Head in the Clouds

CloudStorageAccount.Parse is your friend

2011-02-02T01:38:00Z

When I started writing my first Azure app, one of the first issues I ran into was dealing with Azure storage -- I couldn't figure out how to set it up in my code so I could use it. I found this nice article about how to structure your connection strings , but what it didn't tell me was where to put it, how to get it out of there and where to pass it when I had it to actually instantiate a storage account. Whichever connection string you are using, the place to put it is in the settings page of...(read more)

Re-launch of my blog

2011-02-01T23:03:00Z

This will be, in restaurant parlance, a "soft opening": no fanfare, we'll see if anyone notices. If there are any followers of this blog -- and considering my last post was three years ago, I find that highly unlikely -- you will notice I've changed some things. And I plan on changing more. Previously, the subject of this blog had been Addins and Customization. I am still interested in those things. However, in the three dark years here, things have changed. In these years, my career has grown...(read more)

The reports of VBA's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

2008-01-17T21:34:00Z

There have been spurious reports in the media saying that VBA is dead. Caused quite a firestorm around here as you might imagine -- 'cause it just plain isn't true. There is an official statement on the VSTO blog here: \ http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto2/archive/2008/01/16/the-reports-of-vba-s-demise-have-been-greatly-exaggerated.aspx...(read more)

VSTO Architecture Demo from TechEd and MSDN WebCast

2007-12-01T04:44:00Z

Good news here -- for me especially :). The demo code from my VSTO Architecture talk at TechEd and in the recent MSDN WebCast is already (mostly) posted here. My colleague Andrew Whitechapel had written the WPF Control and the WCF service that I used in my demo -- which really makes it mostly his demo (thanks Andrew). Anyway, I went to ask him if I could post the code, and noticed the latest issue of MSDN Magazine on his desk with a VSTO article, and lo and behold, he published virtually the same...(read more)

TechEd and MSDN Webcast Demos

2007-12-01T03:17:00Z

Geez, I'm looking at this blog, and I'm realizing I've only posted once this year, and that post said I would post more often. What a lame-o! Since my last post I have been busy. I've spoken at two TechEds -- in the US in Orlando and in Europe in Barcelona. I totally recommend Barcelona for anyone who hasn't been there, what a great city! But I digress. I've been asked by several people to make available the demo code that I showed at the TechEds. I had a talk on VSTO Architecture at both,...(read more)

Back Into the Light

2007-06-14T21:18:00Z

And out of the dark... I've been dark for a while now, time to come out and let you know what's been going on. I've been heads down writing code for VSTO v3 and VSTA v2 due to release -- hopefully, no promises -- later this year. The new version of VSTO is built upon the new version of VSTA which is built upon the new version of System.Addin. And the new version of System.AddIn is shipping in the .NET Framework 3.5 as promised. It has been a ton of work, but we are close to being done now....(read more)

VSTA and Generics

2006-12-05T10:10:00Z

VSTA has been officially released now, in InfoPath in the 2007 Office System, and for use by third parties in the VS SDK. So we're getting our first batch of feature requests. Far and away the biggest request so far is generic support. Admittedly, generic support for VSTA hosts is limited. I know it's an excuse, but we had limited time and resources to get VSTA done in time for Office 2007, and we had to make some hard choices. One of the reasons generic support was considered "cut-able" was that...(read more)

Outlook 2007 Form Region Sample – Second Edition

2006-12-01T09:28:00Z

Office 2007 is official today, so it is time to update my Form Region Sample. The big difference is new methods on the _FormRegionStartup interface. With input from us here in VSTO, Outlook changed the interface to make it easier to use from VSTO addins and more friendly to managed dlls. The two new methods mean I could remove a bunch of the workarounds in the previous version. The new interface looks like this: public interface _FormRegionStartup { void BeforeFormRegionShow( FormRegion FormRegion...(read more)

Outlook 2007 Form Region Sample

2006-10-31T02:02:00Z

I've finally finished my Form Region Sample for Outlook 2007 that was promised. I've been working on it in earnest for a couple weeks now in my spare time. I am now resisting the urge to continue tweaking it: it is time to lockdown and ship. The urge to tweak is there because this is something I'm actually going to use all of the time. Outlook 2007, you may have noticed, has a new folder for RSS feeds, so you can get your blogs right in Outlook. This is cool, but I wanted to change how the posts...(read more)

Back in Redmond

2006-10-11T02:49:00Z

It's good to be home. But we had a great time in Europe and learned a ton. The best thing I learned is that ISVs are using VSTO and using it well. Hopefully they learned from us as well. I have nothing but good things to say about the Frontline program, it was a rousing success. I was happy to see that VB .NET is being used in several companies. VB suffered a bit of a downturn recently, but it survives and is being used extensively in Office customization. C# is being used extensively as well...(read more)