Adding an "active" folder to Outlook

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Adding an "active" folder to Outlook
Using Outlook for "email-like" but no e-mail item mgmnt 
vchtch@yahoo.com


Guest


First of all, I have no idea if this is the correct place to post this Q. If not, please forgeve me and send me to the correct place ("go to..." command is acceptable :-)
Here is what I wnat to be able to do (at the very high level).
I have a database of items that expose e-mail like behavior. I.e. there is an "author" of that item and there is a list of users who are supposed to be notified when that item is added (to the DB) or when it changes and each item has some text (and other props associated with it). In essence, "add" is like "new mail" and "change" is like "reply". The idea is to integrate management of this DB into Outlook.
So, as far as UI (or how I would picture it) goes, there should be a new folder (or a tree of folders) in Outlook's "folder list" pane. When you select that folder you should see a list of items from my DB.
The question(s) is (are) if this is doable and if so, how? Should it be an add-in that creates a MAPIFolder instance and adds it to Outlook's _Folders (high level design)? This seems to be very resource consuming path because this makes me implementing 100% of each and every interface starting with MAPIFolder and whole bunch of others that this folder should contain.
So, where should I look? What would be the best solution/design? Are there any samples on similar things?

TIA,

Vladimir
Posted 11 Oct, 2004 17:41:41 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
 Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi,

Unfortunately I haven't got any examples on similar things. But I suppose you will have in any case to write an addin for Outlook. Here I can advice you to create something like Import/Export buttons for synchronizing database data with Outlook and vice versa.
Posted 12 Oct, 2004 06:27:28 Top
vcht@yahoo.com


Guest


Sergey: Thanks for the reply. Looks like I've got a stone that I can't lift :-)
Posted 12 Oct, 2004 10:01:59 Top
Eugene Starostin


Guest


I think there is an understanding.

Vladimir,

To map you data to an Outlook folder you should develop a MAPI transport provider, a shim between Outlook and your DB. But you are right there is much work here.
Posted 12 Oct, 2004 10:44:06 Top