Office Add-In Development Tips

In this article I list a few tips for Office add-in development tips.

• GitHub repo of the "yo" Office generators
  It can happen that "yo office" generates some incomplete or corrupted files.
  You can refer to the original templates in multiple repositories, one for each template.
  For example: Office-Addin-Taskpane-SSO

• Link to register the Outlook add-ins
  Add-Ins for Outlook

• How to clear the Office cache
  While developing, sometimes the Office clients don't register or unregister the sideloaded add-ins you have registered.
  You can clear the Office cache following this article: Clear the Office cache

• How to make your add-in to appear when both reading and composing email
  By default, the add-ins generated by the template are enabled only when composing en email. To have them enabled even when reading an email, in the manifest.xml file you need to add an ExtensionPoint with xsi:type="MessageReadCommandSurface":

  <Hosts>
    <Host xsi:type="MailHost">
      <DesktopFormFactor>
        <FunctionFile resid="Commands.Url"/>
        <ExtensionPoint xsi:type="MessageReadCommandSurface">
          <OfficeTab id="TabDefault">
            <Group id="msgReadGroup">
              <Label resid="GroupLabel"/>
              <Control xsi:type="Button" id="msgReadOpenPaneButton">
                <Label resid="TaskpaneButton.Label"/>
                <Supertip>
                  <Title resid="TaskpaneButton.Label"/>
                  <Description resid="TaskpaneButton.Tooltip"/>
                </Supertip>
                <Icon>
                  <bt:Image size="16" resid="Icon.16x16"/>
                  <bt:Image size="32" resid="Icon.32x32"/>
                  <bt:Image size="80" resid="Icon.80x80"/>
                </Icon>
                <Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane">
                  <SourceLocation resid="Taskpane.Url"/>
                </Action>
              </Control>
            </Group>
          </OfficeTab>
        </ExtensionPoint>
        <ExtensionPoint xsi:type="MessageComposeCommandSurface">
          <OfficeTab id="TabDefault">
            <Group id="msgComposeGroup">
              <Label resid="GroupLabel"/>
              <Control xsi:type="Button" id="msgComposeOpenPaneButton">
                <Label resid="TaskpaneButton.Label"/>
                <Supertip>
                  <Title resid="TaskpaneButton.Label"/>
                  <Description resid="TaskpaneButton.Tooltip"/>
                </Supertip>
                <Icon>
                  <bt:Image size="16" resid="Icon.16x16"/>
                  <bt:Image size="32" resid="Icon.32x32"/>
                  <bt:Image size="80" resid="Icon.80x80"/>
                </Icon>
                <Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane">
                  <SourceLocation resid="Taskpane.Url"/>
                </Action>
              </Control>
            </Group>
          </OfficeTab>
        </ExtensionPoint>
      </DesktopFormFactor>
    </Host>
  </Hosts>