How to intercept the recurrence button click in the appointment window

Question

Hi all

I'm running into an issue during the programming with existing ribbons within outlook.
I'd like to handle the "Recurrence" button click in the appointment inspector.

I did the following:

I've registred my IRibbonExtensibility object in the ThisAddin.cs class as follows

protected override IRibbonExtensibility CreateRibbonExtensibilityObject()
{
    return new AppointmentItemRibbon();
}

The class it self is very straight forward

public class AppointmentItemRibbon : IRibbonExtensibility
{
    private static string GetResourceText(string resourceName)
    {
        Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        string[] resourceNames = asm.GetManifestResourceNames();
        for (int i = 0; i < resourceNames.Length; ++i)
        {
            if (string.Compare(resourceName, resourceNames[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
            {
                using (Stream resourceStream = asm.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceNames[i]))
                {
                    if (resourceStream != null)
                    {
                        using (StreamReader resourceReader = new StreamReader(resourceStream))
                        {
                            return resourceReader.ReadToEnd();
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    private IRibbonUI _ribbonUi;

    public string GetCustomUI(string ribbonID)
    {
        if (ribbonID == "Microsoft.Outlook.Appointment")
        {
            return GetResourceText("OutlookAddIn1.AppointmentItemRibbon.xml");
        }
        return null;
    }

    public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, ref bool bolCancel)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("huhu" + control.Id);
    }

    public void Ribbon_Load(IRibbonUI ribbonUI)
    {
        _ribbonUi = ribbonUI;
    }
}

as well the according xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui" onLoad="Ribbon_Load">
    <commands>
        <command idMso="Recurrence" onAction="RecurrenceClick"/>
    </commands>
</customUI>

Unfortunately it still doesn't work. What did I wrong? Any ideas?

Regards Lukas

Answer 1

add debugging info (log, show message box) to Ribbon_load and inside your 'if' in getcustomui - is the code executed?

Answer 2

Does it work better if you remove the "ref" argument for Cancel and write your signature like this:

 

public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, bool cancelDefault)

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"quickstar" <=?utf-8?B?cXVpY2tzdGFy?=> wrote in message news:eb1248fb-240f-4f0f-910c-a2be7bc6c4ab...

Hi all

I'm running into an issue during the programming with existing ribbons within outlook.
I'd like to handle the "Recurrence" button click in the appointment inspector.

I did the following:

I've registred my IRibbonExtensibility object in the ThisAddin.cs class as follows

protected override IRibbonExtensibility CreateRibbonExtensibilityObject()
{
    return new AppointmentItemRibbon();
}

The class it self is very straight forward

public class AppointmentItemRibbon : IRibbonExtensibility
{
    private static string GetResourceText(string resourceName)
    {
        Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        string[] resourceNames = asm.GetManifestResourceNames();
        for (int i = 0; i < resourceNames.Length; ++i)
        {
            if (string.Compare(resourceName, resourceNames[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
            {
                using (Stream resourceStream = asm.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceNames[i]))
                {
                    if (resourceStream != null)
                    {
                        using (StreamReader resourceReader = new StreamReader(resourceStream))
                        {
                            return resourceReader.ReadToEnd();
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    private IRibbonUI _ribbonUi;

    public string GetCustomUI(string ribbonID)
    {
        if (ribbonID == "Microsoft.Outlook.Appointment")
        {
            return GetResourceText("OutlookAddIn1.AppointmentItemRibbon.xml");
        }
        return null;
    }

    public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, ref bool bolCancel)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("huhu" + control.Id);
    }

    public void Ribbon_Load(IRibbonUI ribbonUI)
    {
        _ribbonUi = ribbonUI;
    }
}

as well the according xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui" onLoad="Ribbon_Load">
    <commands>
        <command idMso="Recurrence" onAction="RecurrenceClick"/>
    </commands>
</customUI>

Unfortunately it still doesn't work. What did I wrong? Any ideas?

Regards Lukas

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

Answer 3

add debugging info (log, show message box) to Ribbon_load and inside your 'if' in getcustomui - is the code executed?

The GetCustumUI is called correctly. I don't know where I should put additional degging infos. Where would you put more informations?

Answer 4

Does it work better if you remove the "ref" argument for Cancel and write your signature like this:

 

public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, bool cancelDefault)

Nope, the ref argument is used to route the default behavior.

If I remove the ref argument, it's used to determine if the toggleButton is clicked or not.

Answer 5

declare your RecurrenceClick method like this:

public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control)

and let us know if it works now.

Answer 6

Sadly, still no luck! Is this a bug?

Answer 7

The signature for a toggleButton does not use "ref" or any by reference designation for the Cancel argument. Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb421511(v=office.12).aspx for an example.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

 

 

"quickstar" <=?utf-8?B?cXVpY2tzdGFy?=> wrote in message news:a5b8d429-4a3c-4eac-92bb-3734ed37aca8...

Does it work better if you remove the "ref" argument for Cancel and write your signature like this:

 

public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, bool cancelDefault)

Nope, the ref argument is used to route the default behavior.

If I remove the ref argument, it's used to determine if the toggleButton is clicked or not.

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

Answer 8

The signature for a toggleButton does not use "ref" or any by reference designation for the Cancel argument. Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb421511(v=office.12).aspx for an example.

Though, it doesn't Work even if I remove the ref argument.

