CDO and Outlook 2003

  • Thread starter Thread starter int_spy
  • Start date Start date
I

int_spy

Does anybody know details of the new archives settings for Outlook 2003
and/or where I can find details for these?

Specifically, I am trying to locate where the "Archive items in this folder
using the default settings" and "Move old items to default archive folder".

Apparently, the propid for specifying the archive file to use has also
changed.

Thanks for any info.
 
Folder aging properties are kept in a hidden message in the folder. The
hidden item has a message class of "IPC.MS.Outlook.AgingProperties". You
would need to use CDO 1.21 or Extended MAPI or Redemption
(www.dimastr.com/redemption) to get at the hidden items.

Those hidden messages for folder aging properties have been like that for as
long as I can remember with Outlook.
 
Ken,

I already know these. The problem is that Outlook XP and Outlook 2003 (not
sure about Outlook 2000) has used different Fields for storing the details
of the autoarchive settings due, perhaps, to the introduction of the new
"default" autoarchive settings. Even OXP and O2K3 uses different fields to
store the path of the archive file to use...no idea why the change.

I wonder if there is any docs on these.
 
I'm not sure what you're talking about. When I look at a folder in Outlook
2003 that's set for archiving to a PST on my G: drive I see no properties
related to archiving in the folder properties. I do see the archive store
listed in the hidden archiving item in the property PR_AGING_FILE_NAME, and
all the other archive settings for that folder are also in the item with
message class "IPC.MS.Outlook.AgingProperties".

Other settings I see there are PR_AGING_AGE_FOLDER (boolean for archiving
the folder), and settings for deleting archived items, granularity and aging
period. All those settings change depending on how I set the properties for
folder archiving to use the default settings or custom folder settings.

Do you have OutlookSpy (www.dimastr.com)? If so you can watch what happens
to those folder archive settings in the hidden item as they are changed in
the Outlook UI.
 
Yes I use OutlookSpy.

If you look closely, you should see that the archive file to use is no
longer stored in the PR_AGING_FILE_NAME field. It is now stored in the
field "0x6859". If you still see it stored at the PR_AGING_FILE_NAME, it
may be carried over from OXP or O2K. All you have to do is change that file
settinig in the normal way, and it will use the new field.

If you use the "Archive items in this folder using the default settings",
you will see that the field "PR_AGING_AGE_FOLDER" will actually be set to
false and the field "0x685E" is either a 2 or a 3, depending on another
setting.

These are the information I tried to locate and had taken me a long time to
figure out.

However, I am stuck at another point now. When I set a newly created
folder, or one without the IPC.MS>Outlook.AgingProperties hidden message to
"Archive items in this folder using the default settings" using CDO but
creating the hidden message and set the "0x685E" and "PR_AGING_AGE_FOLDER"
fields, the settings is not being recognise. Need to work on this more.

There is a lot of guess work and takes a long time to figure out. So I am
just looking for more detail information on the changes between the
different versions of Outlook and how these "fields" works. Apparently,
there is not formal docs on this from MS and there seems to be limited
information on the subject.

Do you know a more reliable or comprehensive source of info?

Anyway, I am trying to develop an app that will allows easy access to
reading and modifying the AutoArchive. A task I initially thought to be
quite straight forward but had found to be much more complicated than it
should be. You know how "well" the support in Outlok for this function
is....quite disappointing really.

Anyway, thanks for the input and qould appreciate if you have more info.

Ken Slovak - said:
I'm not sure what you're talking about. When I look at a folder in Outlook
Click to expand...
 
I don't know of any sources for more information on this. And it's not
working the way you say here in my network. Here all the settings are still
stored in the hidden items. That might be due to the version of Exchange I
use or something else, but I don't have that property you mention in any of
my folders.
 
That is really strange then. I connect to the exchange server directly at
work and POP3 at home and they both exhibit the same behaviour.

Are you running Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000?

Maybe it is related to Exchange 2003. I wish there are some official
information on these.
 
I'm running Exchange 5.5 here and have the same behavior in Outlook 2000,
2002 and 2003.
 
Oh, and see if the Exchange SDK has anything on this, although I doubt it
since it's an Outlook function.
 
Is it an Outlook function? I actually thought that the attributes is
actually MAPI attributes sine the CDO works only with MAPI. Otherwise, it
would probably be available as native Outlook object.
 
There are lots of things that are Outlook in nature that aren't exposed in
the Outlook object model. That's why most serious Outlook coders have to use
CDO 1.21 or Extended MAPI helpers or the Redemption library
(www.dimastr.com/redemption) to get at things. Probably almost 1/3 of my
"Outlook code" actually uses helpers to do what Outlook code alone won't let
me do.

Think about it. Archiving won't run unless Outlook is running, it doesn't
run from the server, right? So it's an Outlook function even if things are
stored in undocumented properties or hidden items. Try getting at the
properties for reminders for contact items without using something other
than the Outlook object model, you can't do it.
 
It's an annoyance that in order to do something so simple, you have to go to
such great extend. I am starting to understand why the archive feature set
is not as comprehensive as it should be.

I suppose the server only store the settings only. Still does not explain
why yours is a lot simpler/straight forward compare to mind...

Anyway. Can you please do me a favour and create a new folder, set the
archive settings to use "Archive items in this folder using the default
settings" and tell me the values of the "PR_AGING..." fields. Specifically,
what is the value of "PR_AGING_AGE_FOLDER". Also, do you have the field
"0x685E" and what is that value?

Thanks.
GT
 
In a newly created folder I have a 0x685E property in the hidden archiving
message which has a value of 3. Older folders in my mailbox that were
created using earlier versions of Outlook don't have a 0x685E property.

The various PR_AGING_xxx properties:

AGE_FOLDER False
DELETE_ITEMS False
FILE_NAME name of the archive PST file
GRANULARITY 0
PERIOD 3
 
Back
Top