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How to retrieve contacts by using Outlook Object Model in Visual Basic .NET

Article ID: 313802

Article Last Modified on 1/17/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2002 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q313802

IN THIS TASK

SUMMARY

Create Sample to Retrieve Outlook Contacts

REFERENCES

SUMMARY

The step-by-step article describes how to use the Outlook 10.0 Object Library to retrieve Outlook contacts in Visual Basic .NET.

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Create Sample to Retrieve Outlook Contacts

Start Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Project.
Click Visual Basic Projects under Project Types, and then click Console Application under Templates. By default, Module1.vb is created.
Add a reference to the Microsoft Outlook 10.0 Object Library. To do this, follow these steps:
1. On the Project menu, click Add Reference.
2. Click the COM tab.
3. Click Microsoft Outlook 10.0 Object Library, and then click Select
4. Click OK. If you are prompted to generate wrappers for the library that you selected, click Yes.

In the Code window, replace the default code with the following code:

Imports System.Reflection

Module Module1

    Sub Main()
        ' Create Outlook application.
        Dim oApp As Outlook.Application = New Outlook.Application()

        ' Get NameSpace and Logon.
        Dim oNS As Outlook.NameSpace = oApp.GetNamespace("mapi")
        oNS.Logon("Outlook", Missing.Value, False, True) ' TODO:

        ' Get the first contact from the Contacts folder.
        Dim cContacts As Outlook.MAPIFolder = oNS.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderContacts)
        Dim oItems As Outlook.Items = cContacts.Items

        Dim oCt As Outlook.ContactItem

        Try

            oCt = oItems.GetFirst()


            ' Display some common properties.
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.FullName)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.Title)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.Birthday)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.CompanyName)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.Department)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.Body)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.FileAs)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.Email1Address)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.BusinessHomePage)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.MailingAddress)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.BusinessAddress)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.OfficeLocation)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.Subject)
            Console.WriteLine(oCt.JobTitle)

        Catch

            Console.WriteLine("an error occurred")

        Finally

            ' Display
            'oCt.Display(True)

            ' Log off.
            oNS.Logoff()

            ' Clean up.
            oApp = Nothing
            oNS = Nothing
            oItems = Nothing
            oCt = Nothing

        End Try

        
    End Sub

End Module