Hookup OL2003 "Open a Shared Calendar/Contacts/Tasks" link

[Xingren Ying]

We have COM Addin component to handle Calendar (Tasks and Contacts)
subscription for the calendar in our non-Exchange server. In Outlook 2003,
these is a "Shared Calendar..." link on the left pane of Calendar's Explorer.
After clicking on this link, there is dialog box popup for calendar
subscription. We want using COM Addin to intersect this action event to hook
up our subscription program.

Question:
1. What is the event and the event source object in Outlook Object Module
when user clicking on the link?
2. If this event source is inaccessible by C++ COM Addin, how could I
disable this link.
3. What is the answer of above two questions for "Shared Tasks..." and
"Shared Contacts..." link?

Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The Outlook object model does not expose any event when the user clicks that link. I guess you'd have to hook into it at the window level. Outlook also offers no way to disable that dialog in a non-Exchange profile.

 

[Xingren Ying]

Sue,

Thank you for answering my question! It is too bad MS doesn't expose these
links in Outlook Object Model. Since you are the guru of Outlook
programming, I like ask you more tricky questions:
1. Is it possible to remove, hide or disable this link in COM Addin (via
some MAPI tricky)?
2. What is this link in the pane? a html hyperlink or a COM object?
3. If I have to listen to a Windows's event, could I do it in COM Addin
module instead of Exchange client extension?

Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

1) No.
2) Probably neither.
3) I don't see why not, but I'm not really a Windows event programmer.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

Sue,

Thank you for answering my question! It is too bad MS doesn't expose these
links in Outlook Object Model. Since you are the guru of Outlook
programming, I like ask you more tricky questions:
1. Is it possible to remove, hide or disable this link in COM Addin (via
some MAPI tricky)?
2. What is this link in the pane? a html hyperlink or a COM object?
3. If I have to listen to a Windows's event, could I do it in COM Addin
module instead of Exchange client extension?

Thanks!

 

[Xingren Ying]

Thanks Sue! Though all answers are negative :-(

 

[lawjake]

I hope you can lead me in the right direction. My company wants to use
outlook for appointments. They want to be able to populate outlook from
another program. Also, when an appointment gets moved in outlook, they want
the data sent to another program. Is that possible? And were can I learn
more (web sites, books, discussion groups...).

Thanks.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Sue's on a road trip.

You can do all of that but you would have to monitor all folders of the type
you are interested in for the ItemAdd, ItemChange and ItemRemove events.
Sending data to another program depends on that other program and if it
exposes some object model or interface. Creating new Outlook data from
another program just needs to use the Outlook object model.

I'd start out by browsing Sue's site, www.outlookcode.com, it has wide
variety of code samples and informational articles. Depending on your level
of expertise in programming Outlook you can start with Sue's books as a good
beginning for Outlook programming.

For more advanced programming there are a number of books that are now out
of print but still available at places like Amazon for earlier versions of
Outlook. For Outlook 2007 the only advanced book out right now is by Randy
Byrne and Ryan Gregg from MS Press: Building Applications with Outlook 2007.
My Outlook 2007 book won't be out until the summer.

 

[lawjake]

Thanks for your incredible help. I will look at Sue's website and the books,
and look forward to your book.

Jeff