When to use ADX or Redemption

Add-in Express™ Support Service
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When to use ADX or Redemption
 
Tony Gravagno


Guest


Over the years there have been many mentions of Redemption here. I've used it myself and have a high regard for Dmitry. But I'm very confused about exactly where ADX and Redemption now overlap for Outlook 2007/2010 development.

It would be very helpful to see a blog and periodically updated notes here which include a table to show what we cannot do in ADX so that we know where we need Redemption.

As an example, SenderEmailAddress is only available in O2007+ so for O2003 we need Redemption and in ADX we use ...

There are also areas where Redemption vX.Y does not work with 64bit but ADX does (perhaps that's no longer true). And there might be new, overlapping MAPI functionality in the latest version of ADX which might compel someone to purchase ADX where that functionality was only available in Redemption prior to this.

I know it will take a while for anyone to assemble and format this valuable data but I believe it will be a worthwhile effort for many of us. I see nothing wrong with both of these fine products existing in harmony in the same environment. I just want to know when to use one versus the other.

Thanks.
Posted 09 Mar, 2012 16:00:21 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Tony,

Thank you for the suggestion. We will consider adding some articles on this to our technical blog.

Please note that you can use the http://www.add-in-express.com/downloads/mapi-store-events.php component for handling the Extended MAPI notifications and accessing MAPI properties (not available in the Outlook Object Model). Also you may be interested in the following articles on our technical blog:

http://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2008/04/07/how-to-get-access-to-hidden-outlook-items-via-extended-mapi/
http://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2008/04/25/newmail-itemadd-outlook-events/
http://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2008/11/21/outlook-object-model-propertyaccessor-storageitem/
Posted 10 Mar, 2012 00:22:42 Top
Tony Gravagno


Guest


That's great info, Eugene - thanks. I have been aggressively reading through as many blog entries as I can on this site. A list of related URLs like that is helpful as a "(Almost) Everything you wanted to know about accessing MAPI items" :)

For this sort of development I'm trying to avoid this pattern:
1) Try the recommended technique (MAPI Store Accessor, StorageItem, etc) and find it doesn't work for some unknown reason.
2) Google, research this forum and blogs. Cry. Sweat. Lose Sleep.
3) Ask a question here.
4) Get referred to Redemption or some other tool.

With a table of functionality, perhaps starting with just categories of functions rather than details, we'll be able to save some time by Starting with the right tool.

For my purposes, I have a large number of VBA macros that use Redemption and CDO for processing inbound mail items in Outlook 2003. I manipulate headers, do contact lookups on senders, and organize mail into folders. Now with Outlook 2010 we can't use CDO and I'd like to re-write all of this with Add-In Express. I want to make as much use of ADX (with the MAPI Store Accessor) before considering an upgrade to the latest Redemption. I will also be looking closely at events, and for example will want to verify that MAPI Store Accessor OnNewMail really does catch what is missed by NewMailEx. And I will be looking for differences between what happens in a local PST versus Exchange Server.

Regards,
T
Posted 10 Mar, 2012 15:30:38 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Tony,

Thank you for pointing this to me. As I said, we will consider adding some articles on this to our technical blog.
Posted 12 Mar, 2012 01:56:24 Top
Tony Gravagno


Guest


Just to keep all notes on this topic together, I downloaded the MAPI Store Accessor v2.3 from http://www.add-in-express.com/downloads/mapi-store-events.php, and read the Readme which says it's not compatible with VS2010. I tried to convert one of the samples to .NET4 and found issues. I then came back here and researched around the forum to find it was built on .NET2, and found in http://www.add-in-express.com/forum/read.php?PAGEN_1=1&FID=11&TID=9848 that a .NET4 version is available by request only.

Please notice this follows the exact 4-step pattern I described above.

Could you please e-mail the .NET4 version of the MAPI Store Accessor so that I can use it with VS2010 and ADX2010 with Outlook2010?

It would help a great deal if on the download page there was a note that said "This download cannot be used with .NET4. See '(link)' to obtain a version for current development platforms."

I understand that this is an unsupported freeware offering, especially the .NET4 version. If anyone using this software finds errors, would you like for us to report them somewhere, so that our fellow developers don't stumble on the same issues? Perhaps another forum section would help?

Kind regards and thanks.
Posted 14 Mar, 2012 03:15:34 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Tony,

Thank you for your suggestions.

I have just sent an intermediate build of the MAPI Store Accessor component to you. Please check out your Inbox.
Posted 14 Mar, 2012 03:36:02 Top