Technical Documentation #

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Version independent programming #

Given the fact that NetOffice supports all recent versions of Office, a mechanism for determining at designtime and runtime which versions support the functionality in question is needed. Therefore, all entities in NetOffice are annotated with the SupportByLibrary attribute and XML source documentation. Take a look at the following code excerpt:

///<summary>
/// DispatchInterface _Application SupportByLibrary Excel, 09,10,11,12,14
///</summary>
[SupportByLibrary("Excel", 09,10,11,12,14)]
[EntityTypeAttribute(EntityType.IsDispatchInterface)]
public class _Application : COMObject
{
    /// <summary>
    /// SupportByLibrary Excel 09, 10, 11, 12, 14
    /// </summary>
    [SupportByLibrary("Excel", 09,10,11,12,14)]
    public bool Visible { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// SupportByLibrary Excel 12, 14
    /// </summary>
    [SupportByLibrary("Excel", 12,14)]
    public bool EnableLivePreview { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// SupportByLibrary Excel 14
    /// </summary>
    [SupportByLibrary("Excel", 14)]
    public bool PrintCommunication { get; set; }
}

You can see that the class _Application is present in all supported versions, just like its property Visible. The property EnableLivePreview is only offered in versions 12 and 14, the property PrintCommunication only in version 14. All Classes, Properties, Methoden, Enums, Enum Values, etc. are annotated this way. When you have created an assembly which is using NetOffice, you can check your assembly with the tool NetOffice.DeveloperToolbox with which Office versions your assembly is compatible.

Following you can see an Overview of the different version attributes.