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I suspect that for many VB programmers one of
the most compelling reasons for buying a Pocket PC is that you could put
your VB knowledge to work and access the data on your handheld using eVB.
If you have ever owned that 'other handheld' and written any apps for
it you will be excused for thinking that handheld development is not a
walk in the park. Fortunately we have our Pocket PC's and eVB to dispell
this belief and we continue to do this with impunity as we tackle the
task of accessing the Pocket Outlook.
Tutorial Goal
If you have scripting experience with any of the Microsft object model's
this tutorial will enable you to get started with accessing the Pocket
Outlook data using eVB. The rest of it will probably be intuitive enough
for you to work it out.
What you need to get started
- The Visual Tools installed with eMbedded Visual Basic
- Although not the most user friendly document you can download the
POOM
SDK from Microsoft. I used the 'pocket outlook object model.doc'
document to write this article. DO NOT follow the 'readme.txt' in the
SDK - if you have a Pocket PC you do not need to install the pimstore.dll!
- Your Pocket PC needs to be docked since you cannot access the POOM
in emulation (actually you can - but it only supports the City Folder since
that's in ROM)
- Some form of beverage; beer, coffee, tea whatever your toxin of choice,
but drink fast because there really isn't much to this.
The Pocket Outlook Object Model (POOM)
- Application Object
- Folder Object
- Contact Item
- Calendar Item
- Task Item
- City Item
- Infrared
POOM constants (popup)
POOM constants (right click and save to download text)
Very simply you access the Pocket Outlook data
using the folder/items paradigm. The Contact, Calendar, Task are exposed
as folders which contain a collection of items. Each
item supports properties specific to their type. The really functional
folders from a POOM perspective are the first three; the Contact, Calendar
and Task folders. The last two are different in that the City folder can
only be read; you can't manipulate the items collection; and the Infrared
folder does not implement the items collection as the other folders do
since it's primary purpose is to receive items or folders for infrared
transmission. A subject for a later date.
The Application Object
The Application Object is the gateway to this object
model and you have a create an instance of this object to access the folder
list. You can't directly instantiate any of the items exept thougth the
Application object. It has some interesting properties:
Version: shows the current version of the Object
Model
HomeCity: The current home city
VisitingCity: The current visiting city
CurrentCity Index: Returns a constant indicating whether the Home
or VisitingCity is the current
OutlookCompatible: Evidently the Task items behave somewhat differently
depending on whether your handheld is partnered with Outlook or Schedule+.
This property allows you to cater for those differences by returning a
boolean indicating compatibility with Outlook.
To access these properties you would use code something
like:
Private Sub Info()
Dim Success
Dim strDisp
Set appPO = CreateObject("PocketOutlook.Application")
Success = appPO.Logon
strDisp = "Version: " & appPO.Version &
vbCrLf & _
"OutlookCompatible: " & appPO.OutlookCompatible
MsgBox strDisp, vbOKOnly
appPO.Logoff
Set appPO = Nothing
End Sub
The eVB Project
This example project will show you how to read data
from the Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and City
folders. We will create a drop down combo-box with the folder types and
configure it to fire a sub-routine to load the appropriate data into a
listbox. This example should provide you with enough familiarity
to extend the fuctionality for your specific applications. Simple! Lets
build the project and then we will walk though the POOM related code.
But first some coffee!
Create a new eVB project. In my case it is a Pocket
PC project since I'm a iPAQ toting geek.
Drag two labels, a text box, combo-box and listbox
onto the form.
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