Visual Basic Q&A

Symptoms
This article demonstrates how to programmatically control Microsoft Outlook using Automation from Visual Basic. The example demonstrates creating contacts, creating appointments, and sending messages by using Microsoft Outlook’s object-model.
Resolution
Follow the steps below to create and run the example. To run the sample, you need an early-bound reference to a Microsoft Outlook type library. The following table lists the file names of the type libraries for the different versions of Microsoft Outlook:
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Outlook versionHow type library appears in references listFilenameOutlook 97″Microsoft Outlook 8.0 Object Library”msoutl8.olbmsoutl8.olb”Microsoft Outlook 98 Object Library”msoutl85.olbOutlook 2000″Microsoft Outlook 9.0 Object Library”msoutl9.olbOutlook 2002″Microsoft Outlook 10.0 Object Library”msoutl.olbOffice Outlook 2003″Microsoft Outlook 11.0 Object Library”msoutl.olb
Building the automation sampleStart Visual Basic, and create a new Standard EXE project.From the Project menu, choose References and select Microsoft Outlook.Add a button to your form.Double-click the button, and then add the following code:

‘ Start Outlook. ‘ If it is already running, you’ll use the same instance…Dim olApp As Outlook.ApplicationSet olApp = CreateObject(“Outlook.Application”)’ Logon. Doesn’t hurt if you are already running and logged on…Dim olNs As Outlook.NameSpaceSet olNs = olApp.GetNamespace(“MAPI”)olNs.Logon ‘ Create and Open a new contact.Dim olItem As Outlook.ContactItemSet olItem = olApp.CreateItem(olContactItem) ‘ Setup Contact information…With olItem.FullName = “James Smith”.Birthday = “9/15/1975″.CompanyName = “Microsoft”.HomeTelephoneNumber = “704-555-8888″.Email1Address = “someone@microsoft.com”.JobTitle = “Developer”.HomeAddress = “111 Main St.” & vbCr & “Charlotte, NC 28226″End With’ Save Contact…olItem.Save’ Create a new appointment.Dim olAppt As Outlook.AppointmentItemSet olAppt = olApp.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem)’ Set start time for 2-minutes from now…olAppt.Start = Now() + (2# / 24# / 60#)’ Setup other appointment information…With olAppt.Duration = 60.Subject = “Meeting to discuss plans…”.Body = “Meeting with ” & olItem.FullName & ” to discuss plans.”.Location = “Home Office”.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 1.ReminderSet = TrueEnd With’ Save Appointment…olAppt.Save’ Send a message to your new contact.Dim olMail As Outlook.MailItemSet olMail = olApp.CreateItem(olMailItem) ‘ Fill out & send message…olMail.To = olItem.Email1AddressolMail.Subject = “About our meeting…”olMail.Body = _”Dear ” & olItem.FirstName & “, ” & vbCr & vbCr & vbTab & _”I’ll see you in 2 minutes for our meeting!” & vbCr & vbCr & _”Btw: I’ve added you to my contact list.”olMail.Send’ Clean up…MsgBox “All done…”, vbMsgBoxSetForegroundolNS.LogoffSet olNs = NothingSet olMail = NothingSet olAppt = NothingSet olItem = NothingSet olApp = Nothing Run the project, and click the button to run the code. Once the code runs, you should have a new contact named “James Smith,” an appointment scheduled in two minutes with a reminder to appear in one minute, and have sent a message to someone@microsoft.com. Also, because you added a birthday for your contact (9/15), a recurring event was added for your Outlook Calendar to remind you of the day.
New to Outlook 2002 are the two dialog boxes: one warning you that a program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in Outlook and asking if you want to allow this, and another message to the effect that a program is trying to send e-mail. This feature will protect you from unknowingly being used by a virus that sends e-mail from your system.
For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
290500?(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290500/) Description of the developer-related e-mail security features in Outlook 2002

Symptoms
This article describes how to use the Microsoft Outlook 2002 Object Library or the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Object Library to force a Send/Receive action by using Microsoft Visual Basic .NET.
Resolution
To use the Outlook 2002 Object Library or the Outlook 2003 Object Library to force a Send/Receive action in a Visual Basic .NET project, follow these steps: Start Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Project. Under Project Types, click Visual Basic Projects.Under Templates, click Console Application, and then click OK.
By default, Module1.vb is created.Add a reference to either the Outlook 2002 Object Library or the Outlook 2003 Object Library: On the Project menu, click Add Reference.On the COM tab, click Microsoft Outlook 11.0 Object Library if you are using Outlook 2003, or click Microsoft Outlook 10.0 Object Library if you are using Outlook 2002, and then click Select. In the Add References dialog box, click OK to accept your selections. If you receive a prompt to generate wrappers for the libraries that you selected, click Yes.In the code window, replace all the code with:

‘TO DO: If you use the Microsoft Outlook 11.0 Object Library, uncomment the following line.’Imports Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.OutlookModule Module1Sub Main()’ Create an Outlook application.Dim oApp As Outlook._Application = New Outlook.Application’ Create the name space.Dim oNS As Outlook._NameSpace = oApp.GetNamespace(“mapi”)Dim oSyncs As Outlook.SyncObjectsDim oSync As Outlook.SyncObjectTry’ Reference SyncObjects.oSyncs = oNS.SyncObjectsoSync = oSyncs.Item(“All Accounts”)’ Send and receive.oSync.Start()Catch ex As ExceptionConsole.WriteLine(ex.Message)End Try’ Clean up.oSync = NothingoSyncs = NothingoNS = NothingoApp = NothingEnd SubEnd ModulePress F5 to build and run the program.