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Introduction

This article illustrates an example of how to import and export appointments from an Outlook application installed on the client machine and a web-application on the server. The web application being hosted on the server, extraction of appointments can not be done on the server-side as every other user has his/her own list of appointments stored in their Outlook.

Background

I was working on a project that had a requirement to import and export appointments from an Outlook application: saving appointments on the client machine as per the client's choice, and porting appointments from Outlook appointments into the web-application. I tried to find help on the Internet for the same, but failed to find any article written on it.

Using the code

Since we need to extract the appointments on the client-side, we will be using an ActiveX object. Thus, we need to enable the setting to allow ActiveX scripts, as shown below (found under Security Settings of Internet Options):

Once an Outlook application is installed on the system and the security setting is done as per above, we are ready to import/export appointments.

// create outlook object
var objOutlook = new ActiveXObject( "Outlook.Application" );

In the case of exporting: for the different items in Outlook, there are fixed item numbers, like:

var olAppointmentItem = 1; //fixed for different properties of outlook object
var objAppointment = objOutlook.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem);

Now, the properties of this object can be set as per required and then saved.

objAppointment.Subject = "Appointment exported to Outlook from a web application"; 
..... 
objAppointment.Duration = duration; 
objAppointment.Save();

In the case of import: again, for the different items in Outlook, there are fixed item numbers, like:

var outlookFolderCalendar = 9;

We will get all the appointments after creating the MAPI namespace, and give the default folder name.

var objNameSpace = objOutlook.GetNamespace("MAPI");
var outlookFolder = objNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(outlookFolderCalendar);
var myOutlookItems = outlookFolder.Items;

For example, I have to show the first appointment in the calendar. The different properties can be extracted like:

var dateOfAppointment = myOutlookItems(1).Start;
.....
var bodyOfAppointment = myOutlookItems(1).Body;

The extracted values of each appointment can now be used as per your needs. One thing to note is while extracting appointments from Outlook, we get a prompt like shown below:

We need to allow access in order to get the appointments from Outlook.

Points of Interest

Since I was using an ActiveX object, it was difficult getting the different property names required, as ActiveX objects cannot be debugged for quick-watch. It was fun and irritating at the same time to find all the properties required. Not to forget the case-sensitive nature of JavaScript!

