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c# VSTO Outlook email body from opened window

I've a problem with my VSTO application for Outlook. I want to process the email body from a selected e-mail.
For selected e-mails out of the "default" list this code works fine:
Object selItem = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveExplorer().Selection[1];
Outlook.MailItem mailItem = (Outlook.MailItem)selItem;
return mailItem.Body;
But if a user opens an email from the list with a double click, the email is displayed in a new window. If the addin is executed in this window (over the ribbon), the email from the list is still used (which is now in the background).
Is there a way to find out if the plugin was started in a separate window and then get the email body from it?
Regards,
Florian

Coincidentally, I just dealt with something similar to this. My situation isn't identical, but since I could easily piece together what it seems like you're looking for see below. I haven't tested this, and obviously you'll have to handle passing the correct reference to your Outlook Application, but since i had this immediately available I figured it would pass it along with the hope that you'll find it helpful.
private static void ribbonButton_Click(object sender, RibbonControlEventArgs e)
{
Outlook.Application application = new Outlook.Application();
Outlook.Inspector inspector = application.ActiveInspector();
if (application.ActiveExplorer().Selection[1] is Outlook.MailItem explorerMailItem)
{
// Write code to handle message if sourced from explorer (i.e., Reading Pane)
}
else if (inspector.CurrentItem is Outlook.MailItem inspectorMailItem)
{
// Write code to hanlde message if sourced from inspector
// (i.e., openened (double-clicked) message
}
}

When you double click on email item you open an inspector window and you can access it by using Application.ActiveInspector() method. The Inspector object has CurrentItem property which represents the opened item.
Also, you should avoid using multiple dots in expressions and properly release COM objects.

Check if Outlook MAPIFolder is visible?

When I iterate through all Outlook folders (in a C# Add-In) I see folder names like:
Yammer Root
Sync Issues
Subscriptions
These folders are not visible in Outlook. I like to check in my code if the folder is visible or not but I don't find a property like Hidden or Visible.
MAPIFolder folder has properties like:
folder.DefaultItemType
folder.Name
but not hidden.
How can I find out in my c# Add-In if folders are hidden or not?

You will need to read the PR_ATTR_HIDDEN MAPI property (DASL name http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x10F4000B). You can read it using MAPIFolder.PropertyAccessor.GetProperty.
You can see that (and other) property using OutlookSpy (I am its author) - click IMAPIFolder button.

At least on my machine I never retrieved a value for PR_ATTR_HIDDEN for all folders. I could not find out the reason although in OutlookSpy the value is true for the hidden folders.
Code:
var rootFolder = outlook.Session.DefaultStore.GetRootFolder();
foreach (Folder folder in rootFolder.Folders)
{
try
{
bool isHidden = folder.PropertyAccessor.GetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x10F4000B");
// never reach this line
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
// always exception: value is not available
}
}
My workaround: If you want to retrieve the folders as they are displayed in Outlook you can use PR_CONTAINER_CLASS_W and compare it with IPF.Note or IPF.Imap.
Sample:
const string PR_CONTAINER_CLASS_W = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x3613001F";
string containerClass = folder.PropertyAccessor.GetProperty(PR_CONTAINER_CLASS_W);
bool isVisible = string.Equals(containerClass, "IPF.Note")|| string.Equals(containerClass, "IPF.Imap");

Change Outlook Inbox-icons envelope icons

following this link - change outlook MailItem icon
I managed to change my inbox icons.
Here's what I did step by step.
1) Created a custom message class for new mail that arrives from the Internet
The class is IPM.Note.Internet
Outlook.NameSpace outlookNameSpace;
Outlook.MAPIFolder inbox;
Outlook.Items items;
private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
outlookNameSpace = this.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI");
inbox = outlookNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
items = inbox.Items;
items.ItemAdd += new Outlook.ItemsEvents_ItemAddEventHandler(items_ItemAdd);
}
void items_ItemAdd(object Item)
{
Outlook.MailItem mailitem = (Outlook.MailItem)Item;
String EmailHeader = mailitem.PropertyAccessor.GetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x007D001E");
if (Item != null && EmailHeader.Contains("Look for a string in the headers here that we set for incomming mail") == true)
{
if (mailitem.MessageClass == "IPM.Note")
{
mailitem.MessageClass = "IPM.Note.Internet";
mailitem.Save();
}
}
}
2) Created a replacement Outlook Form Region matching the MessageClass. In this case I used IPM.Note.Internet
3) Assign the Icons in the Properties Pane of the Form Region Designer.
4) Debugged project and the next message that arrived from the internet was stamped with my custom icons after the message class was updated.
My issue now is that I can't preview or open the messages where I changed the message class. Similar to this post that's unanswered - Change Inbox-icons in Outlook at runtime
I think the issue is that my replacement Outlook Form Region is blank so the message is not able to be previewed.
If this is true than here's my question. What is the best way to export the standard IPM.Note message class template into visual Studio. I thing I need to overwrite my IPM.Note.Internet Outlook Form Region design.
There is an option when creating an Outlook Form Region-
To import an ".OFS" file. I was attempting to figure out how to export the file from the Outlook 2010 Client (Developer Tools) but I can't find a way to save the templates to that specific format. I can save to OFT (office template) but not .OFS
Thanks in advance for any help!

