As some of you may or may not know, Microsoft is making click-to-run much more common for all Office products with the 2013 version. If you write software that uses or integrates with Outlook, Word, or Excel you are probably used to using their Automation APIs, MAPI, or .NET PIAs. The new virtualized installation of Office products (click to run) no longer support any out-of-process integration methods whatsoever.
Does anyone here know what Microsoft's guidance is in this area going forward for 3rd party integrators? I can't imagine that they'd want the myriad of companies that support their products to just jump ship. For example if MAPI is no longer functioning how are other processes supposed to read .MSG files, resolve SMTP addresses with exchange, get the global address list from exchange, etc?
I can't be alone in wondering what the forward path is for 3rd party integrators. Clearly an in-process add-in is not always feasible. Some integrations are server-based or can't expect Outlook/Word to be running at all times.
The only workaround currently is to install a full MSI version instead of using click-to-run. The problem is that only volume licenses are given an MSI install. This doesn't apply evenly across the board.
Has anyone else gotten wind on what the future holds, because it seems quite foggy from where we sit.
