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Finding Messages inside Exchange using EntryID

Recently I have had a need to locate messages inside Exchange using only the EntryID. Ideally I wanted to do this through Outlook but all evidence points towards this not being possible.

• http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/outlook-prog-forms/571/EntryId
  Outlook doesn't export that property. Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
• http://help.lockergnome.com/office/Find-EntryID--ftopict937618.html
  Never mind on the EntryId I found where it is not valid for the Find command.

The only thing I could find was to use Outlook shortcuts/hyperlinks:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/links.htm
But these proved very unreliable.  In fact I only managed it make it work once.

Other Possibilities

Based on everything I read, the only way to find the message is through API/SDK. Specifically using GetItemFromID:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219902%28office.12%29.aspx

Solution

My solution was to write a really small C# command line that app that will open the message based on EntryID and StoreID.

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook; namespace EntryID { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine(""); Console.WriteLine("REQUIRES OUTLOOK"); Console.WriteLine(""); Console.WriteLine("THIS APPLICATION COMES WITH NO WARRENTY OR GAURENTEES"); Console.WriteLine("USE AT YOUR OWN RISK"); if (args.Length != 2){ Console.WriteLine("ERROR: Missing Parameters"); Console.WriteLine("EntryID.exe storeID entryID"); Environment.Exit(-1); } string storeID = args[0]; string entryID = args[1]; Console.WriteLine( "storeID: " + storeID ); Console.WriteLine(""); Console.WriteLine( "entryID: " + entryID ); Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._Application olApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ApplicationClass(); Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._NameSpace olNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI"); Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MAPIFolder oFolder = olNS.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox); Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._MailItem oMailItem = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._MailItem)olNS.GetItemFromID(entryID, storeID); oMailItem.Display(false); } } }

The hardest part was getting my Visual Studio app to hook into Outlook 2003/Outlook 2007. The following MSDN articles were very helpful:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa189286%28office.10%29.aspx
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310244

Requirements

In order to use this application, you must have the Office Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA) installed for your version of Outlook.

I do not believe that Office 2003 ships with PIA, see Hello Word Outlook Add-In using C# but I believe Office 2007 does.

You can download the PIA for Office 2003 and Office 2007 using the following links:

• Office 2003 Update: Redistributable Primary Interop Assemblies
• 2007 Microsoft Office System Update: Redistributable Primary Interop Assemblies

Here is a link about doing development with PIAs
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vsto/archive/2008/05/20/common-pitfalls-during-pia-deployment-and-installation.aspx

Results

I ended up making two apps. One for Outlook 2003 and one for Outlook 2007. From the command line I can now open a message using the storeID and entryID. Here is the prototype for app: EntryID2003.exe storeID entryID EntryID2007.exe storeID entryID

When you run the app with the right command line parameters, the app will start Outlook and open the email.

The compiled versions of the app (both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007) can be downloaded here:
EntryID.zip

Update: Finding Messages inside Exchange using EntryID

After continue working on this I had problems getting EntryID2003.exe working on Outlook 2003. I believe this is a problem linking into Outlook. Since then I have come up with a new solution in the form of a VB script.

Here is the script

'************************************************************************* 'THIS APPLICATION COMES WITH NO WARRENTY OR GAURENTEES 'USE AT YOUR OWN RISK '************************************************************************* 'Instructions 'Fill in the parameters below 'Close Outlook and the run the script. This script should open the message with EntryID. '************************************************************************* 'PARAMETERS storeID = "0000000038A1BB1005E5101AA1BB08002B2A56C20000454D534D44422E444C4C00000000000000001B55FA20AA6611CD9BC800AA002FC45A0C0000004443002F6F3D4669727374204F7267616E697A6174696F6E2F6F753D45786368616E67652041646D696E6973747261746976652047726F7570202846594449424F484632335350444C54292F636E3D526563697069656E74732F636E3D6176616E64616C617900" entryID = "000000007AA33668D54A1C4D9D8372FEE1EC794F07007D2133630C6123449784F16966F749C0000009264F2F00007D2133630C6123449784F16966F749C00459A9A964650000" 'Set this to the value of your Outlook profile profile = "Outlook" Set objOutlook = CreateObject("Outlook.Application") Set objNamespace = objOutlook.GetNamespace("MAPI") objNamespace.Logon profile,, False, True Set message = objNamespace.GetItemFromID( entryID, storeID ) message.Display

The script can be downloaded here:
EntryIDScript.zip