VSTO-Excel-Application: Check for available new version prior to launch

Question

Although VSTO doesn't provide anything for checking for a new available application-version (VSTO Excel-Document-Level-Customization)
prior to launching the app (but this check outside the VSTO-Application itself obviously isn't possible) I would like to know if there is a better way to handle this whole procedure.
I'm using a .Net-Application which launches Excel first, checks if all environment-parameters are ok and if so, then it eventually launches the VSTO-Application. While performing the VSTO-launch I check for an available update  - if so, the Workbook
will be closed, the update will be executed silently and the VSTO-Application will be restarted. It works, but it is quite complicated and this method is not really nice.
So my question is: Is there a possibility to perfom the VSTO-Update from the Startup-Application without initially launching the VSTO-Application and so avoiding the launch of the VSTO-Application just to check if there's an available update.

Answer 1

Although VSTO doesn't provide anything for checking for a new available application-version (VSTO Excel-Document-Level-Customization)
prior to launching the app (but this check outside the VSTO-Application itself obviously isn't possible) I would like to know if there is a better way to handle this whole procedure.
I'm using a .Net-Application which launches Excel first, checks if all environment-parameters are ok and if so, then it eventually launches the VSTO-Application. While performing the VSTO-launch I check for an available update  - if so, the Workbook
will be closed, the update will be executed silently and the VSTO-Application will be restarted. It works, but it is quite complicated and this method is not really nice.
So my question is: Is there a possibility to perfom the VSTO-Update from the Startup-Application without initially launching the VSTO-Application and so avoiding the launch of the VSTO-Application just to check if there's an available update.
Hello,
Based on your description, it seems that you want the add-in check updates before the add-in loaded.
Right?
If so, you could select Check every time the
customization runs, and that should solve your issue, because it will check updates before the add-in loaded.
You could refer to the loading process from
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zcfbd2sk.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396, sepcially the step 6.
The following steps occur when a user opens a document that is part of a Microsoft Office solution.
The Microsoft Office application checks the custom document properties to see whether there are managed code extensions associated with the document. For more information, see
Custom Document Properties Overview.
If there are managed code extensions, the application loads VSTOEE.dll, which loads VSTOLoader.dll. These are unmanaged DLLs that are the loader components for the Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime. For more information, see
Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime Overview.
VSTOLoader.dll loads the .NET Framework and starts the managed portion of the Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime.
If the document is opened from a location other than the local computer, the Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime verifies that the location of the document is in the
Trusted Locations list in the Trust Center Settings for that particular Office application. If the document location is not in a trusted location, the customization is not trusted, and the load process stops here.
The Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime installs the solution if it has not been installed yet, downloads the most recent application and deployment manifests, and performs a series of security checks. For more information, see
Securing Office Solutions.
If the customization is trusted to run, the Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime uses the deployment manifest and application manifest to check for assembly updates. If a new version of the
assembly is available, the runtime downloads the new version of the assembly to the ClickOnce cache on the client computer. For more information, see
Deploying an Office Solution.
The Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime creates a new application domain in which to load the customization assembly.
The Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime loads the customization assembly into the application domain.
The Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime calls the Startup event handler in your customization assembly. For more information, see
Events in Office Projects
If that is not the one fits your requirement, then I am afraid that it is impossible to get update before the add-in loads, because we could call
ClickOnce Api but there is no such event to call that api.
Regards,
Carl
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