In my previous articles I described how to use the Find and FindNext methods of the Items class against mail and contact items. Today we will have a closer look at calendar items. For example, how can we collect all Outlook appointments the user has assigned for the rest of the day? The Find and FindNext methods can help us in this task. As you may remember, Microsoft suggests using these methods because they are faster than Restrict in case you have a small number of items in the collection.
In the sample code I am going to get all the appointments that are:
- currently in the process (were started earlier);
- going to begin and end at the specified time (in the middle of our timeline);
- start before the end border and end after the specified time (outside of the specified time).
Let’s take the current time as the start time and midnight as the end time, i.e. collect all the appointments assigned for the rest of the day.
Here is a sample code that collects the appointments and outputs the Subject, Organizer and Location properties to the Debug window. You can use the Output window in Visual Studio when debugging the code or the DebugView utility to see the results.
C# and Add-in Express:
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;
// ...
private void FindActiveAppointments(Outlook.MAPIFolder folder)
{
string dateTimeStart = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt");
DateTime dt = new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month,
DateTime.Now.Day, 23, 59, 00, 00);
string dateTimeEnd = dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt");
string searchCriteria = "[Start]< =\"" + dateTimeEnd + "\"" + " AND [End]>=\""+
dateTimeStart +"\"";
StringBuilder strBuilder = null;
int counter = default(int);
Outlook._AppointmentItem appItem = null;
Outlook.Items folderItems = null;
object resultItem = null;
try
{
folderItems = folder.Items;
folderItems.IncludeRecurrences = true;
folderItems.Sort("[Start]");
if (folderItems.Count > 0)
{
resultItem = folderItems.Find(searchCriteria);
if (resultItem != null)
{
strBuilder = new StringBuilder();
do
{
if (resultItem is Outlook._AppointmentItem)
{
counter++;
appItem = resultItem as Outlook._AppointmentItem;
strBuilder.AppendLine("#" + counter.ToString() +
"\tSubject: " + appItem.Subject +
"\tOrganizer: " + appItem.Organizer +
"\tLocation: " + appItem.Location);
}
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(resultItem);
resultItem = folderItems.FindNext();
}
while (resultItem != null);
}
}
if (strBuilder != null)
Debug.WriteLine(strBuilder.ToString());
else
Debug.WriteLine("There is no match in the " +
folder.Name + " folder.");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}
finally
{
if (folderItems != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderItems);
}
}
VB.NET and Add-in Express:
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Diagnostics
' ...
Private Sub FindActiveAppointments(folder As Outlook.MAPIFolder)
Dim dateTimeStart As String = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt")
Dim dt As DateTime = New DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, _
DateTime.Now.Day, 23, 59, 0, 0)
Dim dateTimeEnd As String = dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt")
Dim searchCriteria As String = "[Start]< =""" + dateTimeEnd + """ AND [End]>=""" + _
dateTimeStart + """"
Dim strBuilder As StringBuilder = Nothing
Dim counter As Integer = 0
Dim appItem As Outlook._AppointmentItem = Nothing
Dim folderItems As Outlook.Items = Nothing
Dim resultItem As Object = Nothing
Try
folderItems = folder.Items
folderItems.IncludeRecurrences = True
folderItems.Sort("[Start]")
If (folderItems.Count > 0) Then
resultItem = folderItems.Find(searchCriteria)
If Not IsNothing(resultItem) Then
strBuilder = New StringBuilder()
Do
If (TypeOf (resultItem) Is Outlook._AppointmentItem) Then
counter += 1
appItem = resultItem
strBuilder.AppendLine("#" + counter.ToString() + _
" Subbject: " + appItem.Subject + _
" Organizer: " + appItem.Organizer + _
" Location: " + appItem.Location)
End If
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(resultItem)
resultItem = folderItems.FindNext()
Loop Until IsNothing(resultItem)
End If
End If
If Not IsNothing(strBuilder) Then
Debug.WriteLine(strBuilder.ToString())
Else
Debug.WriteLine("There is no match in the " + _
folder.Name + " folder.")
