Outlook indexing

[redraven]

Hi,

I'm trying to build an indexing tool with some functionality similar
to the Lookout add-in.

Anyone know what they used for a id? Obviously you'll need some sort
of ID linked up with other criteria. Like:

ID: | FirstName:
-------------------
01 | Andrew
23 | Greg
92 | Sam
124 | Stefen

So when you search on a first name of "Sam" it'll jump to the item
with ID 92.

The MailItem.EntryID will do, but it changes everytime it is moved
around. Is there anything more consistent?

Best,
Andre

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You could create your own UserProperty and store an arbitrary number from an
incrementing series in it or use a built-in but rarely used property such as
BillingInformation or Mileage. You could also use PR_SEARCH_KEY
(0x300B0102), but that's not accessible from the Outlook object model. You'd
have to use CDO 1.21 or Extended MAPI or Redemption
(www.dimastr.com/redemption) to get at it.

 

[redraven]

Thanks Ken! That helps alot.

One thing though:

I've got Tom Rizzo's book on programming Outlook and Exchange, which
is brilliant, but focus on all the bits in pieces in Outlook and
Exchange.

Do you know of a guide or overview of where I can pull all these bits
and pieces (Forms in Outlook, CDO, CDOEX, CDOEXM, ADO, SMTP events,
Exchange DB or folder structure... etc etc etc) together?

I'm totally lost in between all these seemingly loose different pieces
of technology. (Basically, I've to extend outlook into a proper CRM
system and use Exchange to control some bits of the workflow)

Regards,
Andre

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

To completely cover all client and server side technologies for
Outlook/Exchange/MAPI/CDO, etc. would take a book with many thousands of
pages. I don't know of anything that covers every technology completely.
Tom's book, mine, Sue Mosher's, Randy Byrne's and so on all cover various
aspects from different points of view and with different levels of
competence in mind.

There's a wealth of material in the MS KB and MSDN library,
www.outlookcode.com, www.cdolive.com, www.microeye.com and other sites as
well as many books. I'd suggest starting out at www.outlookcode.com and
reviewing the material there on the different technologies and see which are
relevant to you. Then links there will guide you to additional information.

Most of us use many different ways of doing things depending on the project
requirements, where the code will run and what has to be supported. Language
choice is also a factor. Then in many cases we use multiple technologies
because each has its own limitations.

I mostly code client side for Outlook, but I almost always use the Outlook
object model and CDO 1.21 and Redemption code because each has their own
limitations and things you can't do with that object model or API.

 

[redraven]

Thanks for the reply Ken.

So there's no shortcuts for this one. I'll have to shovel through all
the bits to find what I'm looking for.

Best,
Andre