Visual Studio Tools for Office versioning and compatibility

Visual Studio Tools for Office versioning and compatibility

Abbreviations used in this document

CAS	Code Access Security
FX	.NET Framework
MAF	Managed Add-in Framework
SE	Second Edition
VS	Visual Studio
VSTO	Visual Studio Tools for Office

Overview

VSTO consists of two distinct components with different, but intertwined, shipping patterns, versioning and compatibility concerns. Specifically, we are influenced by all three of the following:

· Office: we aim to provide support for new versions of Office as quickly as possible preferably in advance of, or simultaneously with, each Office release. We distribute our runtime components as a redistributable package through the Microsoft public download site (in addition to chaining into VS for developer use).

· VS: all our design-time components including designers, code generators, build integration and deployment/publishing are hosted inside VS.

· .NET Framework/Common Language Runtime: we aim to allow developers to use new .NET technologies wherever possible, primarily by avoiding any artificial blocks to consumption of new APIs, frameworks or subsets. We also aim to allow developers to target “old” or down-level .NET versions if they so desire through multi-targeting.

To a lesser extent we are also influenced by Windows and release updates from time to time to deal with operating system changes and bugs.

The following three tables describe the range of Office applications covered by the VSTO design time and the compatibility and versioning details of each major release of the VSTO Runtime. Note that design-time support and runtime support provided by VSTO are not in one-to-one correspondence with one another.

That that certain items are internal names of solution types and “bizarre cryptonyms”, for example, and are strictly informal terminology and are in no way to be considered official.

Notes about some terminology

A few terms used in the three tables are explained in detail here:

Design-time support matrix

“VS version”

This is the version of VS with which the design-time components shipped; design-time components are always versioned to match VS; the various runtime redistributables will contain a mixture of file and assembly versions since we reship various components from prior runtime versions to support backwards compatibility

Design-time support matrix

Semiofficial name	Ship vehicle	VS version	Included VSTO Runtime versions	Office 2003 documents(solution type)	Office 2003 add-ins(solution type)	Office 2007 documents(solution type)	Office 2007 add-ins(solution type)
VSTO 2003	Add-on for VS 2003	7.1	1.0	ExcelWord(v7)
VSTO 2005	VS 2005	8.0	2.0	ExcelWord(v8)	Outlook(v8)
VSTO 2005 SE	Add-on for VS 2005	8.0	2.0 SE		ExcelOutlookPowerPointProjectVisioWord(v8)		ExcelInfoPathOutlookPowerPointProjectVisioWord(v8)
VSTO 2008	VS 2008	9.0	2.0 SE Update 23.0	ExcelWord(v8)	ExcelInfoPathOutlookPowerPointProjectVisioWord(v8)	ExcelWord(v9)	ExcelInfoPathOutlookPowerPointProjectVisioWord(v9)

Solution types

Internal name	Office version	Description	Minimum required .NET Framework version	User-facing assembly names	Underlying technologies	Versioning , compatibility and other comments
v7	2003	Office templates in VS 2003 add-on	FX 1.1	Microsoft.Office.Tools.CommonMicrosoft.Office.Tools.ExcelMicrosoft.Office.Tools.WordMicrosoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime	Fusion binding.NET CAS	Fusion determines version of user-facing assemblies to run based on assembly manifest versions etc.
v8	2003	Office templates in VS 2005Office templates in VS 2005 add-onOffice 2003 templates in VS 2008	FX 2.0	Microsoft.Office.Tools.CommonMicrosoft.Office.Tools.ExcelMicrosoft.Office.Tools.OutlookMicrosoft.Office.Tools.WordMicrosoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime	Fusion binding.NET CAS	Fusion determines version of user-facing assemblies to run based on assembly manifest versions etc.
v9	2007	Office 2007 templates in VS 2008	FX 3.5	Microsoft.Office.Tools.v9.0Microsoft.Office.Tools.Common.v9.0Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.v9.0Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.v9.0Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.v9.0Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.v9.0	MAF bindingClickOnce security	MAF always loads the latest version of any given assembly regardless of assembly manifest versions, thus new versions of user-facing assemblies must always have unique names (hence the “v9.0”-style assembly name decorations)

Runtime support matrix

Internal name	Semiofficial name	Bizarre cryptonym	Ship vehicle	Supported solution types	Target .NET Framework version	Comment
1.0	VSTO 2003 Runtime	OTKLoadr	Office 2003	v7	FX 1.1	Included as integral part of Office since Office 2003
2.0	VSTO 2005 Runtime	Whidbey	VS 2005Download	v8	FX 2.0	Improved API support and designers plus Outlook add-ins
2.0 SE	VSTO 2005 SE Runtime	Cypress	Download	v8	FX 2.0	Update to include add-in support for Office 2003/2007 and bug fixes
2.0 SE Update 1	VSTO 2005 SE Runtime	Cypress	Download		FX 2.0	Vista compatibility and bug fixes
2.0 SE Update 2	VSTO 2005 SE Runtime	Cypress	VS 2008Download	v8	FX 2.0	Bug fixes
3.0	VSTO 3.0 Runtime	Orcas	VS 2008Download	v9	FX 3.5	Full support for Office 2007 solutions and ClickOnce deployment
3.0 SP1	VSTO 3.0 SP1 Runtime	Orcas SP1	VS 2008 SP1Download	v9	FX 3.5	.NET Framework 3.5 Client Profile update, bug fixes and minor features

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 24, 2009
  Some items on VSTO compatibility including my own compatibility matrix : My article on the subject A