Accesing ADX Outlook Form from a standard windows form

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Accesing ADX Outlook Form from a standard windows form
 
Ben Williams


Guest


Evening all

When using standard outlook FormRegion I use to access the current outlook item formregions with the following:

Dim formregions As WindowFormRegionCollection = Globals.FormRegions
(Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveInspector())

I then used this to update outlook properties that were defined in a standard windows form.

How do I go about this with a ADX Outlook Form?

Thanks
Posted 24 Mar, 2015 11:42:11 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18825
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Ben,

An ADXOlForm is shown either in an Outlook.Explorer or Outlook.Inspector window. Accordingly you need to check ADXOlForm.ExplorerObj and ADXOlForm.InspectorObj; one of them is null (Nothing in VB.NET).

As to getting a form instance, below is a citation from the manual, see the PDF file in the folder {Add-in Express}\Docs on your development PC:


ADXOlFormsCollectionItem.GetForm()
This method returns an instance of your form region in the specified Outlook window.



Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 25 Mar, 2015 01:19:52 Top
Ben Williams


Guest


Thanks Andrei

any chance you could knock up the vb.net code please to access the following

current outlook active inspector object
ad express form named PhoneLog

im still new to all this and need as much help as possible hence why im here haha

thanks
Posted 25 Mar, 2015 05:06:32 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18825
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Ben,

Active inspector? PhoneLog? Mmm, I'm afraid I don't follow you. Could you explain what you mean?

Below is a raw sketch. This function is located in the ADXOlForm itself. It returns an inspector window in which the form instance is shown. 

Public Function GetInspector() as Outlook.Inspector
    dim result as Outlook.Inspector = Nothing
    if Me.InspectorObj IsNot Nothing Then
        result = Me.InspectorObj
        ' optionally, you can check the item 
        'dim inspector as Outlook.Inspector = CType(Me.InspectorObj, Outlook.Inspector)
        'dim item as Object = inspector.CurrentItem
        ' if TypeOf item is Outlook.MailItem Then
        '     result = inspector
        ' end if
    end if 
    return result
End Function


You can find a number of sample projects at https://www.add-in-express.com/support/addin-vb-net.php#outlook-forms, under the title Outlook forms and views.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 25 Mar, 2015 06:10:01 Top
Ben Williams


Guest


Sorry Andrei

basically I was coding a standard outlook 2010 form region for journal objects with VS2010. This form called PhoneLog has a datagridview and a button that launched a windows form, this form has a textbox and ok button which when pressed the textbox text is added to the datagridview. I was able to populate the datagridview with the following code within the windows form 

Dim formregions As WindowFormRegionCollection = Globals.FormRegions _
                                                    (Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveInspector())
Dim datagridviewlog As DataGridView = formregions.PhoneLog.DataGridView1

Private Sub ButtonOK_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ButtonOK.Click
datagridviewlog.Rows.Add(Textbox1.text)
End Sub


Just not sure how to perform the same task with add-in express?

Thanks
Posted 25 Mar, 2015 06:42:29 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18825
 Joined: 2006-05-11
You get the ADXOlForm displayed in an Outlook window using ADXOlFormsCollectionItem.GetForm(%an Outlook.Explorer or Outlook.Inspector object representing the window in question%). To access the corresponding ADXOlFormsCollectionItem from outside of the add-in module, you call {project name e.g. MyAddin1}.AddinModule.CurrentInstance.{the ADXOlFormsCollectionItem variable; you should declare it public or friend}.

A raw sketch: 


dim activeExplorer as Outlook.Explorer = MyAddin1.AddinModule.OutlookApp.ActiveExplorer()
dim adxForm as AddinExpress.OL.ADXOlForm = MyAddin1.AddinModule.CurrentInstance.adxolFormsCollectionItem1.GetForm(activeExplorer)
if adxForm isNot Nothing Then
    dim myForm as PhoneLog = CType(adxForm, PhoneLog)
    Dim datagridviewlog As DataGridView = myForm.DataGridView1 
End if


Is this what you are looking for?


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 25 Mar, 2015 07:25:39 Top
Ben Williams


Guest


Thanks Andrei but this seems to crash outlook
Posted 26 Mar, 2015 07:10:14 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18825
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Ben,

Can you send me your project? You can find the support email address in {Add-in Express installation folder}\readme.txt. Please make sure your email contains a link to this topic. Also specify the code line that crashes Outlook.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 26 Mar, 2015 07:15:20 Top
Ben Williams


Guest


on its way :)
Posted 26 Mar, 2015 09:26:33 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18825
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Ben,

I strongly recommend setting Option Strict On, see the Compile tab of your project's properties. You'll be able to use Intellisense that helps constructing a chain of calls.

Here's what I get after I modify the very first statement in Form1_Load: 

Dim activeItem As Outlook.Explorer = MyAddin2.AddinModule.CurrentInstance.OutlookApp.ActiveInspector().CurrentItem


This doesn't make sense however because what's returned by the right side of the statement cannot fit the left side: an item contained in the active Inspector window cannot be an Outlook Explorer window. The above does compile because 1) CurrentItem is of the Object type and 2) Option Strict is Off.

I suggest that you modify the code so that you pass the instance of ADXOlForm1 (or even, just the datagrid from that form) to the constructor of Form1. In this case, you can save it to a class-level variable that you can declare in Form1 and then access the data grid directly. In the current version, datagrid isn't accessible and you don't see this because Option Strict is On.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 26 Mar, 2015 10:55:20 Top