Importing Contacts with permission for Ownership rights

[rUffles]

Hi,

I have a couple of CSV files to import, and I intend to import based on
Ownership of the contacts. There is a Permission settings which allow user to
only edit 'Own' contacts, hence I would need to import contacts in Batches
based on Ownership.

Anyone with any suggestion on how to do it?

Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You could use Excel as an intermediate step. Open the .csv file in Excel and
save it as an .xls file. Sort by the column that has the ownership
information. Select only those you want to import and create a named range.
When you import the Excel file into Outlook, it will ask you for the name of
the range you want to import.

 

[rUffles]

Hi Sue,

Thanks for the prompt reply. However, it does not solve my concerns.

Yes, importing from Excel does give me the option of selecting which Range I
want to import, but it still does not set the Ownership of the Contacts in
Outlook.

What I need to achieve is to have the contacts imported by ownership, such
that only the 'Creator' of the contact will have the permission to
Edit/Delete his or her contact card.

I do not see any form of 'Owner' or 'Creator' fields during the import,
hence I am puzzled as to how to make this concept work.

Would really appreciate it if you could provide more assistance.

Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Your concept won't work. The owner of the contact is the person who creates
(or in this case, imports) the items. You cannot assign ownership to
individual items.

Furthermore, an Outlook user always owns all the items in his or her own
mailbox and .pst file. The permission setting you refer to generally would be
relevant only for items in a public folder.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[rUffles]

Hi Sue,

Firstly, thanks for the reply.

My intention is to have a 'Dummy User' share his contacts out to 8 person.
This make it act like a Global Contact list. Each of the 8 users will in turn
start to key in new contacts into the 'Dummy User' contact account.

My intention was by setting up the permission, I hope I am able to control
each contact card to individual owners, which in this case are the 8 users.

With all my testing, I am still not able to limit the permission by User.
Seems like everyone is able to modify the contacts.

Help!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You might want to check what permissions are granted on the mailbox as a
whole, as well as on the individual folder.

To add contacts programmatically by impersonating the different "owners,"
you'd need to use a low-level API such as Outlook Redemption.

 

[rUffles]

Hi Sue,

I have grated permission on the Contacts ( I am not doing this for emails ),
and even Users with no Edit rights to the folder can still amend the data.
really mind-boogling.

Anyway, guess the only way to import Contacts with Ownership Fields is to
use a low-level API.

Guess I might need to reserve more before starting the import.

Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Did you check the mailbox permission in AD as I suggested?
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54