Troubles Extending Outlook to a C# Windows Form Application

Question

I'm sure it's something simple and I'm just a dope, but I'm having trouble with an app I'm tring to write.  When I make this code an "Outlook 2010 Add-in", it works just fine:

 Outlook.AddressEntry currentUser =
              Application.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry;

But in a Windows Form application, anytime I have that exact code (even though I have added references for Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook I always get a build error:

Error 2 An object reference is required for the non-static field, method, or property

Anytime I try to use :But I'm not using in a static class or method.  I can't seem to make Visual Studio happy.  I don't know if I'm being too vauge, I can post the entire codeblock if that's helpful.

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application.Session.foo

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Thomas Kisner, MCITP -- http://thelync.net

Answer 1

Do you initialize the Application variable?

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Dmitry Streblechenko (MVP)
http://www.dimastr.com/redemption Redemption - what the Outlook Object Model should have been Version 5.3 is now available!

Answer 2

Hi Thomas,

I assume you didn't initialize the Application variable of the Outlook.

The following snippet works fine on my side. I hope it can help you.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication11
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        private Outlook.Application OlApp = null;
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Process[] ps = Process.GetProcessesByName("OUTLOOK");
            if (ps.Length > 0)
            {
                OlApp = (Outlook.Application)Marshal.GetActiveObject("Outlook.Application");
            }
            else
            {
                OlApp = new Outlook.Application();
            }
        }

        private void Form1_FormClosed(object sender, FormClosedEventArgs e)
        {
            Marshal.ReleaseComObject(OlApp);
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Outlook.AddressEntry current_user = OlApp.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry;
            MessageBox.Show(current_user.Name);
        }
    }
}

@Dmitry,

Thanks for you great work.

Have a good day,

Tom

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Tom Xu [MSFT]
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