I need to deploy an Outlook rule that runs a script. So in other words I need deploy both an Outlook rule and the script it runs. I know I can get users to import the rwz rule file and maybe paste in the script, but I wondered if there was a more user friendly way.
I started writing a C# program to create the rule, but I cannot see a way to set the action to run a script. Is this possible?
Cheers, Jamie
The library https://github.com/hughbe/OutlookRulesReader contains a specification and reference implementation library (in Swift) for reading and writing Outlook Rules Files
A full description of the format can be found here
The Rules Wizard (and .rwz files in particular) are a dead end as far as deployment is concerned.
According to the MSDN article on Specifying Rule Actions, the "start a script" rule cannot be created programmatically, so that's not an option either.
You need to start looking into different options. As going the C# way seems an option, those include:
Replacing the "rule" by an add-in that handles the same events that trigger the rule conditions, the executes the desired "script" code.
Replacing both the rule AND the script by the add-in.
If you are on Exchange, there are rules and triggers on that level too that have some more options.
We can't really advice you on the most appropriate route unless you share some more detail on what it is your rule and script are doing.
Based on the work of Hugh Bellamy, Outlook Redemption library (I am its author) as of version 6.0 fully supports client side rules (along with import and export of RWZ files) through the RDOClientRules collection.
Related
I need to create a custom installer to deploy a specific program. But there are a few checks and balances that needs take place during intallation, and even though I have an Advanced Installer license, it just struggles to do everything I need.
I'm looking for a way to create my own msi file using c#. Running the msi file it will then start a win forms wizard, which in turn will do a number of items, including copying files to the host PC.
I'm not sure how I can "include" my set of files into a single msi file. How to you "copy" files into an msi and how can you read again from it?
I can't even give a proper sample code of what I've tried as I don't know where to start.
This just feels like it should be a duplicate question, but I can't find it.
I work at Advanced Installer, since you said you already have a license let's help you get a return of investment on that ;)
First of all, I seriously doubt you need to reinvent the wheel and write your own code that installs/copies files on the machine. This is a basic action performed by all installer authoring tools, and even though it seems simple when you first think about it, it is not. You don't want to write code that handles rollbacks (if your install fails), reference counts (if a file is shared somehow), repair/self-healing operations (if somehow a DLL gets corrupted or missing post-install), or cover other standard Windows Installer scenarios.
Since you didn't explain with full details what you are trying to do I will give you some short example on how to do each of the steps you mentioned:
Adding files in a setup package - this is a link to a tutorial created with a free edition, but the same steps apply for Professional and Enterprise editions.
Searching files on a disk and retrieving values from them. - for this, you need to use the built-in support from Search page. There you can either simply search for a file and return its path or search for an element inside an INI or XML file and return its value inside a property.
Windows Installer properties are the equivalent of variables in your code. You can use them all over the installer project to pass/get/validate values.
Designing custom dialogs. Most professional installer authoring tools have support to build custom dialogs. The previous link is for a tutorial on how you can do that with Advanced Installer.
During the UI stages, you can include and custom C# code to perform additional validations or data retrieval operations and pass that to or from the installer using properties. if you need it.
The custom installer dialogs support is available starting with the Enterprise edition. The Professional and Free editions include the standard dialogs, but with no options to customize them.
Another way to interact with users is to design an UI experience inside your application that is visible only when the users launch the application for the first time. So, this is not a part of your installer. It will be code that you write inside your application and you can provide a first-launch experience similar to what you see when you install Office for example. If you can give me more details on what you want to do/capture in those custom dialogs, I will try to recommend you the best approach.
I Want to create custom code that will run when the user decides based on outlook's rules.
so far i checked a few possibilities:
1)Create a custom Action that would be added to the rules actions options - that is not possible according to MS - https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/1bae2bbc-0ab4-419a-b0d6-7a02195348ce/outlook-custom-action-in-rules-wizard?forum=vsto
2)Run Script based on a rule - built in ability, however i encountered a few issues:
it is not possible to share the script
the macro's have to be enabled each time (disabled again when you restart)
I want to use the C# VSTO add-in in order to overcome those problems:
Is there a way to implant the script and make sure the macro is enabled using a VSTO add-in?
this way users will be able to install the add-in and then chose the script as an action to every rule they create based on the default outlook rules.
You don't need a rule if your code is in a VSTO addin. You can use Items.ItemAdd event on the Inbox folder or Application.NewMailEx event to so anything your please with the newly arrived message.
I am trying to cleanup/refactor a legacy C# solution and am therefore exploring options how certain refactorings or quick actions could be applied for the entire solution.
For example, Visual Studio 2017 offers 'Replace xxx and xxx with property' and 'Use auto-property' actions, which I can apply via the lightbulb icon for individual classes and methods/properties.
How could I apply these to the entire application or semi-automatically iterate all occurrences (300+) and apply these?
I am open for all options - command line, powershell, VBA, even VISX-development.
I do not want to re-develop the refactoring itself and I don't think that a simple find&replace will do either.
When the quick action window is visible, you can apply the selected fix to the single instance, or across the entire document/project/solution:
If you apply each identified fix across your solution (or project) then you should only need to process each suggestion once, as the first one you change will apply to all further instances.
Alternatively, you could use the dotnet Format tool to apply a set of specific formatting rules to your project via the command line, although this depends upon you having an editorConfig file with your rules defined.
