professional or Premiere version in order to deal with 64 bit.
2) You need to edit their provided condition to make a compound one that ORs all the guids of Office that you are interested in together as it only checks for one of the many out of the box. This details the structure of the GUIDS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2186281?wa=wsignin1.0. I found it helpful to install various versions in a VM and then using regedit to see what the GUID ends up being.
This post is so that someone can actually discover this with a Google search, instead of it being hidden behind a paywall / private support site.
Update October '13 AlBear
There is a beta version of installshield LE for VS2012/13
To build x64 installation packages check on the help files
Look for "64 Bit" .
The way InstallShiel LE recognizes x64 target is by either defining the [INSTALLDIR] property as one of the 64 bit Folder or by defining at least one of the setup components as 64 Bit.
This works as I built an Excel 2013 Add that loads at startup and works fine.
For the Prerequisite for VSTO to work: You need to change file size and hash a it looks like the recommendations from Microsoft article "Deploying Office solutions vsto 2013" are outdated and the XML code recommended has the wrong file size and hash. Not too difficult to fix. However I think that Microsoft is unfortunately going through a period of crisis and this failure to provide reasonable support is uncharted territory .......
Cheers
InstallShield and WiX is like Visual Studio using VB.NET and SharpDevelop using C#. Just as those tools both create EXE's and DLL's using IL code but different language providers,
InstallShield and WiX both create Windows Installer databases using different languages. Just as a VB EXE can consume a C# DLL, an InstallShield MSI can consume a WiX Merge Modules. This gives you the best of both worlds.
The thing to understand is a VSTO AddIn installer isn't a 64bit MSI, it's a 32bit MSI that deploys an AnyCPU DLL with registry entries for either 32bit or 64bit Office. It's the bitness of Office, ultimately, that determines the bitness of your AddIn.
I have a template that I've used for a dozen customers. It uses InstallShield Limited Edition and it's Preq Bootstrapper to lay down all the dependencies and consumes a merge module authored is WiX and IsWiX (CodePlex). Otherwise ISLE is just a container for the UI and it's one feature.
The merge module takes care of all the dependency detection, gating logic, laying down files, installing certificates, setting registry values and so on.
Some more details can be found at:
VSTO 4 ( 2010 ) Lessons Learned
Office 2010 Bitness Pain
Apparently the small print referenced here should have been one clue: Does InstallShield Limited Edition Support 64 bit Installer?
The current Office prerequisite in Installshield is also misleadingly worded. It should really be "Office 2010 Home & Professional 32 bit".
Perhaps they intend to upgrade it over time to be comprehensive or perhaps everyone has to go through the same hassle to fix it for a few cases they care about. The support guy claimed there are too many GUIDS for all the combinations of versions, bitness, releases etc.
Home & Student, Home & Professional, Professional, Office 2010 Professional Plus License
32bit, 64bit, Languages mangled in there, Service Packs, etc. Depending on the set you care about the number of GUIDS is rather large.
I have a requirement where in I need to scan Office documents and remove any metadata found embedded in the file/document. I am new to developing applications on Microsoft Office and found that I could either use the Platform Interop Assemblies or the OPENXML SDK to work with Office docs (word, excel and powerpoint).
However, I couldnt find any source/link which explains the difference between PIA and OPENXML. Could anyone please explain as to when which option needs to be looked at and which one is easy to work with (ie., less effort on learning curve)?
The huge problem with PIA is you will be dealing with COM interops unmanaged environment.
Here are the differences
I plan on developing Excel Add-ins and I have looked around on ways of getting it accomplished. What I have found from expert views on various forums whom suggest using third party XLL development environments (XLW, ExcelDNA and host of others) instead of Excel SDK development 2007 with C++ as the latter option requires steep learning curve and for novices such as me would require managing low level details such as memory management
So my question is whether the XLL produced or developed using the 3rd party tools (XLW, ExcelDNA) would run on users Windows system that do not have .net runtime support. There are only 1 or 2 sample tutorials on the web about development of XLL with Excel 2007 SDK using Visual Studio.net and users comments on those tutorials suggest that an XLL developed in Visual Studio.net using Excel 2007 SDK are not runnable on Windows that do not have .net runtime
If you develop your add-in with C# or VB.NET (either with Excel-DNA or XLW), it will require the .NET runtime to be present on the client machines. If you develop the add-in with C++ (with XLW or another C+-based toolkit like XLL+) your add-in will not require the .NET runtime.
By default XLW uses the dynamically linked C runtime so you need to be sure the target machine has the appropriate version. http://xll.codeplex.com uses static linking so you can be sure your xll will run on any Windows machine.
