Introduction
OELibrary is open source COM based component written in C++. I have created this component long back when I used to work with EfExtra e-solution pvt ltd. There it used to be closed source, paid software, but due to some personal and professional reason, this component has not able to see light of day. After around three year, when I enquired about the same, Saurabh (Director, EfExtra) happily agreed to launch project open source, rather then just lying idle in backup of computer.
His thinking behind this is that, at least programmer community gets benefited of it and the project might get more robust and feature rich after receiving feedback and working (multiple mind instead of single) . This component is released under GPL license. This component is RELEASE AS IS, without any warranties and guarantees.
This component is dedicated to My Mother Late Mrs. Saroj Gupta.
The Objective
The aim of this project is to create a programming library which enables automating, or in other words, providing programmatic access to certain tasks in Outlook Express.
The central idea is to provide an easy to use object model to developers who wish to interact and control Outlook Express from their applications. Some of the functions this library aims to provide are:
Features
- Add, Delete, & Enumerate mail folders in Outlook Express.
- Enumerate, Read, and Delete messages in a given folder.
- Move messages from one folder to another.
- Get selected folder.
- Notifications for certain events (e.g. new mail).
- Adding a custom toolbar to Outlook Express and responding to click events on it.
- Reading OEAccount information.
- Manipulating the Window Address book!
Where it could be used ?
Outlook Express is a free email client and comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. Outlook Express is the most commonly used email client today.
Outlook Express does not support automation by itself unlike Microsoft Outlook, which comes as a part of Microsoft’s Office suite. Microsoft Outlook provides a feature rich and easy to use object model allowing developers to automate most tasks in it.
Many developers who want to develop applications/plug-ins/add-ins for Outlook Express can’t do so because of its lack of any automation interface.
The goal of this project is to fill this void and provide a library that can use used by developers to automate Outlook Express from their applications.
The library can be developed as a COM component (ActiveX DLL) that can be referenced by developers in their projects. The ActiveX component will provide a expose an object model similar to the automation interface of Microsoft Outlook. This insures that the developers who have already worked with Microsoft Outlook automation feel at ease working with our Outlook Express Automation Library. The ActiveX DLL will be developed as an ATL COM component so that it does not have any additional dependencies.
Using the code and some example
I am assuming that you already have the reference of EfOeLibrary in your Projects!. object model is quite simple, you just have to create the object of the Application and all thing what ever you want come from it.
1. Getting Inbox folder !
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim app As New OELib.Application
Dim inboxFolder, rootFolder As OELib.MailFolder
Set rootFolder = app.GetLocalFolder
Set inboxFolder = rootFolder.GetSpecialFolder(SF_FOLDER_INBOX)
If inboxFolder Is Nothing Then
MsgBox " error getting reference of inbox folder"
Else
MsgBox " Yo! man, you recv reference of inbox folder"
End If
End Sub
2. Getting Messages !
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim app As New OELib.Application
Dim inboxFolder, rootFolder As OELib.MailFolder
Dim IMsg As MailItem
Set rootFolder = app.GetLocalFolder
Set inboxFolder = rootFolder.GetSpecialFolder(SF_FOLDER_INBOX)
If inboxFolder Is Nothing Then
MsgBox " error getting reference of inbox folder"
Else
MsgBox " Yo! man, you recv reference of inbox folder"
End If
Set IMsg = inboxFolder.GetFirstMessage
If Not IMsg Is Nothing Then
MsgBox IMsg.From
End If
End Sub
3. Creating Toolband
Private Sub Command2_Click()
Dim app As New OELib.Application
Dim ptoolband As OELib.OEToolBand
Set ptoolband = app.GetToolBand
ptoolband.AddButton OE_TYPE_BUTTON, "Alok Gupta"
End Sub
4. Reading OeAccount Information!
Private Sub Command3_Click()
Dim app As New OELib.Application
Dim oeacctmgr As OEAccountMgr
Dim oeacct As OEAccount
Set oeacctmgr = app.GetOEAccounts
If Not oeacctmgr Is Nothing Then
Set oeacct = oeacctmgr.GetFirstAccount(OE_SRV_NNTP)
If Not oeacct Is Nothing Then
MsgBox oeacct.AccountName
End If
End If
End Sub
Object Model...!
2. Toolband Object Model :-
Installation Guide...!
- Register Efoexxxx.dll using regsvr32.exe
- copy efinject.dll and oehook.dll in windows directory
Special Thanks...!
- My Parents
- Saurabh Gupta, [Director EfExtra ESolution Pvt. Ltd.]
- Mumtaz Zaheer for Hook source code
- My Friends Ankit and Gaurav for there support in white box testing and creating help!
- Vizacc freeware helpmaker
History
March 2, 2008 :- First Release for OeLibrary 1.0
