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Deploying Managed Smart Documents [Office 2003 SDK Documentation]

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If you write your smart document using a .NET Framework-compatible programming language, you must be aware of the following additional issues when deploying it.

Internal deployment

If your deployment audience is internal to your organization, you can help ensure that your smart document is deployed to all users' computers by performing the following steps on deployment:

  • Put the XML expansion pack manifest file on a network share, a Web server, or another location that is available to all users.
  • Ensure the XML expansion pack is signed with a key trusted by computers in your organization.
  • Give FULLTRUST permissions to any interop or assembly used by your smart document. This should be done by strongly naming and signing all assemblies included in your solution with a trusted key and deploying a group policy to grant signed assemblies FULLTRUST.
  • If possible, deploy your smart document with the XML expansion pack already attached to a location as specified above. Doing this may expose security and privacy risks of which you should be aware. For more information, see Security and Privacy.
  • Deploy an XML expansion pack collection to users' computers, and update the XML expansion pack collection with the location of every XML expansion pack that you use within your organization.

External deployment

If your deployment audience is external to your organization or you have other concerns with the internal deployment method discussed above, you can create a Microsoft® Windows® Installer package (or other installation package) to install the smart document on the user's computer. This installation package must set up the file paths and registry entries exactly as Microsoft Office 2003 Editions specify them, which then allows users to open your smart document with full functionality. For more information, see Deploying Smart Documents Without Using an XML Expansion Pack.

Note   Smart document assemblies written in managed code must be granted FULLTRUST permissions on the user's computer in order to execute correctly. There are many ways to grant your managed code assemblies FULLTRUST permissions on the user's computer. For more information about how managed code works with Microsoft Office 2003 Editions, see Using Visual Studio® Tools for the Microsoft Office System Loader.

External deployment in Office 2003 Service Pack (SP) 1

If your users have Office 2003 SP 1 installed, you can now deploy your smart documents externally without having to create an installation package by specifying some additional information in the XML expansion pack manifest file before it is signed. For more information see Manifest Files and XML Expansion Packs on a Server.