Answer 9

Is that handler actually getting called? Add some logging or debug.writeline() information or something to verify that. When I use a toggle button setting Cancel = true does work.

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"quickstar" <=?utf-8?B?cXVpY2tzdGFy?=> wrote in message news:1bb75bd1-6d89-4ef7-b995-a310da7b739f...

The signature for a toggleButton does not use "ref" or any by reference designation for the Cancel argument. Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb421511(v=office.12).aspx for an example.

Though, it doesn't Work even if I remove the ref argument.

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

Answer 10

Is that handler actually getting called? Add some logging or debug.writeline() information or something to verify that. When I use a toggle button setting Cancel = true does work.

Of course not. If the handler would be called my post would be obsolete.

You can Download my sample project for reference. It's very strange, may be it's a bug within outlook.

Answer 11

OK, that's new information, that the callback isn't being called at all. I'll download your project and take a look at it.

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"quickstar" <=?utf-8?B?cXVpY2tzdGFy?=> wrote in message news:79418b4d-b889-4fae-b44f-9089afdd821a...

Is that handler actually getting called? Add some logging or debug.writeline() information or something to verify that. When I use a toggle button setting Cancel = true does work.

Of course not. If the handler would be called my post would be obsolete.

You can Download my sample project for reference. It's very strange, may be it's a bug within outlook.

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

Answer 12

My own brain was dead in our earlier discussion of the toggleButton, the correct onAction signature for a toggle is:

 

public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, bool pressed)

 

The cancel argument doesn't apply to toggle's, it's the pressed state that is the second argument.

 

However, even with the correct argument setup for the callback I now get the RecurrenceClick() method called, but I get a "wrong signature" error message.

 

When I altered your ribbon XML to also handle the click of a toggleButton I added as a custom button to the appointment ribbon the same RecurrenceClick() callback was successfully executed.

 

So the new signature is correct for toggleButton's.

 

I'll try to find out about this, but it appears that either that button is restricted or is actually not a toggleButton but something else.

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"Ken Slovak" <=?utf-8?B?S2VuIFNsb3Zhaw==?=> wrote in message news:4d12ef2a-6d34-4648-b0f4-f84eeb3fb44f...

OK, that's new information, that the callback isn't being called at all. I'll download your project and take a look at it.

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"quickstar" <=?utf-8?B?cXVpY2tzdGFy?=> wrote in message news:79418b4d-b889-4fae-b44f-9089afdd821a...

Is that handler actually getting called? Add some logging or debug.writeline() information or something to verify that. When I use a toggle button setting Cancel = true does work.

Of course not. If the handler would be called my post would be obsolete.

You can Download my sample project for reference. It's very strange, may be it's a bug within outlook.

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

Answer 13

OK, I figured it out, it seems to be something I've been unable to find any documentation on.

 

It appears that when repurposing a toggleButton onAction you have to add a new bool cancelDefault argument to the usual bool pressed argument.

 

The callback signature I used to get the callback called was this:

 

public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, bool pressed, ref bool cancelDefault)

 

Setting cancelDefault to true prevented the recurrence dialog from opening, setting it false allowed it to open.

 

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"Ken Slovak" <=?utf-8?B?S2VuIFNsb3Zhaw==?=> wrote in message news:d1d5d4e8-dda0-436d-846e-fc0dfc5c5c25...

My own brain was dead in our earlier discussion of the toggleButton, the correct onAction signature for a toggle is:

 

public void RecurrenceClick(IRibbonControl control, bool pressed)

 

The cancel argument doesn't apply to toggle's, it's the pressed state that is the second argument.

 

However, even with the correct argument setup for the callback I now get the RecurrenceClick() method called, but I get a "wrong signature" error message.

 

When I altered your ribbon XML to also handle the click of a toggleButton I added as a custom button to the appointment ribbon the same RecurrenceClick() callback was successfully executed.

 

So the new signature is correct for toggleButton's.

 

I'll try to find out about this, but it appears that either that button is restricted or is actually not a toggleButton but something else.

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"Ken Slovak" <=?utf-8?B?S2VuIFNsb3Zhaw==?=> wrote in message news:4d12ef2a-6d34-4648-b0f4-f84eeb3fb44f...

OK, that's new information, that the callback isn't being called at all. I'll download your project and take a look at it.

--
Ken Slovak
MVP - Outlook
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007

 

 

"quickstar" <=?utf-8?B?cXVpY2tzdGFy?=> wrote in message news:79418b4d-b889-4fae-b44f-9089afdd821a...

Is that handler actually getting called? Add some logging or debug.writeline() information or something to verify that. When I use a toggle button setting Cancel = true does work.

Of course not. If the handler would be called my post would be obsolete.

You can Download my sample project for reference. It's very strange, may be it's a bug within outlook.

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

---

Ken Slovak MVP - Outlook

Answer 14

OK, I figured it out, it seems to be something I've been unable to find any documentation on.

 

It appears that when repurposing a toggleButton onAction you have to add a new bool cancelDefault argument to the usual bool pressed argument.

 

The callback signature I used to get the callback called was this:

 

publicvoidRecurrenceClick(IRibbonControlcontrol, boolpressed, ref boolcancelDefault)

 

Setting cancelDefault to true prevented the recurrence dialog from opening, setting it false allowed it to open.

You got it! Thanks a lot!

It seems to be a documentation gap.