Outlook App: installation and configuration

How to operate the Vertec Outlook App is described in the article Outlook App: operation and use.

The Vertec Outlook App is a Vertec Cloud Client and, consequently, runs on the Vertec Cloud Server without local installation. As it is a specialized app, it offers certain functions, but not the full functionality of a full-featured app like the Vertec Web App or Vertec Cloud App.

The Vertec Outlook App enables a tight integration of emails and calendar entries from Outlook into Vertec. The language depends on the logged-in user. Before that, the language of the client computer is used.

The Vertec Outlook App covers the following topics:

• Saving emails in an activity history and creating the activity directly in Vertec
• Viewing Vertec email information in Outlook
• Directly navigating to the relevant objects in Vertec
• Selecting contacts from Vertec when writing an email
• Showing activity history and email conversations
• Changing calendar entries into services

The Vertec Outlook App comes in two editions:

• The Vertec Outlook App Windows Edition: Use this edition if you are running Outlook as a local Windows client.

• The Vertec Outlook App Web Edition: Use this edition if you are deploying Outlook in Office 365 or in your web browser. The Web Edition cannot be used for Outlook as a local Windows client.

  Note about the new Outlook for Windows: This is a streamlined Web Outlook, wrapped in a Windows program. Therefore, it basically runs with the Vertec Outlook App Web Edition, with some limitations (currently not possible to open links).

Both installation options are described below.

Installing the Windows Edition

1. Open your Vertec App Portal. No login is required. Here you can find the Outlook App.
2. Close your Outlook if you have it open.
3. Click on the button Installer Download and open the downloaded file (see Outlook Installer section below).

Your Vertec will start automatically. When the following message appears, the Vertec Outlook App installation is completed:

4.  Please selectClick on Close.
5. Open your Outlook client. Go to Vertec > Show, and you will see the Vertec Outlook App shown as a sidebar.

6. Log in with your Vertec login.

The Outlook Installer

The Outlook App is installed via Outlook installer. It is the same Vertec.OutlookInstaller.exe used to install the Windows Edition locally. The installer can be started with different parameters. For example, an administrator can install the Outlook App with /localmachine for all users of the computer. You can find all the parameters available for the Outlook Installer in the article command line parameters.

Installing the Web Edition

As of Vertec 6.8.0.9, an administrator first registers the Vertec Outlook App Web Edition and makes it available in Microsoft Azure. This step is omitted if an earlier Vertec version is used. The exact procedure is explained in the section Add Vertec Outlook App in Azure below. 

To use the Vertec Outlook App Web Edition on the clients, users must upload the Vertec Outlook App Web manifest to their Outlook:

Upload Vertec Outlook App Web manifest

1. Open your Vertec App Portal. No login is required.
2. Copy the link under Outlook App Web manually or with the following icon:

3. Open a new tab in the browser and paste the copied link.
4. Save the displayed XML page as a file via right-click > Save page as... (manifest.xml):

   

5. Open https://aka.ms/olksideload in your browser. This opens Outlook on the web and shows the Add-ins for Outlook dialog box.
6. Select My add-ins, then + Add a custom add-in and then Add from File...:

7. Select the previously saved file manifest.xml.
8. To install the Vertec Outlook App, select Install.

After that, the Vertec Outlook App will be available. Everything about its application can be found in the article Vertec Outlook App: operation and use.

Add Vertec Outlook App in Azure

The following Vertec-specific guide is based on the general instructions from Microsoft.

1. Open the Azure portal (portal.azure.com) and click on App registrations.
2. Click on  + New registration.
3. On the Register application page, set the values as follows:
   1. Specify the app name, e.g. Vertec Outlook App.
   2. Under account type, select Multiple Entra ID tenants.  

Click on Register. The detail window of your newly registered app opens:

In Vertec, go to system settings > Vertec Apps and define the directory ID (tenant) under Outlook App Web Edition Tenant ID.

Add a secret key (Client Secret)

Under Manage > Certificates & secrets > Client secrets, click + New client secret.

Enter a description, select the validity period of your key, and then click Add.

The new secret key is created and the value is temporarily shown.

