Add-in works for an hour or two and then stops

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Add-in works for an hour or two and then stops
how to troubleshoot this 
Gordon Prince


Guest


My Outlook Add-in now seems to be working flawlessly in my development environment. And for most of my users for a while. At least one of them, though, is having the problem of the Add-in responding to events 20-50 times, then it stops responding until Outlook is restarted.

I've mirrored the user's actions on my development system as much as possible and cannot get my development system to fail. When I remotely watch the user perform their tasks, the Add-in works properly for 10 minutes or more. But within an hour or two at least part of it stops working. Any ideas how to troubleshoot this type of problem?

The task that's not working is intercepting displaying an Outlook Note. Based on the body of the Note I call another procedure, then cancel displaying the Note. 
    Public Overrides Sub ProcessBeforeAttachmentRead(ByVal attachment As Object, ByVal e As AddinExpress.MSO.ADXCancelEventArgs)
        If InterceptNote(attachment) Then
            e.Cancel = True
        End If
    End Sub

    Function InterceptNote(attachment) As Boolean
        Const strMsg As String = "This will only work if InstantFile is open." & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & _
                                 "Open InstantFile, then try this again."
        Const strTitle As String = "InterceptNote() for "
        Dim myAttachment As Outlook.Attachment = Nothing
        Dim appAccess As Access.Application = Nothing
        Dim myNote As Outlook.NoteItem = Nothing
        Try
            myAttachment = attachment
            If Left(myAttachment.DisplayName, Len(strIFdocNo)) = strIFdocNo Then
                Const strDoc As String = "Open InstantFile Document"
                Dim lngDocNo As Long = Mid(myAttachment.DisplayName, 19)
                If IsDBNull(lngDocNo) Or lngDocNo = 0 Then
                    MsgBox("The item does not have a DocNo.", vbExclamation, strTitle & strDoc)
                    Return False
                Else
                    Try
                        appAccess = CType(Marshal.GetActiveObject("Access.Application"), Access.Application)
                        If Not appAccess.Visible Then appAccess.Visible = True
                        appAccess.Run("DisplayDocument", lngDocNo)
                        Marshal.ReleaseComObject(appAccess)
                        Return True
                    Catch
                        MsgBox(strMsg, vbExclamation + vbOKOnly, strTitle & strDoc)
                    End Try
                    Return False
                End If
...
        Finally
            If olNameSpace IsNot Nothing Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(olNameSpace) : olNameSpace = Nothing
            If myNote IsNot Nothing Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(myNote) : myNote = Nothing
            If appAccess IsNot Nothing Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(appAccess) : appAccess = Nothing
        End Try
    End Function

Any suggestions on troubleshooting this subtle problem greatly appreciated.
Posted 25 Nov, 2015 13:03:13 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18821
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Gordon,

You can add a number of debug messages to your code; use System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(). You collect the messages at run time using DebugView (see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx).

Gordon Prince writes:
then it stops responding


What does this mean? You click a Ribbon button and nothing occurs? Do you have a message box or dialog box opened behind the Outlook window or in Access?


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 26 Nov, 2015 05:00:05 Top
Gordon Prince


Guest


What does this mean? You click a Ribbon button and nothing occurs?
Nothing occurs, but it's from the event not being intercepted the way it is supposed to be rather than clicking a button and nothing occurs.

The code should intercept the reading or display of an attached Note. When that happens, something else displays (from Access). What's going on is it does that 20-50 times, then instead of intercepting the display of the Note it displays the Note itself.

Also your comment gives me the idea that a button on the ribbon to carry out the function that reading the attachment is supposed to be doing might be helpful. I will add that to the Add-in and ask users to try that if the automated interception of reading the attached Note stops working.

I'll get DebugView running and see where that leads. But if you have any idea where I might be looking for code in the meantime, I would appreciate your thoughts.

I have a hunch this project is going to go to sleep for several days as today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA and no one will be at work until Monday.

Cheers.
Posted 26 Nov, 2015 05:13:15 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18821
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Gordon Prince writes:
But if you have any idea where I might be looking for code in the meantime, I would appreciate your thoughts.


I don't have ideas. Debugging should provide more information.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 26 Nov, 2015 06:23:09 Top