Article ID: 250402
Article Last Modified on 1/27/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Outlook 97 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q250402
SUMMARY
This article provides methods you can use to programmatically determine whether Outlook is online or offline.
MORE INFORMATION
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The Outlook object model does not provide a direct way to determine whether or not Outlook is online or offline. However, there are two common approaches that you can use to accomplish this.
Error Trap a Specific Public Folder
When Outlook is offline, you cannot reference public folders that are available while Outlook is online. If you attempt to do so, Outlook will generate a run-time error. Therefore you can use use error trapping in your code to determine whether or not Outlook is currently online. The key advantage of using this approach is that you do not need to use the Collaborative Data Object (CDO) object model, so you do not need to make sure that CDO is installed on all of the client computers. The disadvantage to using this approach is that it will only work in a Microsoft Exchange Server environment.
The following Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) function can be placed in a custom form. As implemented below, it is designed to run whenever an item is opened.
Sub Item_Open()
MsgBox "Online = " & IsOutlookOnline
End Sub
Function IsOutlookOnline()
Dim objNS
Dim objPF
Dim objAPF
Dim objMyFolder
Set objNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set objPF = objNS.Folders("Public Folders")
Set objAPF = objPF.Folders("All Public Folders")
On Error Resume Next
Err.Clear
' Try to reference a typical public folder
Set objMyFolder = objAPF.Folders(1)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
IsOutlookOnline = False
Else
IsOutlookOnline = True
End If
Set objMyFolder = Nothing
Set objPF = Nothing
Set objAPF = Nothing
Set objNS = Nothing
End Function
Use the CDO Object Library
You can use CDO to check the value of a MAPI property representing whether or not Outlook is online. The disadvantage to this apprroach is that you must ensure that the CDO object library is installed on all of the client computers on which this solution will run.
For additional information and an example of using CDO to determine the offline status, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
181035 HOWTO: Determine If a CDO Session Is Online or Offline from VB
The following code sample can be used in an Outlook form.
Sub Item_Open()
MsgBox "Online = " & IsOutlookOnline
End Sub
Function IsOutlookOnline()
Dim objSession
Dim objInfoStore
Dim bolOffline
Set objSession = CreateObject("MAPI.Session")
' Use the existing Outlook session
objSession.Logon "", "", False, False
Set objInfostore = objSession.GetInfoStore(objSession.Inbox.StoreID)
' Check if it's offline
bolOffline = objInfostore.Fields(&H6632000B) 'PR_STORE_OFFLINE
If bolOffline Then
IsOutlookOnline = False
Else
IsOutlookOnline = True
End If
Set objInfoStore = Nothing
Set objSession = Nothing
End Function
REFERENCES
For additional information about how to obtain CDO, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
171440 INFO: Where to Acquire the Collaboration Data Objects Libraries
For additional information about creating solutions with Outlook, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
166368 OL97: How to Get Help Programming with Outlook
170783 OL97: Q&A: Questions About Customizing or Programming Outlook
Additional query words: OutSol OutSol97
Keywords: kbhowto kbprogramming KB250402
