Shared Add-in Support still required?

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Shared Add-in Support still required?
 
Tyson Stolarski




Posts: 38
 Joined: 2006-12-01
I recently upgraded my development machine and the 'Shared Add-in Support' prerequisite can no longer be found by the deployment project. Looking into it further, new deployment projects generated by the VS ADX add-in do not include it by default, so I assumed it was no longer required and removed it (Assumed it was to do with .NET 2.0 and has been resolved in subsequent framework versions).

I was then experimenting with installing my add-in with the msi created by the new deployment project without the Shared Add-in Support prerequisite. Simply uninstalling my old add-in version and installing the new one worked fine on a test VM, but this VM already had the prerequisites installed from previous installations.

So I decided to remove them. I uninstalled both 'Shared Add-in Extensibility for Microsoft .NET 2.0' and 'Shared Add-in Support Update for Microsoft .NET 2.0'.

Installing my new version now failed, with a similar error report to what is reported http://www.add-in-express.com/forum/read.php?FID=5&TID=4804 (extensibility.dll not found).

The extensibility.dll was referenced in my add-in project, but the deployment project wouldn't pull it in as a dependency for some reason. I ended up resolving it by manually adding it to the application folder in the deployment project.

Now the installation works without the 'Shared Add-in' packages installed on the target, but uninstalling has issues.
During the uninstall process, an Excel.exe process seems to crash. The uninstall still completes, but it is disrupting and misleading for my users.
Uninstalling my latest version with the 'Shared Add-in' packages still installed works fine though.

So what were/are these prerequisites used for, and are they still needed?
What could be causing this uninstallation crash?

Extra details
Target OS: Windows XP SP2
Target Office: 2003 SP2
Target Apps: Excel
ADX Version: 2009 Standard 5.2.2024
Posted 11 May, 2010 07:24:22 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hello Tyson,

So what were/are these prerequisites used for, and are they still needed?


It is for shared add-ins. You don't need it anymore because you use adxloader.dll.

What could be causing this uninstallation crash?


Don't know. Didn't try to uninstall it.

BTW Please keep your PC up to date, i.e. install the latest service packs for Office and OS.
Posted 11 May, 2010 08:22:59 Top
Tyson Stolarski




Posts: 38
 Joined: 2006-12-01
I think you misunderstood my problem - my ADX add-in uninstallation crashes (only when the old 'Shared Add-in' prerequisite are not installed), not the uninstallation of the prerequisites.

Having said that, I updated to XP SP3 and Office 2003 SP3, and the uninstallation now works fine.
Posted 12 May, 2010 00:37:19 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Tyson,

Having said that, I updated to XP SP3 and Office 2003 SP3, and the uninstallation now works fine.


Is the issue still alive (after you installed the latest service packs)?
Posted 12 May, 2010 04:12:10 Top
Tyson Stolarski




Posts: 38
 Joined: 2006-12-01
Eugene Astafiev writes:
Is the issue still alive (after you installed the latest service packs)?


No, updating to the latest service packs fixed the issue - the uninstallation now works fine without any excel.exe process crashing.

Thanks!
Posted 12 May, 2010 21:41:22 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Tyson,

No, updating to the latest service packs fixed the issue - the uninstallation now works fine without any excel.exe process crashing.


Good news! I always recommend keeping the software up to date by installing the latest updates and patches.
Posted 13 May, 2010 02:34:27 Top