Getting a COMException in my Microsoft Lync video chat app

Question

I am trying to develop a basic app in Visual Studio that does a simple video chat with another person. Everything was working fine and I was able to successfully open a video chat. However, I have installed Lync with UI Supression, and the app will not run. Examining the InnerException I can see that the program is throwing a COMException "Exception from HRESULT: 0x80C8000B"

Via process of elimination I have found that commenting out the line auto = LyncClient.getAutomation() lets the app run, though the functionality of the app is gone.

After all my searching online I cant determine what could be causing this line to break it, and I know I need that line of code in order to move forward.

Answer 1

Automation is not available to you when running in UI Suppression Mode.

Suppression mode requires that Lync be installed on the client's machine, but you then need to use the Lync SDK to do a lot of the things that the client does for you, such as signing in (no trivial matter). However, the Automation section of the SDK is the link to the standard Lync UI, which is why it is unavailable to you.

You also don't have access to any of the UI controls that make up the Lync client ... with the exception of the VideoWindow control - which will most probably be useful to you.

There's a good article on understanding UI Suppression Mode here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh345230.aspx

Also, a great sample of how to sign in to Lync when using UI Suppression Mode: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh378603.aspx

One more thing: if you have access to it, in this book on Lync chapter 5 actually has an end-to-end example of producing a UI Suppression AV kiosk app in WPF - which might be exactly what you're looking for.