Address book to show contacts with no email address or fax numbers

[Ronnie Mansoor]

Hi,

We have developed an Outlook phone message add-in that allows users to
send and receive phone messages. The caller information is selected
from the address book. One of our customer has a large amount of
contacts in SharePoint that do not have email addresses or fax
numbers, only phone numbers and of course those contacts do not show
up in the Outlook address book.

I am basically looking for ideas how to overcome this limitation.

I think we may have a number of options:

1. Insert fake email address or fax numbers into SharePoint just so
those contacts will be visible in the address book (not very elegant)
2. Not use the address book UI but go directly to SharePoint (not
ideal)
3. Not to use Outlook’s native address book UI and develop a custom
address book that would not filter out contacts with no email address
or fax numbers – We’re assuming that this limitation is imposed by the
address book UI and if we bypass the UI level and go directly to MAPI,
we’ll be able to enumerate all contacts.

Can you please advise if there are any simpler solutions to this
problem and if #3 is feasible?

Thanks,

Ronnie Mansoor
CTO, Implicit Inc.
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I don't know if using LDAP queries against SharePoint would be of any help
or if that's possible.

Other than that it sounds like you've got a handle on the possibilities.




Hi,

We have developed an Outlook phone message add-in that allows users to
send and receive phone messages. The caller information is selected
from the address book. One of our customer has a large amount of
contacts in SharePoint that do not have email addresses or fax
numbers, only phone numbers and of course those contacts do not show
up in the Outlook address book.

I am basically looking for ideas how to overcome this limitation.

I think we may have a number of options:

1. Insert fake email address or fax numbers into SharePoint just so
those contacts will be visible in the address book (not very elegant)
2. Not use the address book UI but go directly to SharePoint (not
ideal)
3. Not to use Outlook’s native address book UI and develop a custom
address book that would not filter out contacts with no email address
or fax numbers – We’re assuming that this limitation is imposed by the
address book UI and if we bypass the UI level and go directly to MAPI,
we’ll be able to enumerate all contacts.

Can you please advise if there are any simpler solutions to this
problem and if #3 is feasible?

Thanks,

Ronnie Mansoor
CTO, Implicit Inc.
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Ronnie Mansoor]

I don't know if using LDAP queries against SharePoint would be of any help
or if that's possible.

Other than that it sounds like you've got a handle on the possibilities.




Hi,

We have developed an Outlook phone message add-in that allows users to
send and receive phone messages. The caller information is selected
from the address book. One of our customer has a large amount of
contacts in SharePoint that do not have email addresses or fax
numbers, only phone numbers and of course those contacts do not show
up in the Outlook address book.

I am basically looking for ideas how to overcome this limitation.

I think we may have a number of options:

1. Insert fake email address or fax numbers into SharePoint just so
those contacts will be visible in the address book (not very elegant)
2. Not use the address book UI but go directly to SharePoint (not
ideal)
3. Not to use Outlook’s native address book UI and develop a custom
address book that would not filter out contacts with no email address
or fax numbers – We’re assuming that this limitation is imposed by the
address book UI and if we bypass the UI level and go directly to MAPI,
we’ll be able to enumerate all contacts.

Can you please advise if there are any simpler solutions to this
problem and if #3 is feasible?

Thanks,

Ronnie Mansoor
CTO, Implicit Inc.
(e-mail address removed)

Thanks Ken.

Ronnie