History

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OutLook 2007 Calendar Type Control latell 0:05 16 Oct '09   HI! thanks for the help. is there any way to create a recurrencing appointment with LUNAR Calendar date? i mean by OutLook addin or c#, or other programs... Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink not working in Safari & Mozila amit721 19:52 27 Apr '09   <b>this is very nice code, but only limited to IE it is not working in MOZAILA & SAFARI & CHORME.... because... ActiveX only support by IE Any Idea How we can run this code in SAFARI & CHROME??</b> Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: not working in Safari & Mozila Sandeep Mewara 20:17 9 Jun '09   Hi Amit, I have not tried the same for other browsers as of now. I will update you in case i find the alternatives. Thanks. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 Re: not working in Safari & Mozila amit721 21:35 25 Jun '09   Thanks A lot for your reaply. I Will wait for your reply. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Urgently Required ....... trushitshah 21:49 23 Apr '09   How to delete any one appointment from three or four appoingment from calendar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Urgently Required ....... Sandeep Mewara 20:18 9 Jun '09   Hi, You can find code similar to what you are asking as one of my answers to previously asked questions below. Thanks. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Urgently Required ....... trushitshah 21:01 9 Jun '09   Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Urgently required MeCode1 20:39 22 Apr '09   hi Sandeep Mewara, I try this code in my local machine and made changes in security option of internet as shown, but it will not work. I am using IE6 for browsing,.Net 2005 for building web application,Outlook 2007 calendar for creating and deleleting appointments from web application. Other thing , this code set appointment for current date only. but in my application,I wanted to set an appointment from startdate to enddata(may be 2 days, 3days,15 days,...), then what changes we have to made in this code. modified on Friday, April 24, 2009 2:27 AM Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Urgently required Sandeep Mewara 20:21 9 Jun '09   Hi, It works for me in the same environment. Please check if all the settings are properly done. For adding appointments for other than today, make changes in the javascript code where we set date. You can adjust the dates as per your will. - Sandeep Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink This code works well and good in IE7. But its not working in IE6. sannu_eshwari 20:36 1 Apr '09   Hi This code works well and good in IE7. But its not working in IE6. Please suggest me if any other modifications are to be done in order to make it work in IE6 and Mozilla. Thanks in advance Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: This code works well and good in IE7. But its not working in IE6. Sandeep Mewara 20:22 9 Jun '09   It's quite strange for me. When i developed the same, i used to use IE6 only. It used to work perfectly fine. I will recheck with latest version of IE6. - Sandeep Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Thank u ur code is great Manprit.bagga 19:05 5 Mar '09   Thank u for the fantasic code Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Thank u ur code is great Sandeep Mewara 20:23 9 Jun '09   Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re Import and Export Outlook appointments using javascript bsidey 21:38 10 Jan '09   Hi Sandeep, this is just what Im looking for and I downloaded the source file. But when I try to open the project in VS2008 it fails and cannot load. Am I doing something wrong or is something missing from the project? Cheers bsidey Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Re: Re Import and Export Outlook appointments using javascript Sandeep Mewara 20:13 18 Jan '09   Hey hi! Nothing is wrong with the project file. It was made in VS2005. When you are trying to open it in VS2008, hope its asking for a conversion. Once it is successfully converted, it should work fine. Do tell me if you face any issue. Thanks, Sandeep. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Finding outlook and exporting an event to the outlook nainakarri 5:09 17 Dec '08   Hi The article provided is very helpful and excellent. But the outlook gets updated only the client machine. Now i got a requirement where i need to find the outlook of someother person through the emailid and the update the outlook. It would be greatly helpful to me if anyone can provide me the solution Thanks in advance Naina Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Finding outlook and exporting an event to the outlook Sandeep Mewara 23:05 21 Dec '08   First Thanks Naina. This particular sample that i had shown above was for the scenario where everyone can import/export appointments from their respective system outlook calendar. Now, as per the requirement you had said, first thing that comes to mind is a security issue. secondly thing, if you have permissions configured - it should be an exchange server, then only we can think of adding appointments for other (like shared calendars and access to them) third thing, if you need something like what you said, do you need that in a Web Application? Seems like some admin needs to update everyones calendar or something - can be a desktop application! Do clarify. Thanks, Sandeep. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Finding outlook and exporting an event to the outlook nainakarri 4:58 26 Dec '08   Hi Sandeep Sorry for my late reply. The above javascript code is working perfectly in my system. what you have told is exactly right. The admin wants to update every ones outlook calender. I have did this in a different way by sending a mail to everyone which have an attachment as vcal before sending mail i have made remainderset to "false". but still in the attachment i could see the remainder set to true. Hope am clear with what i meant to tell. Thanks Usha Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 Re: Finding outlook and exporting an event to the outlook Sandeep Mewara 0:44 27 Dec '08   Ok. You were not very clear, seems like you had some other problem (in the way you used to do the current requirement) which you said in your reply. What i wanted to say was, since it is an admin update - it would had been better for you to provide a desktop application doing this for you. (Instead of Web App!) Still if you need to do it though web, do tell, i will try to help you with the code that can send appointments to others calendar (assuming all security permissions are taken care) via Javascript for Web Applications. Btw...yourself Naina or Usha! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Finding outlook and exporting an event to the outlook nainakarri 3:19 27 Dec '08   Hi sandeep We want to handle it through the web application only. And one more thing , can we delete a particular appointment from outlook. i did this(deleting), by getting the outlook items and in for loop i checked the appointment to be deleted and then deleted. But for each appointment its accessing the outlook and before accessing the outlook its asking a security question whether to allow to access the outlook or not. For example if there are 10 appointments , then am getting security question 10 times where i need to click "ok" 10 times which is not at all advisable. so is there any way to avoid this? I am also sending a mail to the receipnt from outlook by using forwardasvcal(). so a mail goes to the person with the appointment as attachment. before sending the mail i have set the remainder as false. but when i open the attachment the remainder is checked......i am unable to avoid checking the remainder through the application.... Lots of doubts, but should any how finish it. hope am clear now? Thanks Naina Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Finding outlook and exporting an event to the outlook Sandeep Mewara 18:25 29 Dec '08   Ok. Naina. About accessing calendars of different people and setting an appointment, try the following JS in your web application: function SetAppointmentsInOthersCalendar() { // name or email address of person whose Calendar you want to use var strName = "sandeep.mewara@xyz.com" ; var objolApp = new ActiveXObject( "Outlook.Application" ); var objNS = objolApp.GetNamespace("MAPI"); try { objRecip = objNS.CreateRecipient(strName); objRecip.Resolve(); if(objRecip.Resolved) { var olFolderCalendar = 9; var objFolder = objNS.GetSharedDefaultFolder(objRecip, olFolderCalendar); var olAppointmentItem = 1; var objAppt = objFolder.Items.Add(olAppointmentItem); var olMeeting = 1; objAppt.Start = OutlookCompatibleDate("12/21/2008"); objAppt.Duration = 30 ; objAppt.Subject = "Weekly Feature Team Meeting"; objAppt.Body = "Project Status & Updates!"; objAppt.Location = "1st Floor Conference Room"; objAppt.ReminderSet = false; objAppt.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 5; objAppt.AllDayEvent = false; objAppt.MeetingStatus = olMeeting; //Add required attendees var objRecipts = objAppt.Recipients ; var olRequired = 1; objRecip = objRecipts.Add("sandeep.mewara@xyz.com"); objRecip.Type = olRequired; objRecipts.ResolveAll(); objAppt.Save(); objAppt.Send(); } } catch (ex) { alert("Error!"); } } About the prompts, those are the security parts of Outlook, which i really doubt can be suppressed and neither should we try. Hope this solves the issue that you are facing. Thanks, Sandeep. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink get all messages [modified] testnoem 23:48 4 Sep '08   how do you get values other than 1,2,3 (or any other number) in the export from? i tried using (i) but it doesn't work. eg var search = new Array(); for(i=0;i &lt; myOutlookItems.Count;i++) { search[i] = myOutlookItems(i); } also tried search[i]= myOutlookItems.(i).Subject; search[i]= myOutlookItems.items(i).Subject; and search[i]= myOutlookItems.items(i); Even tried substituting items with outlookFolder keep getting array index out of range. ahhh never mind just realized (i) starts at 1 not 0!!!! knew i would get it before too long. modified on Friday, September 5, 2008 6:02 AM Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: get all messages Sandeep Mewara 20:12 25 Sep '08   Yep! you got it right. I didn't received any mail that a question was posted or would had saved some time of yours. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Import & Export Outlook user user 5:35 28 Aug '08   I am using asp.net 2002. I set the property in internet explorer as you described and I have Outlook 2003 installed on the client machine. I keep getting the "Outlook needs to be installed on the machine for data to export.". What else could be causing this or How can I debug it? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Import & Export Outlook testnoem 23:41 4 Sep '08   1 reason is that you don't have initialize and script active x controls not marked as safe set to prompt or enabled. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.50/5

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