It seems if you try to reference the Office COM objects (as you would do in other development environments), Visual Studio gets it wrong - and it just won't work.
So you must use the converted type library that Microsoft hand-converted and makes available for download, and download, and download.
Now it seems that in order for my application to run it needs the Office Interop code, which is contained in an assembly.
Now i don't want to force my customers to install the Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies, Office 2003 Primary Interop Assemblies or the Office XP Primary Interop Assemblies. i want an xcopy deployment.
If i manage to get a hold of Microsoft's copy of the interop assemblies, can i just copy them to by Bin/Debug and Bin/Release folders?
If i include the Office 2007 interop assemblies, will it work if the customer has Office 95 installed, or do i have to include all versions of the Office Interop dll's Microsoft has ever published?
This is a common question with a rather complicated answer. Mary Lee of MSFT is a great resource for information about this:
http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto/archive/tags/Deployment/default.aspx
Using ClickOnce to deploy is the closest you are going to get to an XCopy install of any application built on VSTO.
Also, check this post:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsto/thread/1666d2b0-a4d0-41e8-ad86-5eab3542de1e/
Finally, Misha has a great blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/mshneer/archive/2006/01/05/deployment-articles.aspx
The PIAs are specific to the version of Office you are targeting, so the 2003 PIAs are necessary for targeting 2003 and the 2007 PIAs are necessary for 2007. Automating Office 95 via managed code is something I have not done before, but I can imagine you are directly referencing the type libraries so a RCW is generated for you and has nothing to do with PIAs.
HTH
Colby Africa (MSFT)
From my own experience:
If you wanted to target Office 2003 and above, then you'd use the Office 2003 PIAs - and limit yourself to the Office 2003 API. The code would run on Office 2003 or later. You could still call Office 2007 functions using reflection, but that's not pleasant.
I imagine it's much the same story if your baseline version is Office 2000 - though I've not tried it, and I believe the earliest version for which Microsoft themselves provide PIAs is Office 2002 (XP).
You can create your own Interop assemblies for 2000, and I've no reason to believe that you can't do it for '95, though you're the first person I've ever seen ask for '95 support! It goes without saying that if you create your own Interop assemblies you'll need to deploy them with your application.
In any case, you want to use the highest Office version you can get away with as your baseline, so that you can support as many features as you can without resorting to reflection. You should develop your code on a machine which has only that version of Office installed.
In my case, I develop for Office 2003 and know that my users also have 2003. So, I ask them to ensure that they have the ".NET Programmability Support" feature enabled (which you can do via Office 2003 Setup via Add/Remove Programs if you choose the Change option). That option basically installs the PIAs to the GAC. For those users that can't do this, my setup program detects the lack of the PIAs and installs them prior to installing my application (as it does for the .NET framework).
XCOPY deployment? Yes, I'd like that too - but forget it. For one thing, if your add-in is going to work in 'high' security mode, then you're going to need a code-signed COM 'shim' to sit between your code and Office, and that needs to be registered. I believe VSTO provides its own shim, if you choose to go down that path (I didn't, since I needed to be able to 'drive' Office from scratch rather than relying on the user to start the application).
Deployment - and dealing with the installation & security issues - is one of the hardest parts of Office Add-in development with .NET, and it's a real kicker that it comes right at the end when you thought you were done.
My strong advice is to save yourself days and weeks of hassle, and look at Add-in Express. I've only recently come across this myself, and have been kicking myself ever since because it could have saved me so much time. It has several benefits that I think would be useful to you:
It allows you to create a single add-in targetting Office 2000 to Office 2007 (sorry, not '95), regardless of what version you happen to have on your development PC.
It creates an installer for you (which even works on Vista!), which in itself is worth the price.
It comes with its own COM shim, and is integrated to the extent that you don't need to worry about it.
It will allow you to have a single add-in that has a menu/toolbar interface in Office versions up to 2003, but a ribbon interface in 2007.
Note that I have no affiliation with Add-in Express (other than as a recent customer), but equally I've not yet converted my projects over to using it. The initial tests that I have done lead me to believe it's pretty good - and definitely the way to go for small to medium projects.
If i manage to get a hold of Microsoft's copy of the interop assemblies, can i just copy them to by Bin/Debug and Bin/Release folders?
It worked for me. When I compiled the program I had it reference the interop (PIA) dlls in the bin and then deployed it that way to the customer.
If i include the Office 2007 interop assemblies, will it work if the customer has Office 95 installed?
No, you mst have the interop dlls for the version of Word you are targeting. I suppose it might be possible to write your code so that it chcks the version of word running on that machine and at runtime chooses the correct interop, but you need to include them all.