Outlook Link

[Dashiell]

I have an access 2010 database that is linked to the Global Address Book and an email folder via the native exchange/outlook ODBC connection. When I link to the email folder, I see the Display Name but I need more information on the sender. In order to get the Alias and the email address, I link back to the Global Address Book. I have two small questions:

1.) Are the following fields available in the outlook mail tables: Email address, some sort of a unique record identifier? I do not see either of these fields when I link via the ODBC connection.
2.) How can I open a linked table to view the contents of an Outlook email folder or the Global Address Book using ADO or some other connection other than the native ODBC connection?

Thanks for any help.
Dashiell

[HansV]

Welcome to Eileen's Lounge!

1) When I link to my Outlook contacts, the following fields are included:

S0632.png

As you see, E-mail address is among them, and "Normalized Subject" is the primary key.
(I can't test with Exchange at the moment)

2) In theory, you can use DAO or ADO to connect to Outlook or Exchange. See for example this older article:
How to retrieve Exchange and Outlook data with the Jet 4.0 OLE DB provider in Access 2000
However, I cannot find how to modify the connection string to work with newer versions of the OLE DB engine and of Outlook/Exchange.

I also found this snippet for Exchange:

oConn.Provider = "EXOLEDB.DataSource"
oConn.Open = "http://myServerName/myVirtualRootName"

But that requires you to know the actual server name.

[HansV]

When I link to the Exchange GAL (Global Address List), it has the same fields, but this time Display Name is the primary key.

I cannot connect to Exchange through EXOLEDB.DataSource. I hope that someone else knows how to create an ADO connection to Outlook or Exchange.

[Dashiell]

Thanks Hans. In bullet #1, I was referring to the Inbox. All I see is Sender's name but no email address (the available fields are listed below). I will continue trying to connect via something other than the native ODBC process but so far it has been a difficult road. Thanks!

Importance 1
Icon IPM.Note
Priority 0
Subject RE: Eileen's Lounge
From Smith, Jack
Message To Me TRUE
Message CC to Me FALSE
Sender Name Smith, Jack
CC
To Help Desk
Received 23-Jan-12
Message Size 3296
Contents Need help linking to table.
Created 23-Jan-12
Modified 31-Jul-12
Subject Prefix RE:
Has Attachments FALSE
Normalized Subject Help Desk
Object Type 5
Content Unread

[HansV]

I get the same. It looks like the e-mail address is not available this way. You may have to use Automation instead of a linked table to retrieve the e-mail address...

[Dashiell]

Thanks Hans. I had a process set-up that pulled the email address from the Global Address Book but now the ODBC link to the Global Address Book fails (network error) and I cannot resolve it. That is why I have been trying to connect via another means (without much luck).