Connecting and Exposing Add-Ins

This chapter covers the essentials of what every add-in you build requires. It also gives you some methods and ideas for connecting and exposing your add-ins in the Microsoft Visual Basic environment.

Topics

Registering Add-Ins

Since add-ins are ActiveX components, they must be registered. This section discusses how this is done.

Referencing Add-Ins

In order for Visual Basic to recognize your add-in, you must set up a reference to it. This section discusses two methods for doing so.

Connecting or Disconnecting Add-Ins

Once your add-in is complete, it must be connected to Visual Basic in order to run. This can be accomplished manually or programmatically. This section discusses methods of doing this.

Exposing Add-Ins to the Visual Basic Environment

There are various ways that you can run your add-in once it is connected to Visual Basic. This section discusses various methods for triggering and running your add-in through the Visual Basic IDE and/or through events.

Add-In Troubleshooting

Even the most careful programmer can run into an occasional problem. This section covers the most commonly encountered problems and their solutions.