Address Book Provider

Knowing both ADO and Extended MAPI very well one may develop one's own design of MAPI Service Provider that would unify them. We started off with the easiest to implement but also most commonly used Service Provider - Address Book.

We did our best to make our Address Book work on all Outlook versions since 1996 - starting with Windows Messaging and covering the last version. The code also can be compiled with minimal changes by Delphi 5 to Delphi 2005.

In addition we wanted the information provided by our Address Book to be used not only in Outlook but also in the form of a desktop application.
 
For the basic design we chose Microsoft Access as a storage that will use our data, because it is very popular and because every Windows version after NT4 is capable of processing the queries to it without having to install any additional software.

Our Address Book based on ADO and Extended MAPI uses intensively the COM interfaces provided by Microsoft - for ADO: Connection, Command, Recordset; and Extended MAPI: IABProvider, IABLogon, IABContainer, IMailUser, IDistList, etc.
We avoided using ready-made Delphi components for the ADO part in order to enhance performance, and to reduce the size of the compiled end DLL.

The current version included in the project consists of two parts - an Administrative part and the Address Book Provider itself. In the administrative part one can create new entries (contacts) in the database that will be accessible afterwards in Outlook through our Address Book.
 

For the Outlook user all entries (contacts) that our Address Book offers are read-only, that is they cannot be edited. This is done in order to avoid editing or harming the data by chance. Of course all this does not interfere with the process of sending e-mails to the users from our Address Book.

Read more for our IMI ADODB ExMAPI Address Book Provider    (PDF Size: 2 MB)

Download DEMO

See a few screen shoots!

Microsoft Access 2000 as MAPI Message Store for Outlook

Q: Can the Outlook use Microsoft Access 2000/2003 as Message Store?
A: Yes - we have Delphi code for this exotic provider.
The related article will be published very soon...  check this page for updates or e-mail us for more information.