Understanding the events in the Outlook object model is critical because this is often the primary way that your code is run. This chapter covers many of the events in the Outlook object model, when they are raised, and the type of code you might associate with these events.
Outlook associates the same set of events with all the Outlook item object types listed in Table 10-1. In this chapter, we will refer to Item events, but there is no Item object per se in the Outlook object model. Instead, you will find the same set of Item events (defined by ItemEvents_10_Event interface) on each of the 15 Outlook object model objects listed in Table 10-1.
Object | |
|---|---|
AppointmentItem | An appointment item typically found in the Calendar folder. |
ContactItem | A contact item typically found in the Contacts folder. |
DistListItem | A distribution list typically found in the Contacts folder. |
DocumentItem | A document that you have added to an Outlook folder by dragging and dropping it from the file system into the Outlook folder. |
JournalItem | A journal entry typically found in the Journal folder. |
MailItem | A mail message typically found in the Inbox folder. |
MeetingItem | A meeting request typically found in the Inbox folder. |
NoteItem | A note typically found in the Notes folder. |
PostItem | A post in an Outlook folder. |
RemoteItem | A mail message that has not yet been fully retrieved from the server but has the subject of the message, the received date and time, the sender, the size of the message, and the first 256 characters of the message body. |
ReportItem | A mail delivery report such as a report when mail delivery failed typically found in Outlook's Inbox folder. |
TaskItem | A task typically found in the Tasks folder. |
TaskRequestAcceptItem | A response to a TaskRequestItem typically found in the Inbox folder. |
TaskRequestDeclineItem | A response to a TaskRequestItem typically found in the Inbox folder. |
TaskRequestItem | A task request sent to another user typically found in the Inbox folder. |
TaskRequestUpdateItem | An update to a TaskRequestItem typically found in the Inbox folder. |
When you work with the Outlook object model, you will quickly notice multiple public interfaces, classes, and delegates associated with events:
ApplicationEvents interface
ApplicationEvents_Event interface
ApplicationEvents_* delegates
ApplicationEvents_SinkHelper class
ApplicationEvents_10 interface
ApplicationsEvents_10_Event interface
ApplicationEvents_10_* delegates
ApplicationEvents_10_SinkHelper class
ApplicationEvents_11 interface
ApplicationsEvents_11_Event interface
ApplicationEvents_11_* delegates
ApplicationEvents_11_SinkHelper class
ExplorerEvents interface
ExplorerEvents_Event interface
ExplorerEvents_* delegates
ExplorerEvents_SinkHelper class
ExplorerEvents_10 interface
ExplorerEvents_10_Event interface
ExplorerEvents_10_* delegates
ExplorerEvents10_SinkHelper class
ExplorersEvents interface
ExplorersEvents_Event interface
ExplorersEvents_* delegates
FoldersEvents interface
FoldersEvents_Event interface
FoldersEvents_* delegates
FoldersEvents_SinkHelper class
InspectorEvents interface
InspectorEvents_Event interface
InspectorEvents_* delegates
InspectorEvents_SinkHelper class
InspectorEvents_10 interface
InspectorEvents_10_Event interface
InspectorEvents_10_* delegates
InspectorEvents_10_SinkHelper class
ItemEvents interface
ItemEvents_Event interface
ItemEvents_SinkHelper class
ItemEvents_10 interface
ItemEvents_10_Event interface
ItemEvents_10_* delegates
ItemEvents_10_SinkHelper class
ItemsEvents interface
ItemsEvents_Event interface
ItemsEvents_* delegates
ItemsEvents_SinkHelper class
NameSpaceEvents interface
NameSpaceEvents_Event interface
NameSpaceEvents_* delegates
NameSpaceEvents_SinkHelper class
OutlookBarGroupsEvents interface
OutlookBarGroupsEvents_Event interface
OutlookBarGroupsEvents_* delegates
OutlookBarGroupsEvents_SinkHelper class
OutlookBarPaneEvents_Event interface
OutlookBarPaneEvents_* delegates
OutlookBarPaneEvents_SinkHelper class
OutlookBarShortcutsEvents interface
OutlookBarShortcutsEvents_Event interface
OutlookBarShortcutsEvents_* delegates
OutlookBarShortcutsEvents_SinkHelper class
ReminderCollectionEvents interface
ReminderCollectionEvents_Event interface
ReminderCollectionEvents_* delegates
ReminderCollectionEvents_SinkHelper class
ResultsEvents interface
ResultsEvents_Event interface
ResultsEvents_* delegates
ResultsEvents_SinkHelper class
SyncObjectEvents interface
SyncObjectEvents_Event interface
SyncObjectEvents_* delegates
SyncObjectEvents_SinkHelper class
ViewsEvents_Event interface
ViewsEvents_* delegates
ViewsEvents_SinkHelper class
The only elements from this list that you should ever use in your code are the ones in bold text. The
* _Event interfaces in bold should only be used when you have to cast an object to its corresponding event interface because a method name and event name collide. An example of this is the Inspector object, which has both a Close method and a Close event. To disambiguate between the two, you have to cast the Inspector object to InspectorEvents_10_Event when you want to handle the Close event.
Chapter 1, "An Introduction to Office Programming," briefly explains the reason for the other items in this list. However, this explanation only explains the SinkHelper class and why there is both an
Object Events interface and an
Object Events_Event interface. The reason there are multiple numbered events associated with some objects goes back to the original COM implementation of the Outlook object model.
Outlook's Application, Explorer, Inspector, and Item COM objects have had their event interfaces defined over multiple versions. For example, consider the Application events. Events defined in Outlook XP for the Application object are on the interface named ApplicationEvents_Event. Events that were new in Outlook 2000 are on the interface named ApplicationEvents_10_Events. (Outlook 2000 was known internally at Microsoft as Outlook 10.) ApplicationEvents_10_Events also contains all the events that are in the ApplicationEvents_Event. Events that were new in Outlook 2003 are on the interface named ApplicationEvents_11_Events. (Outlook 2003 was known internally at Microsoft as Outlook 11.) The ApplicationEvents_11_Events interface includes all the events defined in Outlook XP and Outlook 2000. Because ApplicationEvents_11_Events contains all the events defined for Application, this is the only interface you should use for Outlook 2003 development.