Outlook Add-In Overview

This topic covers technical information on the ClayStation for Outlook add-in in order to aid administrative and troubleshooting tasks.

ClayStation for Outlook runs just like any other Outlook add-in: It runs inside Outlook, it is started and stopped by Outlook, and it runs by receiving events from Outlook (see Outlook Integration Overview).

This means that:

• It is only as stable as Outlook itself. If Outlook becomes unstable due to a corrupt PST for example, ClayStation for Outlook may also become unstable or erratic. If there is a corrupt Recurring Appointment that crashes or freezes Outlook, then ClayStation may also freeze or crash when it accesses this Appointment.

• Since ClayStation sometimes has to access items that may be stored in an external folder (e.g. Exchange folders), its performance can be affected by Exchange connectivity and performance problems. Note that Outlook freezes on any stalled access to Exchange folders, and an add-in can therefore make existing problems appear worse. See Outlook Performance Issues for more details.

• ClayStation works with Exchange or other Outlook environments transparently since it receives its events from Outlook and Outlook folders.

• ClayStation should work with items that are synchronized from handhelds or external sources as long as ClayStation is loaded before the synchronization takes place.

• A crash caused by ClayStation itself only causes the add-in to crash and become disabled. It can never crash Outlook unless the crash is an Outlook issue and it fits the description above. When the add-in crashes, the ClayStation toolbar will become unresponsive but Outlook will continue running. In this case it is recommended to restart Outlook.

• With Outlook 2003 and later, if something goes wrong with the add-in, Outlook may sometimes detect that ClayStation has become unresponsive or crashed and will ask the user whether to disable the add-in. See Outlook Asks Whether To Disable Digital-Clay Add-In for more details.

• Outlook security restrictions: In order to avoid asking the user for security access to Outlook items every few seconds, ClayStation makes use of the Redemption dll and MAPI to access Outlook items.

The ClayStation add-in DLL file (installed by default in C:\Program Files\Digital-Clay\ClayOutlook\ must be registered in the Windows registry and enabled in Outlook in order for it to work. The Digital-Clay installation does this for you automatically.

An Outlook add-in can only be registered for the current Windows user. This means that the installation must be run for each Windows user on the same machine.

Registering a DLL necessitates administration rights. For this purpose, the installation runs as the administrator on machines with Vista or later and it therefore asks for permission before it runs.

Alternatively, the DLL file may be manually registered for the current user using \Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe (double-click the DLL and choose to run it using this program). You will need administrative rights for this to work.

If the ClayStation toolbar does not appear in the user's Outlook, see ClayStation for Outlook Doesn't Load.

To disable the add-in temporarily, you can remove/add it from inside Outlook via Outlook Tools/Options/Other/Advanced/Com Add-Ins.

ClayStation for Outlook can work either in online mode by connecting to a shared ClayCentral, or offline with a local MDB database.

By default, ClayStation starts in offline mode until the user connects to ClayCentral using the ClayStation toolbar. This behaviour can be changed in Tools/Options.

When working offline, all changes to items are synchronized with the offline database, and then synchronized with ClayCentral next time the user connects.

For more information on working offline and its limitations, see Offline Usage. For details on the files used when working offline, see Digital-Clay Files.

ClayStation for Outlook is updated just like other Digital-Clay clients. When it connects to an updated ClayCentral, it asks the user whether to run an update. The new files are downloaded and Outlook is automatically restarted.

While auto-updates are running, Outlook must be closed until the update is complete. Outlook is also closed when other Digital-Clay clients (or ClayCentral) are updating, because of locked shared files.

Note that there are two separate updates, one for all other Digital-Clay clients, and the other for ClayStation for Outlook. I.e. each must be updated separately.