Loading VS Add-ins from URL
In Visual Studio 2005, managed add-ins are allowed to get loaded from a website as long as you enable it in Tools Options Add-in/Macros Security page and also fully trust the add-in assembly from the URL. To load an add-in from a URL, you need to:
1. Make sure in Tools Options Environment Add-in/Macros Security page,
"Allow Add-in compoments to load from a URL" is checked.
2. Use CasPol.exe to fully trust the add-in assembly from the URL.
The command is like "CasPol.exe -m -ag 1.2 -url http://myWebSite/myAddin.dll FullTrust"
(Check out the following blog entry to see more details with CasPol.exe:
http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnfa/archive/2004/12/30/344554.aspx)
3. Update the <Assembly> tag in the .Addin XML file.
The .Addin XML file looks like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="no"?>
<Extensibility xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/AutomationExtensibility">
<HostApplication>
<Name>Microsoft Visual Studio</Name>
<Version>8.0</Version>
</HostApplication>
<Addin>
<FriendlyName>WebAddin</FriendlyName>
<Description>WebAddin</Description>
<Assembly>http://SomeWebsite/WebAddin.dll</Assembly>
<FullClassName>WebAddin.Connect</FullClassName>
<LoadBehavior>0</LoadBehavior>
<CommandPreload>0</CommandPreload>
<CommandLineSafe>0</CommandLineSafe>
</Addin>
</Extensibility>
Also, if you are working on a Win2K3 server machine, make sure you have proper IE Security setting (go to IE Tools/ Internet Options/Security and add the website that hosting the add-in)
