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Tasks

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Outlook Developer Reference
Tasks

You can link a Task to a new or existing Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity object.

The following C# and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) examples show how to create a new task and link it to a new Account object.

  private void CreateTask()
        {

        Outlook.ApplicationClass _app = new Outlook.ApplicationClass();
        Outlook.Application olApp = (Outlook.Application)_app;
        Outlook.NameSpace olNameSpace = _app.GetNamespace("MAPI");
        Outlook.Folders folders = olNameSpace.Session.Folders;
        Outlook.Folder bcmRootFolder = (Outlook.Folder)folders["Business Contact Manager"];

        Outlook.Folder accountsFolder = (Outlook.Folder)bcmRootFolder.Folders["Accounts"];
        Outlook.ContactItem newAccount = (Outlook.ContactItem)accountsFolder.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Account");
        Outlook.Folder historyFolder = (Outlook.Folder)bcmRootFolder.Folders["Communication History"];

        newAccount.FullName = "Wide World Importers";
        newAccount.FileAs = "WWImporters";
        newAccount.Save();
        string accountEntryID = newAccount.EntryID;

        Outlook.TaskItem taskItem = (Outlook.TaskItem)historyFolder.Items.Add("IPM.Task");
        taskItem.Subject = "Discussion with Sales Manager";
        taskItem.Body = "As per the discussion on 23-Jun-2005, agreed to give a 15% discount on our products";
        taskItem.StartDate = System.DateTime.Parse("3/20/2006");
        taskItem.DueDate = System.DateTime.Parse("4/20/2006");
        taskItem.Save();

        Outlook.JournalItem oHistoryItem = (Outlook.JournalItem)historyFolder.Items.Add("IPM.Activity.BCM");
        oHistoryItem.Type = "Task";
        oHistoryItem.Subject = taskItem.Subject;
        oHistoryItem.Start = taskItem.StartDate;
        oHistoryItem.End = taskItem.DueDate;

        //If the Outlook Task item is deleted, the information is preserved in the body of the Business Activity
        oHistoryItem.Body = "StartDate: " + taskItem.StartDate + "\n" + "DueDate: " + taskItem.DueDate;

        if (oHistoryItem.UserProperties["Parent Entity EntryID"] == null)
        {
            Outlook.UserProperty userProp = oHistoryItem.UserProperties.Add("Parent Entity EntryID", Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlUserPropertyType.olText, false, false);
            userProp.Value = accountEntryID;
        }

        if (oHistoryItem.UserProperties["LinkToOriginal"] == null)
        {
            Outlook.UserProperty userProp = oHistoryItem.UserProperties.Add("LinkToOriginal", Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlUserPropertyType.olText, false, false);
            userProp.Value = taskItem.EntryID;
        }

        oHistoryItem.Save();

    }




  Sub CreateTaskWithAccount()

Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
Dim objNS As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim bcmRootFolder As Outlook.Folder
Dim olFolders As Outlook.Folders
Dim bcmAccountsFldr As Outlook.Folder
Dim bcmHistoryFolder As Outlook.Folder
Dim newAcct As Outlook.ContactItem
Dim newHistoryTaskItem As Outlook.JournalItem
Dim newTaskItem As Outlook.TaskItem
Dim userProp As Outlook.UserProperty
Dim str As String


Set olApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set objNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set olFolders = objNS.Session.Folders
Set bcmRootFolder = olFolders("Business Contact Manager")
Set bcmAccountsFldr = bcmRootFolder.Folders("Accounts")
Set bcmHistoryFolder = bcmRootFolder.Folders("Communication History")


Set newAcct = bcmAccountsFldr.Items.Add("IPM.Contact.BCM.Account")
newAcct.FullName = "Wide World Importers"
newAcct.FileAs = "Wide World Importers"
newAcct.Email1Address = "someone@example.com"
newAcct.Save


Set newTaskItem = olApp.CreateItem(olTaskItem)
newTaskItem.Subject = "Prepare Agenda For Meeting"
newTaskItem.StartDate = "03/02/06"
newTaskItem.DueDate = "03/03/06"
newTaskItem.Save


Set newHistoryTaskItem = bcmHistoryFolder.Items.Add("IPM.Activity.BCM")
newHistoryTaskItem.Subject = newTaskItem.Subject
newHistoryTaskItem.Type = "Task"
newHistoryTaskItem.Start = newTaskItem.StartDate
newHistoryTaskItem.End = newTaskItem.DueDate


'The reason we are concatenating StartDate and DueDate and assigning them to the newHistoryTaskItem body is as follows:
'In case the Outlook Task gets deleted, this information is preserved in the body of the Business Activity
newHistoryTaskItem.Body = "StartDate: " & newTaskItem.StartDate & vbNewLine & "DueDate: " & newTaskItem.DueDate


If (newHistoryTaskItem.UserProperties("Parent Entity EntryID") Is Nothing) Then
Set userProp = newHistoryTaskItem.UserProperties.Add("Parent Entity EntryID", olText, False, False)
userProp.Value = newAcct.EntryID
End If


If (newHistoryTaskItem.UserProperties("LinkToOriginal") Is Nothing) Then
Set userProp = newHistoryTaskItem.UserProperties.Add("LinkToOriginal", olText, False, False)
userProp.Value = newTaskItem.EntryID
End If


newHistoryTaskItem.Save


Set newTaskItem = Nothing
Set newHistoryTaskItem = Nothing
Set newAcct = Nothing
Set bcmAccountsFldr = Nothing
Set bcmHistoryFolder = Nothing
Set bcmRootFolder = Nothing
Set olFolders = Nothing
Set objNS = Nothing
Set olApp = Nothing


End Sub

See Also

About Communication History Items | Office Developer Center: Outlook 2007