End If
Catch ex As Exception
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
Finally
If Not IsNothing(folderItems) Then
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderItems)
End If
End Try
End Sub
The code for VSTO and Add-in Express based add-ins is the same. Just remember two simple things when switching between these 2 kinds of add-ins:
- To declare required namespaces at the beginning of the file.
- To use the Application property and OutlookApp property in VSTO and Add-in Express based add-ins respectively to get an instance of the Application.
C# and VSTO:
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Diagnostics;
// ...
private void FindActiveAppointments(Outlook.MAPIFolder folder)
{
string dateTimeStart = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt");
DateTime dt = new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month,
DateTime.Now.Day, 23, 59, 00, 00);
string dateTimeEnd = dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt");
string searchCriteria = "[Start]< =\"" + dateTimeEnd + "\"" + " AND [End]>=\"" +
dateTimeStart + "\"";
StringBuilder strBuilder = null;
int counter = default(int);
Outlook._AppointmentItem appItem = null;
Outlook.Items folderItems = null;
object resultItem = null;
try
{
folderItems = folder.Items;
folderItems.IncludeRecurrences = true;
folderItems.Sort("[Start]");
if (folderItems.Count > 0)
{
resultItem = folderItems.Find(searchCriteria);
if (resultItem != null)
{
strBuilder = new StringBuilder();
do
{
if (resultItem is Outlook._AppointmentItem)
{
counter++;
appItem = resultItem as Outlook._AppointmentItem;
strBuilder.AppendLine("#" + counter.ToString() +
"\tSubject: " + appItem.Subject +
"\tOrganizer: " + appItem.Organizer +
"\tLocation: " + appItem.Location);
}
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(resultItem);
resultItem = folderItems.FindNext();
}
while (resultItem != null);
}
}
if (strBuilder != null)
Debug.WriteLine(strBuilder.ToString());
else
Debug.WriteLine("There is no match in the " +
folder.Name + " folder.");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}
finally
{
if (folderItems != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderItems);
}
}
VB.NET and VSTO:
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Diagnostics
' ...
Private Sub FindActiveAppointments(folder As Outlook.MAPIFolder)
Dim dateTimeStart As String = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt")
Dim dt As DateTime = New DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, _
DateTime.Now.Day, 23, 59, 0, 0)
Dim dateTimeEnd As String = dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt")
Dim searchCriteria As String = "[Start]< =""" + dateTimeEnd + """ AND [End]>=""" + _
dateTimeStart + """"
Dim strBuilder As StringBuilder = Nothing
Dim counter As Integer = 0
Dim appItem As Outlook._AppointmentItem = Nothing
Dim folderItems As Outlook.Items = Nothing
Dim resultItem As Object = Nothing
Try
folderItems = folder.Items
folderItems.IncludeRecurrences = True
folderItems.Sort("[Start]")
If (folderItems.Count > 0) Then
resultItem = folderItems.Find(searchCriteria)
If Not IsNothing(resultItem) Then
strBuilder = New StringBuilder()
Do
If (TypeOf (resultItem) Is Outlook._AppointmentItem) Then
counter += 1
appItem = resultItem
strBuilder.AppendLine("#" + counter.ToString() + _
" Subbject: " + appItem.Subject + _
" Organizer: " + appItem.Organizer + _
" Location: " + appItem.Location)
End If
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(resultItem)
resultItem = folderItems.FindNext()
Loop Until IsNothing(resultItem)
End If
End If
If Not IsNothing(strBuilder) Then
Debug.WriteLine(strBuilder.ToString())
Else
Debug.WriteLine("There is no match in the " + _
folder.Name + " folder.")
End If
Catch ex As Exception
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
Finally
If Not IsNothing(folderItems) Then
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderItems)
End If
End Try
End Sub
See you on our forums and in the e-mail support!
2 Comments
how can i find the Organizer e – mail address from AppointmentItem object?
like appItem.Organizer
only appItem.Organizer_Email???
Hello Noam,
The Organizer property of the AppointmentItem class returns a string representing the name of the organizer. It looks like you need to find the corresponding entry in the Address book of your Outlook profile.