Office Regex not underlining anything

Question

I'm building an outlook addin (running it locally, not through web) that should detect certain words when a user is composing messages. I started with the basic example here. Then modified the manifest to instead work on "compose" based on the differences in this tutorial.

From what I've read, all I have to do to have it underline a regex match is to add a rule to detect the thing I want to detect in the manifest. Once detected, the user should be able to click on it and I can have it do anything I want, but I can't even get it to detect the regex. The keyword I'm looking for is based on the example ticker symbol, but I simplified it to just look for "NYSE"

In the manifext.xml below, I have code to add a taskbar and a button but I haven't coded them to do anything, they just appear in the ribbon when I compose a message. I did this just so I could have a visual indication that something was working. These do appear, but still the regex is not underlining the keyword "NYSE". What am I missing here?

Here is my manifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<OfficeApp xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/appforoffice/1.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:bt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/officeappbasictypes/1.0" xmlns:mailappor="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/mailappversionoverrides/1.0" xsi:type="MailApp">
  <Id>123456789123456789123456789</Id>
  <Version>1.0.0.0</Version>
  <ProviderName>Me</ProviderName>
  <DefaultLocale>en-US</DefaultLocale>
  <DisplayName DefaultValue="composeTest"/>
  <Description DefaultValue="My Compose Add-in based on the template"/>
  <IconUrl DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/assets/icon-64.png"/>
  <HighResolutionIconUrl DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/assets/icon-128.png"/>
  <SupportUrl DefaultValue="https://www.contoso.com/help"/>
  <AppDomains>
    <AppDomain>https://www.contoso.com</AppDomain>
  </AppDomains>
  <Hosts>
    <Host Name="Mailbox"/>
  </Hosts>
  <Requirements>
    <Sets>
      <Set Name="Mailbox" MinVersion="1.1"/>
    </Sets>
  </Requirements>
  <FormSettings>
    <Form xsi:type="ItemRead">
      <DesktopSettings>
        <SourceLocation DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/taskpane.html"/>
        <RequestedHeight>250</RequestedHeight>
      </DesktopSettings>
    </Form>
  </FormSettings>
  <Permissions>ReadWriteItem</Permissions>
  <Rule xsi:type="RuleCollection" Mode="And">
    <Rule xsi:type="ItemIs" ItemType="Message" FormType="Compose"/>
    <Rule xsi:type="ItemHasRegularExpressionMatch" PropertyName="BodyAsPlaintext" RegExName="TickerSymbols" RegExValue="NYSE\b"/>
  </Rule>
  <DisableEntityHighlighting>false</DisableEntityHighlighting>
  <VersionOverrides xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/mailappversionoverrides" xsi:type="VersionOverridesV1_0">
    <Requirements>
      <bt:Sets DefaultMinVersion="1.3">
        <bt:Set Name="Mailbox"/>
      </bt:Sets>
    </Requirements>
    <Hosts>
      <Host xsi:type="MailHost">
        <DesktopFormFactor>
          <FunctionFile resid="Commands.Url"/>
          <!-- This is a COMPOSE addin, so we want the button(s) to appear when the compose windoe(s) are opened -->
          <ExtensionPoint xsi:type="MessageComposeCommandSurface">
            <OfficeTab id="TabDefault">
              <Group id="msgComposeGroup">
                <Label resid="GroupLabel"/>
                !-- First button opens task pane (is this needed in my app???) -->
                <Control xsi:type="Button" id="msgComposeOpenPaneButton">
                  <Label resid="TaskpaneButton.Label"/>
                  <Supertip>
                    <Title resid="TaskpaneButton.Label"/>
                    <Description resid="TaskpaneButton.Tooltip"/>
                  </Supertip>
                  <Icon>
                    <bt:Image size="16" resid="Icon.16x16"/>
                    <bt:Image size="32" resid="Icon.32x32"/>
                    <bt:Image size="80" resid="Icon.80x80"/>
                  </Icon>
                  <Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane">
                    <SourceLocation resid="Taskpane.Url"/>
                  </Action>
                </Control>
              <!-- This button calls a function named "Action" as described below -->
                <Control xsi:type="Button" id="ActionButton">
                  <Label resid="ActionButton.Label"/>
                  <Supertip>
                    <Title resid="ActionButton.Label"/>
                    <Description resid="ActionButton.Tooltip"/>
                  </Supertip>
                  <Icon>
                    <bt:Image size="16" resid="Icon.16x16"/>
                    <bt:Image size="32" resid="Icon.32x32"/>
                    <bt:Image size="80" resid="Icon.80x80"/>
                  </Icon>
                  <Action xsi:type="ExecuteFunction">
                  <!-- "action" is the name of the function to run when this second button is clicked  -->
                    <FunctionName>action</FunctionName>  
                  </Action>
                </Control>
              </Group>
            </OfficeTab>
          </ExtensionPoint>
        </DesktopFormFactor>
      </Host>
    </Hosts>
    <Resources>
      <bt:Images>
        <bt:Image id="Icon.16x16" DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/assets/icon-16.png"/>
        <bt:Image id="Icon.32x32" DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/assets/icon-32.png"/>
        <bt:Image id="Icon.80x80" DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/assets/icon-80.png"/>
      </bt:Images>
      <bt:Urls>
        <bt:Url id="Commands.Url" DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/commands.html"/>
        <bt:Url id="Taskpane.Url" DefaultValue="https://localhost:3000/taskpane.html"/>
      </bt:Urls>
      <bt:ShortStrings>
        <bt:String id="GroupLabel" DefaultValue="Contoso Add-in"/>
        <bt:String id="TaskpaneButton.Label" DefaultValue="Show Taskpane"/>
        <bt:String id="ActionButton.Label" DefaultValue="Perform an action"/>
      </bt:ShortStrings>
      <bt:LongStrings>
        <bt:String id="TaskpaneButton.Tooltip" DefaultValue="Opens a pane displaying all available properties."/>
        <bt:String id="ActionButton.Tooltip" DefaultValue="Perform an action when clicked."/>
      </bt:LongStrings>
    </Resources>
  </VersionOverrides>
</OfficeApp>

Answer 1

should detect certain words when a user is composing messages

You can specify regular expression rules to have a contextual add-in activated when a match is found in specific fields of the message. Contextual add-ins activate only in read mode. Outlook doesn't activate contextual add-ins when the user is composing an item. There are also other scenarios where Outlook doesn't activate add-ins, for example, digitally signed items. For more information, see Activation rules for Outlook add-ins.

Answer 2

ItemHasRegularExpressionMatch is only available on the Read command surface.

Please refer to the documentation here : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/outlook/activation-rules#specify-activation-rules-in-a-manifest