Have a look at the EditorConfig. What you're looking for is the Language Conventions topic and you can flag an action as silent (synonym for refactoring in v15.8):
# $slnRoot\.editorconfig
[*.cs]
dotnet_style_prefer_auto_properties = true:silent
Then when you run across that action in your code, you can apply the quick action to your entire solution, file, project, etc.
Note: there have been some bugs with EditorConfig in VS2017. I've had to close the solution and restart the IDE to get changes to take sometimes.
In C# you can have conditional compilation by using macros similar to the C/C++ syntax. This would enable the following to happen:
#define MYMACRO
....
#if MYMACRO
//some C# code logic
#else
//some other C# code logic
I need to define some macros in a dedicated file in a C# library project, and I need these macros to be visible inside the entire library, once defined. The problem is that the above code works only for a single file.
Another way I know to work around this, is to add the macros to the build command. This would take care of defining the macros for the entire .dll and I will have the #if - #else checks working wherever I want inside the library. The issues with this approach is that I want to be able to maintain the macros easily. Having them in a file inside the project will be perfect. I'd like to have some comments inside too, so that I will know what each macro is doing. This will not be applicable if I have to pass the macros as build parameters. Another reason is being able to turn a macro on/off by simply commenting it and examining the behavior.
Is there a decent way to achieve my requirement? I'd prefer not to deal with any build automation tools like MSBuild, NAnt or anything like this, still if no other way is possible I'd appreciate an advice which one you consider a better choice.
You #define them for an entire project with Project + Properties, Build tab, "Conditional compilation symbols" setting. This sets the <DefineConstants> element in the project file. You override this property with msbuild by giving it the /property:DefineConstants="MYMACRO" command line option.
I'd also advise putting the macros in the project settings (csproj file) as #Hans Passant suggests.
If you need the defines documented, you could add a documentation file to the solution explaining what the settings mean.
If there aren't too many variants, you could define a new project configuration for each one. That will allow you to pre-configure the necessary list of #defines for each variant, and then simply switch between them from the configuration combo box in the toolbar. If you want to temporarily disable one option, you could duplicate the current configuration and remove the #define, then delete the config later when you've tested it.
The next option I can suggest to make it "easier" (by combining the settings and docs into a single file as you've suggested) would be to use a simple text file (settings + comments) to configure the project, and spend 15 minutes writing a quick c# app to read this file and write the settings it contains into the .csproj file - it's just XML so should be a trivial app to write. You'd be able to easily tweak this file and run your updater app to chnage the project settings. If it's something you will do often, spend 30 minutes on it and add a UI with checkboxes to choose the settings more easily.
The concept you're describing sounds rather odd, though. The point of a library is usually that you have one standardised lump of code that can be shared by many clients, so changing these sort of defines to reconfigure the whole library a lot is not something that I'd expect to need to do very often. Perhaps you have good reasons, but it may be worth reviewing why you need to solve this #define problem.
(e.g. If you have lots of customers who need different variants of the "library", the best approach will be to use configurations (described above) to allow you to build all needed variants in a batch build. If you are just trying out lots of different algorithms/techniques then can you redesign chunks of the library so that you can restrict the impact of most #defines to just to a single .cs file so they no longer need to be global? Perhaps the library shouldn't be in a single dll, or a plug-in architecture is needed to allow you to pick and choose the "modules" that are included within the library)
C# “preprocessor” directives don't work the same as C preprocessor directives. The most important difference for you is that there is no equivalent of #include. It's not needed under normal circumstances, because C# doesn't have (or need) header files. I don't think what you want is possible, unless you somehow create your own preprocessor or read the file with #defines and make them into parameters of msbuild.
But I think it would be easier for you to use more object-oriented approach: encapsulate the different approaches into classes and use them. To specify which one of them to use, you could use dependency injection. That means you would have to ship a DI library along with your library, but I think that's a price worth paying.
Also, this approach would alleviate a problem with conditional compilation: specifying different set of symbols may break the build in unexpected ways.
Using GUI
Open the project in Visual Studio
Right-Click on the project file in the solution explorer go to properties
Go to Build tab and Make sure you select the All Configurations in the configuration drop down
Make sure selected the All Platforms in Platform drop-down
Type the Preprocessor Definitions you want in the Conditional Compilation Symbols text box separated by semicolon
To the Project file
Open the project file in a text editor
Copy and paste this code to end of existing PropertyGroup
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(VariableName)'=='VarableValue'">
<DefineConstants>PDEF1;PDEF2;PDEF3</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
If you not required to add a condition, delete the Condition="'$(VariableName)'=='VarableValue'" part
Save the project file and open from Visual Studio
From: https://codeketchup.blogspot.sg/2018/04/how-to-add-project-level-preprocessor.html
is there a way to notify user about a new version of plugin available?
This can be certainly done by writing some custom code to ping webservice, finding status and based on that displaying message, but then i am wondering if there is a predefined way/template available which can be used and achieved.
If you are sharing sample code, I like C#.
I think one of the best ways to achieve this without writing your own custom code is to use ClickOnce (or a ClickOnce alternative) - "ClickOnce applications can be self-updating; they can check for newer versions as they become available and automatically replace any updated files."
ClickOnce can be and is often used in conjunction with Office addins - for example, see http://robindotnet.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/how-do-i-programmatically-find-the-deployed-files-for-a-vsto-add-in/
Also, another question regarding open-source options to Click-Once might be a good idea - clickonce - what is a good open source alternative to clickonce? (DDay.Update)?