Important: Copy the value of the client secret or save it directly in the Vertec system settings > Vertec Apps under Outlook App Web Edition Client Secret. The key will never be shown again once you leave this area.

Making the Web API available

In the left pane, select Manage > Expose an API.

Click on the link above Add to generate an application ID URI:

A dialog appears to specify the Application ID URI.

This is shown with a generated application ID URI in the format api://<app-id>.

Add here the URL where the Outlook App of your Vertec instance can be reached, e.g.  api://mycompany.vertec-cloud.com/<app-id>. Do not include the outlook parameter from the URL.

Then click on Save. The dialog closes and the application ID URI is shown at the top.

Define this in the Vertec system settings > Vertec Apps under Outlook App Web Edition ID URI.

Add a scope

Now click on the same page  + Add a scope and complete the dialog as follows:

• Scope name:  access_as_user
• Who can consent: Administratoren und Benutzer
• Display name: For example  Read/write permissions to user files. Read permissions to user mail and profiles. You are free to specify whatever you want here, but you should be able to see later what scope it is.  
• Description: Same as the display name. Example text:  Allow Office to have read/write permissions to all user files and read permissions to all user mail. Office can call the app's web APIs as the current user
• State: Enabled.

Then click on the button Add scope. The dialog closes and the area is shown in the list.  

Add a client application

On the same page, click Add a client application and fill in the values as follows:

• Client ID: ea5a67f6-b6f3-4338-b240-c655ddc3cc8e. Be sure to insert exactly the ID shown here, regardless of your installation. This is the ID of the Microsoft Graph API and is necessary for communication between Microsoft 365 and Vertec Outlook Vertec Outlook App.    
• Authorized scopes: Check the checkbox next to the previously added scope.    

Click on Add application. The dialog closes and the client application shows in the list.

Add Microsoft Graph permissions

In the left pane, select Manage > API permissions.

Click  Add a permission.    

Select Microsoft Graph, and then select Delegated permissions.    

A list of permissions will appear below. Select the following permissions:

• OpenId permissions >
  • openid
  • profile
• Mail >
  • Mail.Read

and click Add permissions. The dialog closes and the permissions are listed.

For the functioning operation, the administrator’s consent must be accepted here, as long as a Yes is set in the admin consent required column.

Uploading manifest

As a file:

The Vertec Outlook App Web Manifest must then be uploaded, just as the users do on the respective clients. To do this, follow the steps described in the Upload Vertec Outlook App Web Manifest section above.

In Azure:

Finally, go to Azure under Manifest > Microsoft Graph App Manifest (New). There, replace the value of requestedAccessTokenVersion from null to 2. If this value is not set, then token validation fails.

The Vertec Outlook App is stored in Azure and can be used as described in the article Outlook App: operation and use.    

Allow third-party cookies

In the Web Edition, the Vertec Outlook App runs as part of the Web Edition of Outlook, making it a third-party application in the outlook.com application. The Outlook App uses its own cookies for authentication and session management – from the perspective of the browser used, these cookies are “third-party cookies” because they are not sent directly to the main page, but to a third party.

Many browsers have options to restrict the use of such third-party cookies because they are often used for “tracking” (for advertisements). However, if a browser blocks the corresponding cookies from the Outlook App, the Outlook App cannot work, so third-party cookies must be allowed for the outlook.office.com page.

Note: As the Phone App uses the same API, it also has to use the new cookie. Old Phone App versions are not compatible with the new server version. However, new Phone App versions are backwards compatible with old server versions.

Possible problems

Firefox and Outlook App Web Edition

Firefox may experience problems with Outlook App Web Edition. To fix this, try the following:

1. Use another browser, such as Chrome or Edge.
2. Turn off the enhanced tracking protection in Firefox for outlook.office:

   

Possible display problems with Outlook App Windows Edition

In the Outlook App Windows Edition, when moving between monitors with different resolutions, there may be shifts or errors in the display of the Vertec Outlook App.

In Outlook, you can set the Optimize for Compatibility setting via File > Options. This should ensure that the Vertec Outlook App is displayed correctly.