A VSTO 2005 Document Processing Solution

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office (VSTO 2005) supports a multitier architecture for document processing solutions. As shown here, a user (such as a builder seeking a permit) works with documents using a client component based on Office 2003, while a server component synchronizes data between documents and corporate applications (such as a permit management system). The components are structured as follows:

User. The user works with Word and Excel documents that contain application data in specially tagged XML “data islands.” For example, a Word-based building permit application might include an XML data island that holds all applicant data such as company name, legal description of the building site, class of the proposed property, and so on. This information would be displayed to the user as form fields in the Word document.

Client. The client portion consists of two components: an application-specific .NET code package (called an assembly) authored by the developer and the VSTO 2005 engine. When the document is opened, the VSTO 2005 client engine automatically loads and runs the developer’s code, which then defines how the user interface is presented (such as providing a menu of standard project codes for building projects), validates input (verifies that the company name field has been filled, for example), and manages communication with the server component. The VSTO 2005 client engine requires an Office 2003 host application (currently Word or Excel), and the .NET Framework run-time system.