Office COM Add-in Deployment

[Ashok]

Hi,

I have posted this to the Visio Discussions too.. Just in case if it is more
related to Visual Studio setup and deployment am posting it here too..

I'm creating a COM Add-in to Microsoft Visio using Visual Studio 2008. I
followed the following procedure.

1. Created an Extensibility Shared Add-in Project.
2. In the onConneciton method, added Menu and MenuItem to the Visio
Application.
3. Performed specific action when the Menu Item is clicked.
4. Excluded the Visio.dll and Office.dll from the deployment project.
5. Had the following as the pre-requisites for the installation - .Net 3.5
framework and Visio Insatllation by searching the Registry key of Visio 12.0
registry key.

Now the Add-in msi gets installed in a target PC and the intended
functionality works as expected. On the Tools --> Trust Center --> Add-ins
page, I could see my Add-in listed as COM Add-in. But the Publisher is shown
as None. Should I do anything specific for that.

Also I would like to know if signing this Add-in is mandatory to make it
available to our customers. On searching, I see items like CAS and Trusting
etc., Please let me know if those things are mandatory for an Add-in.

Also, how will I confirm that the Microsoft PIA's or the VSTO Runtime are
not distributed along with my Add-in installer. I do not see the Microsoft
PIA's or the Visual Studio Tools in the setup project pre-requisites
settings. If this is not listed there, does that mean the PIA's are not
needed for this Add-in.

Any help on this will be greatly appreciated. Please let me know where to
post this if this isn't the right option.

Thanks,
Ashok.