OL98: Programmatically Import Outlook Items from MS Access

Programming Considerations

• The following sample code uses the Northwind database included with Microsoft Office 97. If you installed Office to a location other than the default, be sure to change the path to the database in the code.
• You need to set references to DAO 3.5 and the Outlook 8.5 Object Library.
• The field types used in this example are text, in both Microsoft Access and Outlook. To convert other types of fields, you must modify the code appropriately.
• The contacts are automatically placed in the default Contact folder, which is at the same level as the Inbox that receives incoming mail.
• The CreateItem method used in this example creates a new Outlook contact using the default form for the default contact folder. If you created a custom Outlook Contact form, you must set the MessageClass field for each item to the name of your custom form.

Sample Code

Sub ExportAccessContactsToOutlook()

      ' Set up DAO Objects.
      Dim oDataBase As Object
      Dim rst As Object
      Set oDataBase = OpenDatabase _
         ("c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Samples\Northwind.mdb")
      Set rst = oDataBase.OpenRecordset("Customers")

      ' Set up Outlook Objects.
      Dim olns As Object               ' Outlook Namespace.
      Dim cf As Object                 ' Contact folder.
      Dim c As Object                  ' Contact item.
      Dim Prop As Object               ' User property.
      Dim ol As New Outlook.Application
      Set olns = ol.GetNamespace("MAPI")
      Set cf = olns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts)

      With rst
         .MoveFirst

         ' Loop through the Microsoft Access records.
         Do While Not .EOF

            ' Create a new Contact item.
            Set c = ol.CreateItem(olContactItem)

            ' Specify which Outlook form to use.
            ' Change "IPM.Contact" to "IPM.Contact.<formname>" if you've
            ' created a custom Contact form in Outlook.
            c.MessageClass = "IPM.Contact"

            ' Create all built-in Outlook fields.
            If ![CompanyName] <> "" Then c.CompanyName = ![CompanyName]
            If ![ContactName] <> "" Then c.FullName = ![ContactName]

            ' Create the first user property (UserField1).
            Set Prop = c.UserProperties.Add("UserField1", olText)

            ' Set its value.
            If ![CustomerID] <> "" Then Prop = ![CustomerID]

            ' Create the second user property (UserField2).
            Set Prop = c.UserProperties.Add("UserField2", olText)

            ' Set its value and so on....
            If ![Region] <> "" Then Prop = ![Region]

            ' Save the contact.
            c.Save
            .MoveNext
         Loop
      End With
   End Sub