Will the Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework Work With Office 2010?

Question

I have inherited an application built using the Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework 1.6. My task is to make this application work with Office 2010.

I am testing this on a computer with the Office 2010 beta installed, including .NET programmability support for all features. When I try to install IBF 1.6, the installer won't complete, giving me the message: 

The following prerequisite components cannot be found:
.NET Programmability Support for Microsoft Office Word 2003
.NET Programmability Support for Microsoft Office Excel 2003
.NET Programmability Support for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
.NET Programmability Support for Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 SP1
Please install the necessary components and run Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework installation again. 

However, it appears that if I first install Office 2007 on the computer, install IBF, and then upgrade to Office 2010, my application does work. 

Is IBF supposed to work with Office 2010? If so, is there a way to make the installer complete on a computer with Office 2010 installed? Or, is this just an issue with the Office beta that will be resolved in the final release? Or, will there be a hotfix to IBF to make it work with Office 2010, similar to how there was a hotfix to make it work with Office 2007?

I have already asked this question on a couple Microsoft forums, including the Office Information Bridge newsgroup, which has pretty much zero traffic, and the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta forum, but haven't gotten an answer yet. I'm hoping some other developers have the same issue and have had better luck, or maybe have ideas about what Microsoft forums might be better places to look for answers.

Thanks,
Amy

Answer 1

I am not familiar with the Information Bridge Framework, but if it is just a set of .NET DLLs, then you don't need to install it to get your app working. Just copy those DLLs into the same directory as your app's executable files.

The installer probably places the assemblies in the GAC, but you don't need that in order for your app to find them as long as they are .NET assemblies.

Edit: Wow, for something that old that was written for pre Office 2007, I'd say your best option would be refactoring your app to eliminate the dependency on IBF. A lot changed with Office 2007, so even if you could get it to work, it probably won't fit with the new paradigms and design of Office 2007 or 2010. Without diving too deep into the docs for IBF, it sounds like InfoPath might be current equivalent, but I don't really know either system well enough to say for sure.

Another course for finding a solution would be to identify the Microsoft Developer Evangelist for you area. I've had good success with asking questions of the DE here in the Dallas, TX area. When he doesn't know the answer, he can ask the right people within Microsoft and generally finds the answer. If you've exhausted your online search, that may be the best route.

Answer 2

We (Windward Reports) have a number of customers that migrated from IBF to Windward because of the dropped support for IBF. I don't know IBF at all so I can't speak to what parts we match, but the feedack we have received is we do what it does and a lot more.