Generalised Access Outlook/Exchange Interface

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian McGuigan
  • Start date Start date
B

Brian McGuigan

I am trying to develop a generalised interface to enable
Access to open Folders as Tables inside Access' so that I
can write a synchronisation routine between my Application
and any version of Outlook, whether it is linked to
Exchange or not.

I linked manually to Outlook on my development PC and got
a connection string:
Outlook 9.0;
MAPILEVEL=Mailbox - Brian McGuigan|;
PROFILE=In the Office;
TABLETYPE=0;
TABLENAME=Contacts;
DATABASE=C:\DOCUME~1\Brian\LOCALS~1\Temp\;
TABLE=Contacts

So I wrote a routine that uses:
strTempDirectory = Environ("Temp") & "\"
strConnect = _
"Outlook 9.0;" & _
"MAPILEVEL=" & GetMailboxName & "|;" & _
"TABLETYPE=0;" & _
"TABLENAME=Contacts;" & _
"DATABASE=" & strTempDirectory & ";" & _
"TABLE=Contacts"
This works fine on my PC.

The problem is this seems to be at variance with the
standard advice that I should have been using 'Exchange
4.0' as my Identifier, and the name of my Database, as the
Database Name argument - neither of which result in a
connection that works on my PC. So why the differences?

How do I generate connection strings so that they will
connect to any version of Outlook from 97 on - even if
Outlook is linked to Exchange?
 
It doesn't really matter, because this approach is a dead end for full
synchronization. The linked table method has major limitations, including
the inability to show even all the reasonably important fields. While
articles have been written on how to expand on this method's obvious
features, I've never been able to duplicate the results. See
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/database.htm#linkedtables .

That page will also give you other ideas on how to work with databases and
Outlook together. You'll need to write code or use a third-party tool that
does the heavy lifting. TabTag might be a good choice.
 
Thanks Sue,
That looks just like what I needed.
-----Original Message-----
It doesn't really matter, because this approach is a dead end for full
synchronization. The linked table method has major limitations, including
the inability to show even all the reasonably important fields. While
articles have been written on how to expand on this method's obvious
features, I've never been able to duplicate the results. See
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/database.htm#linkedtables .

That page will also give you other ideas on how to work with databases and
Outlook together. You'll need to write code or use a third-party tool that
does the heavy lifting. TabTag might be a good choice.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers






.
 
Thanks Sue. That looks like exactly what I want. I'm not averse to
doing a bit of coding. I've been doing it for 40 years.

Thanks
Brian
 
Back
Top