Rather then adding a form region and changing the message class I just ended up adding the PR_ICON_INDEX property and setting it's value. As outlined here in option #2 by Dmitry Link
There are many icons to choose from here. I couldn't locate a list with the integer values so I just entered random numbers for the PR_ICON_INDEX property in Outlook Spy changing the value till located the icon I wanted. There are many icons to choose from. Many from the 600-700 and 1000 and up range.
Here's the line I used to set the PR_ICON_INDEX property on the message-
mailitem.PropertyAccessor.SetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x10800003", 4); // change the 4 to something like 600,601...etc to experiment

Outlook ContactItem DeleteEvent

Currently I´m writing a sync tool for GMail contacts and outlook, but there is a little problem:
I need an event in my addin when the user deletes a contact, otherwise the sync tool would detect the missing contact on the outlook side and the tool will create the contact from the google side.
I´m accessing all Outlook contacts from the default folder with this code:
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace mapiNamespace = GetCurrentNamespace();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MAPIFolder contacts = mapiNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderContacts);
IList<Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ContactItem> items = new List<Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ContactItem>();
foreach (var contact in contacts.Items)
{
items.Add(contact as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ContactItem);
}
return items;
Edit 1:
I already tried to subscribe to an BeforeDelete Event as John Saunders commented, but with no success. When I try to delete a contact in Outlook the event wont get fired.
Code:
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace mapiNamespace = GetCurrentNamespace();
_contactMapiFolder = mapiNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderContacts);
//IList<Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ContactItem> items = new List<Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ContactItem>();
this._contacts = new List<Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ContactItem>();
foreach (var contact in _contactMapiFolder.Items)
{
Outlook.ContactItem item = contact as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ContactItem;
item.BeforeDelete += ItemOnBeforeDelete;
this._contacts.Add(item);
}
return this._contacts;
Can anybody provide me an example what events are available for such mapi (especially contact folders) folders are available and how they are working?

It is a really bad idea to set up an event sink on each and every item in a folder.
When Items.ItemRemove even fires, there is no way for you to figure out which item was deleted. You have no choice but to compare the current collection with what you have on the server or in some kind of local cache.
You can try to use Redemption (I am its author) and its RDOItems.ItemRemove event - it passes the value of the PR_INSTANCE_KEY MAPI property from the folder contents table. If you cache the values of the PR_INSTANCE_KEY property for all items ahead of time (you can use RDOITems.MAPITable.ExecSQL for that), you can figure out which item was deleted without looping through all items in the folder.

Grabbing Currently Selected Folder in Outlook Add-In

I'm working on an Outlook Add-In that can work in one of two ways, depending on a user's choice - it can process selected emails, or alternatively, process all emails in the selected folder. I've gotten the first part working, but the second part is giving me trouble, possibly because I'm just adapting the code from the first part incorrectly. I believe the trouble comes down to grabbing the currently selected folder properly in a C# Outlook add-in. I'm using .NET 3.5 and Outlook 2007, by the way.
First, the email code - if a user selects one or more emails in their inbox, and runs my add-in with the "selected emails" option, the following code is run (and works fine!):
public static void processSelectedEmails(Outlook.Explorer explorer)
{
//Run through every selected email
for (int i = 1; i <= explorer.Selection.Count; i++)
//alternatively, foreach (Object selectedObject in explorer.Selection)
{
Object selectedObject = explorer.Selection[i];
if (!(selectedObject is Outlook.Folder))
{
string errorMessage = "At least one of the items you have selected is not an email.";
//Code for displaying the error
return;
}
else
Outlook.MailItem email = (selectedObject as Outlook.MailItem);
//Do something with current email
}
}
I've tried to adapt this code to do something else if a user goes to the Navigation Pane (on the left by default) in Outlook, selects a folder or subfolder (perhaps Inbox, Sent Items, or another folder they've created). The user can then choose the "process selected folder" option in my Add-In, which will do essentially the same thing as the code above, but process all of the email inside the selected folder. I have set it to only work if the user has selected a single folder.
public static void processFolder(Outlook.Explorer explorer)
{
//Assuming they have selected only one item
if (explorer.Selection.Count == 1)
{
//Make sure that that selected item is a folder
Object selectedObject = explorer.Selection[1];
if (!(selectedObject is Outlook.Folder))
{
string errorMessage = "The item you have selected is not a folder.";
//Code for displaying the error
return;
}
//Code for running through every email in that folder
}
}
I have not yet written the code to actually run through all of the emails in the selected folder, because my code never gets past the if (!(selectedObject is Outlook.Folder)). Even if the most recently selected item is your Inbox, I receive the error I have programmed in at that point. Perhaps I am misusing the explorer.Selection thing? Any help would be much appreciated.
This may be important to answering my question - the add-in has a field called 'explorer', which is generated on startup: explorer = this.Application.ActiveExplorer. This is the 'explorer' that is passed to my functions so that they can know what is selected. As I said, this works fine for selected emails, but does not work for selected folders. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Edit 1: It appears that this question is basically a duplicate of Get all mails in outlook from a specific folder, but it has no answers.
Edit 2: I've been doing further research, it appears that I can get virtually the same functionality (but with an additional step unfortunately) by creating a popup to select a folder using the Application.Session.PickFolder() method. Is there any way to do it based on the currently selected folder, instead of forcing the user to pick a new folder?
Edit 3: I have modified the code found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268994(v=vs.80).aspx to further show what is not working properly for me:
public static void processFolder(Outlook.Explorer explorer)
{
string message;
if (explorer.Selection.Count > 0)
{
Object selObject = explorer.Selection[1];
if (selObject is Outlook.MailItem)
{
message = "The item is an e-mail";
}
else if (selObject is Outlook.Folder)
{
message = "The item is a folder";
}
else
{
message = "No idea what the item is!";
}
Console.WriteLine(Message);
return;
}
}
Whether I select a message, or go to the Navigation Pane and select a folder, I receive the message "This item is an e-mail".

Explorer.Selection is for Items only (MailItem, AppointmentItem, etc.) - not Folders. To get access to the currently selected Folder you would need Explorer.CurrentFolder.
Folder.Items would provide you access to all the Items in a given Folder.