Outlook 2003, My Contacts view displays contact backups !!

[Chris]

Hello,

I am developing an Outlook com add-in that imports contacts from a
database to the Outlook address book. The add-in first creates a
backup of the contacts folder by copying it to another folder to avoid
any angry users.

This worked well under Outlook 2000 but it is causing problems with
Outlook 2003 since it has the My Contacts view. The problem is the My
Contacts displays ALL found contact folders ! It shows the contacts +
the contact backups folders ! This is confusing to the user + it gets
really messy really fast if the user has multiple sub folders.

http://img234.imageshack.us/my.php?image=backupincontactsnc4.jpg

I know the user can right click the contact folder and hit the "Remove
from My Contacts" option but this becomes a chore when multiple sub
folders are involved. I have been told that I cannot access this
option via automation (MAPI, Outlook API) is this true ? Do you have
another solution to this ?

Heck I am ready to change how the add-in performs the backup to avoid
this situation. Any suggestions ?

Thank you in advance!
Chris

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Change how the addin performs. You have no access to that panel.

I'd probably create hidden items that are copies of the originals and move
those around for backups. As long as there aren't too many contacts that
would work and the user would never see the hidden items. Problem is you
have to use CDO or Extended MAPI or a MAPI wrapper like Redemption to access
hidden items that way.

 

[Chris]

Change how the addin performs. You have no access to that panel.

I'd probably create hidden items that are copies of the originals and move
those around for backups. As long as there aren't too many contacts that
would work and the user would never see the hidden items. Problem is you
have to use CDO or Extended MAPI or a MAPI wrapper like Redemption to access
hidden items that way.

Thanks for the tip Ken.

I will look into the hidden items option, I am currently using
Redemption so it should no be to hard to do right ? How many contacts
is to to many contacts > 1000 ?

Any links on how to set items as hidden ? If not no problem I will
just Google it.

Thanks.
Chris

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

With Redemption you get an RDOFolder object for a specific folder. That
object has both an Items and HiddenItems collection. Just access the
HiddenItems collection and use the Add method to add items to that.

As long as you don't exceed the overall limit on the number of items in a
folder (depends on your PST or Exchange store) you're OK. If the limit is
say 65534 items that's how many you can have in total. Just make sure to
delete each hidden item after backing it up so you don't build up a vast
collection of hidden items.

The nice thing about hidden items is that since the user can't see them they
can't screw them up.

 

[Chris]

With Redemption you get an RDOFolder object for a specific folder. That
object has both an Items and HiddenItems collection. Just access the
HiddenItems collection and use the Add method to add items to that.

As long as you don't exceed the overall limit on the number of items in a
folder (depends on your PST or Exchange store) you're OK. If the limit is
say 65534 items that's how many you can have in total. Just make sure to
delete each hidden item after backing it up so you don't build up a vast
collection of hidden items.

The nice thing about hidden items is that since the user can't see them they
can't screw them up.

Thanks Ken !

Yes indeed the RDOFolder object seems a good solution but...

I have been looking at the object and it seems you can only hide items
and not folders no ? What I am trying to prevent is the display of
backed up contact folders in the My Contact view. Just the creation of
an empty "Contacts Items" folder causes it's display in the My
Contacts view. Is there a way of hiding a folder and it's sub
folders ??

*** Note: I could have some double posts in this group since every
post I do does not seem to be accepted right now !!! ***
Chris

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I don't think you can create a hidden folder like you want, at least in my
tests I've never been able to. I can only create new search folders under
Finder and new visible folders under IPM_SUBTREE.

 

[Chris]

I don't think you can create a hidden folder like you want, at least in my
tests I've never been able to. I can only create new search folders under
Finder and new visible folders under IPM_SUBTREE.

Dow I was hoping for another answer than that one. I guess it's back
to the drawing board then
Thanks for your time and wisdom !
Chris