How to get the index value from an outlook ribbon dropdown control

Question

I am trying to get the index value from a custom dropdown on my outlook ribbon. On the dropdown I have added several items and several buttons.

<mso:dropDown id="MydropDown" 
label="SOLV Tickets" 
enabled="true" 
getItemCount="Project1.DDItemCount" 
getItemLabel="Project1.DDListItem"
getSelectedItemIndex="Project1.DDSelctItemIndx"
onAction="Project1.DDOnAction">
    <mso:item id="item" label="Commercial"/>
    ......
    <mso:button id="button1" label="Commercial Interfaces" onAction="Project1.EMAIL_SOLV_Tickets.SOLV_CommercialInterfaces" visible="true" />
    ......
</mso:dropDown >

The onAction attribute of the buttons has no issue launching macros.

Sub SOLV_Commercial()
        SOLV_emailGenerator ("SAP DS.sap-ds-commercial")
End Sub

The onAction attibute of the dropdown itself does not seem to send anything to the sub.

Sub DDOnAction(control As IRibbonControl, ID As String, index As Integer)
    MsgBox index
End Sub

I have been able to reproduce the behavior I want in an excel file, outlook seems to be a different animal entirely.

.....on Eugenes advice I have added the code below to outlook's project1 and the attribute getSelecteItemIndex to the dropdown above

Sub DDSelctItemIndx(control As IRibbonControl, ByRef index)

    MsgBox index

End Sub

Sub test()

    DDSelctItemIndx ????,???

End Sub

Where I am stuck is what to pass for control and index to sub test to see if this works.

Answer 1

Consider using ribbon callbacks for tracking the currently selected index/item for the dropdown control:

• getSelectedItemID - Asks for the item that should be selected by ID.
• getSelectedItemIndex - Asks for the item that should be selected by index.

If you need to handle button clicks you need to declare the onAction attribute for the button control. It has the following signature:

C#: void OnAction(IRibbonControl control)

VBA: Sub OnAction(control As IRibbonControl)

C++: HRESULT OnAction([in] IRibbonControl *pControl)

Visual Basic: Sub OnAction(control As IRibbonControl)

Read more about the Fluent UI (aka Ribbon UI) in the following series of articles:

• Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 1 of 3)
• Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 2 of 3)
• Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 3 of 3)