Is thr a way to test outlook add-in in a system other than where am testing it locally with VS 2022 without publishing it?

Question

I have created an outlook addin. PFB my manifest file. But I see that all the HTML, images files are showing localhost paths. How to test my add-in in a different system where i have not run the visual studio locally. Bcoz while we add a custom add-in, it asks only for the manifest file which in turn refers to the HTML and images and script files... Can i just change the paths of these references, so that i can test my add-in from another outlook app in another system?

<Resources>
      <bt:Images>
        <bt:Image id="icon16" DefaultValue="https://localhost:44310/Images/icon16.png"/>
        <bt:Image id="icon32" DefaultValue="https://localhost:44310/Images/icon32.png"/>
        <bt:Image id="icon80" DefaultValue="https://localhost:44310/Images/icon80.png"/>
      </bt:Images>
      <bt:Urls>
        <bt:Url id="functionFile" DefaultValue="https://localhost:44310/Functions/FunctionFile.html"/>
        <bt:Url id="messageReadTaskPaneUrl" DefaultValue="https://localhost:44310/MessageRead.html"/>
...
</Resources>

I have created this new outlook add in and it is working fine locally when i test it in outlook web. I wanna test this in a different system. When I try to delete all the cache (C:\Users\Gandhimathi_S\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef) and sideload my manifest file from the bin folder in my outlook windows app, without running it locally, i get this error: Sorry. we can't load the add-in. Please make sure you have network and/or Internet connectivity. Click "Retry" once you're back online for certain requests. After running it locally, my add in works fine in my windows Outlook app too.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 15 '23 at 01:07

To test your add-in on another machine, you must host your add-in project files on a local web server, such as a local IIS web server (https://localhost), on that machine. Installing Visual Studio on that machine would be the easiest way to accomplish this. For additional guidance on testing, see Test Office Add-ins.

If you want to test the add-in without having to install additional tools, you'll need to host your project files on a web server. GitHub Pages may be an option for this (see the Outlook hello-world Office Add-ins sample as a reference, as it uses GitHub Pages).

Is thr a way to test outlook add-in in a system other than where am testing it locally with VS 2022 without publishing it?

1 Answers1