Using the Ribbon Designer with Project Client

Hey,

In this post, I will be showing how you can use the Ribbon designer in Visual Studio 2010 to create custom ribbons in Project Client 2010. To get started, you will need a copy of Visual 2010 with the Office Tools installed and Project Client 2010 installed.

1. To get started, open Visual Studio and create a new Project 2010 add-in:
   
   
2. Next, you need to add the Ribbon Designer by adding a user control to you project:
   
   
   
3. In the Ribbon Designer, add the controls you want to include on your ribbon. In my example, I am going to add a simple button, which when clicked, will display a message box with the name of the active project:
   
    
   
4. Double click on the button to view the code for the ribbon. Here, we are going to add a reference to the Project interop assembly and a static variable that will reference the application:     
   
   
   Code Snippet

   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Text;
   5. using Microsoft.Office.Tools.Ribbon;
   6.  
   7.  
   8. using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;
   9.  
   10. namespace ProjectAddIn2
   11. {
   12.  
   13.     public partial class Ribbon1
   14.     {
   15.         public static MSProject.Application Appliction;
   16.  
   17.         private void Ribbon1_Load(object sender, RibbonUIEventArgs e)
   18.         {
   19.  
   20.         }
   21.     }
   22. }
   
   
   
5. The next step is to set the Application variable in the start up method of the add-in:
   
   
   Code Snippet

   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Text;
   5. using System.Xml.Linq;
   6. using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;
   7. using Office = Microsoft.Office.Core;
   8.  
   9. namespace ProjectAddIn2
   10. {
   11.     public partial class ThisAddIn
   12.     {
   13.         private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   14.         {
   15.             Ribbon1.Appliction = Application;
   16.         }
   17.  
   18.         private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   19.         {
   20.         }
   21.  
   22.         #region VSTO generated code
   23.  
   24.         /// <summary>
   25.         /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
   26.         /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
   27.         /// </summary>
   28.         private void InternalStartup()
   29.         {
   30.             this.Startup += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Startup);
   31.             this.Shutdown += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Shutdown);
   32.         }
   33.         
   34.         #endregion
   35.     }
   36. }
   
   
   
6. Last step is to add a message box that displays the name of the project:
   
   
   Code Snippet

   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Text;
   5. using Microsoft.Office.Tools.Ribbon;
   6.  
   7.  
   8. using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;
   9. using System.Windows.Forms;
   10.  
   11. namespace ProjectAddIn2
   12. {
   13.  
   14.     public partial class Ribbon1
   15.     {
   16.         public static MSProject.Application Appliction;
   17.  
   18.         private void Ribbon1_Load(object sender, RibbonUIEventArgs e)
   19.         {
   20.  
   21.         }
   22.  
   23.         private void button1_Click(object sender, RibbonControlEventArgs e)
   24.         {
   25.             MessageBox.Show("Active Project: " + Appliction.ActiveProject.Name);
   26.         }
   27.     }
   28. }

When you compile and run the application, you should see Project client boot and have the ribbon appear:

Hope this helps,

Chris Boyd