.net COM Add-in for Excel - cannot find Extensibility Projects

Hi
I have installed Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office after installing vb.net and Microsoft Office 2003 respectively. I cannot find the Extensibility Projects folderin the Other Projects folder. Please would someone help.
Thanks
Murray

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.net COM Add-in for Excel - cannot find Extensibility Projects

stefaan_meeuws
Hi Misha

Is it possible to write the code in VB.net , but use obfuscation tools to secure the code from being broken into

Thanks
Murray
TwinX
If you just want to create a COM add-in, you don't need Visual Studio Tools for Office. You can use Visual Studio Professional, which has a project template called "Shared Add-in" that you can use to create add-ins for any Microsoft Office application.

If you can wait a couple of months, Visual Studio 2005 will be available.
Max Lam
Hi Misha

Thanks for the last response. The thing is that I want to sell my Add-In to users of Excel 2000 and onward. I would also like to try and target Excel 97 users if possible. So how do I create and Add-In to manipulate my VBA code that can be used in Excel 2000 and Excel 2003 (and at a stretch in Excel 97). It seems that
I massive part of my market lies in older versions of Excel.

Thanks

Murray
Sebastian Kralemann
Hi Harry

Many thanks for that.

I am going to be selling the COM Add-in and want to make sure that my code is not accessible. Do you know whether it is possible to ensure this with the shared add-in
that one can create using visual studio.

Thank you again

Murray
helpdeskguy06
Hi Misha

Thanks very much for getting back to me.

The COM Add-in that I want to create will manipulate Excel. I have finished the code in VBA. As I am a VBA developer I am not sure which of the above options
you mentioned would be best.

I have spent a very long time writing the code, so don't want anyone to break into it.

Please would you recoomend the best way to create a COM Add-In for someone like me who only knows VBA, that will not be easy to break into.

You clearly know what you are talking about so your advice would be very much appreciated

Manu thanks

Murray
Micky G
Hi

Thanks for the response.

I am using Visual Basic 2003 Standard with Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2003.

Do I need to buy Visual Studio Professional too

I am trying to create a COM Add-In for Excel that is secure

Murray
RWH_1
Which version of Visual Studio Tools for Office are you using (2003 or 2005), and which project template are you looking for
... no and then&#33;&#33;
Hi Harry

Thanks very much.

I just want to clarify then what software I need to create a COM Add-In for Excel.
I am assumming that it is as follows:
1. Visual Studio Professional 2003
2. Microsoft Office 2003
3. Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office.

Please would you let me know if this correct or whether I need anything else.

Many thanks,
Murray
Olga K

VB.NET is a managed language so you can use any managed code obfuscator.

All you seems to want to do is migrate your VBA customization to managed code. Assuming you are trargeting Office 2003 (and above), you actually do not need to write a COM add-in, but can use Visual Studio Tools for Office which allow you to customize Excel workbook with managed code.
Joe Fawcett
VS 2003 Pro should be good enough for you. You need to use Shared Add-ins (if you want to write com add-in in managed code make sure you shim it).

If you want to protect your IP then COM Add-ins do not expose your source code to the consumer of your solutions. Now, the bigger question:
do you want to write in C++, VB6 or some managed language VB.NET or C#.

If you decide to do C++ and VB6 then your source code will be hard to reverse engineer back (not impossible, but barely feasible).
If you decide to go with managed code then reverse engineering becomes way easier basically because managed code has all the names of your functons appearing in the assembly (this is not as transparent as VBA code but still). To obstruct the reverse engineering you could use variuus obfuscation tools for managed code.
SQL User 2005
Hi again Misha

Please would you tell me in a nutshell what software I need to build a COM Add-In
for Excel that manipulates my VBA code.

Thanks again
Murray
Optima Warehouse Solutions
Hi Misha

What I mean by secure is secure enough to not be easily crackable like VBA code seems to be. I need to distribute my Add-In without people selling my code.

Thanks very much for responding to my first message.

Murray
Efergus

Murray,

When you say "secure" what do you have in mind Depending on the answer the add-in generated for you by Shared Add-in project may need to be further ehanched.

See this article (which links to more articles) for more details http://blogs.officezealot.com/whitechapel/archive/2004/11/02/3248.aspx
KurtM
The Visual Basic 2003 Standard IDE doesn't include extensibility projects, so there is no add-in template. It looks like those are only in Visual Studio. Visual Studio Tools for Office, Version 2003, does not include any templates for add-ins either--it has templates for Word and Excel that create an assembly that is linked to a specific document or workbook.
.net COM Add-in for Excel - cannot find Extensibility Projects

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