How to: Search and Obtain Items in an Aggregated View (Outlook)

The GetTable method of the TableView object can return a Table object that contains items from one or more folders in the same store or spanning over multiple stores, in an aggregated view. This is particularly useful when you want to access items returned from a search; for example, a search on all mail items in a store. This topic shows an example of how to use Instant Search to search for all items received from the manager of the current user that are marked important, and then display the subject of each search result.

The following code sample contains the GetItemsInView method. GetItemsInView first makes a few checks to see if the current user of the Outlook session uses the Microsoft Exchange Server, whether the current user has a manager, and whether Instant Search is operational in the default store of the session. Because the eventual search relies on the Search method of the Explorer object, and the eventual result display uses the GetTable method, which is based on the current view of the current folder of the active explorer, GetItemsInView creates an explorer, displays the Inbox in this explorer, and sets up the search by using this Explorer object. GetItemsInView specifies the search criteria as important items from the current user's manager and the search scope as all folders of the MailItem item type. After GetItemsInView calls the Explorer.Search method, any search results are displayed in this explorer, including items from other folders and stores that meet the search criteria. GetItemsInView obtains a TableView object that contains this explorer view of the search results. By using the GetTable method of this TableView object, GetItemsInView then obtains a Table object that contains the aggregated items returned from the search. Finally GetItemsInView displays the subject column of each row of the Table object that represents an item in the search results.

The following managed code is written in C#. To run a .NET Framework managed code sample that needs to call into a Component Object Model (COM), you must use an interop assembly that defines and maps managed interfaces to the COM objects in the object model type library. For Outlook, you can use Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft Outlook Primary Interop Assembly (PIA). Before you run managed code samples for Microsoft Outlook 2010, ensure that you have installed the Outlook 2010 PIA and have added a reference to the Microsoft Outlook 14.0 Object Library component in Visual Studio. You should use the following code in the ThisAddIn class of a Visual Studio Tools for Office add-in for Outlook, such that the Application object in the code is a trusted Outlook Application object provided by ThisAddIn.Globals. For more information about using the Outlook PIA to develop managed Outlook solutions, see the Outlook 2010 Primary Interop Assembly Reference on MSDN.

private void GetItemsInView() 
{ 
    Outlook.AddressEntry currentUser = 
        Application.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry; 
 
    // Check if the current user uses the Exchange Server. 
    if (currentUser.Type == "EX") 
    { 
        Outlook.ExchangeUser manager = 
            currentUser.GetExchangeUser().GetExchangeUserManager(); 
 
        // Check if the current user has a manager. 
        if (manager != null) 
        { 
            string managerName = manager.Name; 
 
            // Check if Instant Search is enabled and operational in the default store. 
            if (Application.Session.DefaultStore.IsInstantSearchEnabled) 
            { 
                Outlook.Folder inbox = 
                    Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder( 
                    Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox); 
 
                // Create a new explorer to display the Inbox as 
                // the current folder. 
                Outlook.Explorer explorer = 
                    Application.Explorers.Add(inbox, 
                    Outlook.OlFolderDisplayMode.olFolderDisplayNormal); 
 
                // Make the new explorer visible. 
                explorer.Display; 
 
                // Search for items from the manager marked important,  
                // from all folders of the same item type as the current folder,  
                // which is the MailItem item type. 
                string searchFor = 
                    "from:" + "\"" + managerName  
                    + "\"" + " importance:high"; 
                explorer.Search(searchFor, 
                    Outlook.OlSearchScope.olSearchScopeAllFolders); 
 
                // Any search results are displayed in that new explorer 
                // in an aggregated table view. 
                Outlook.TableView tableView =  
                    explorer.CurrentView as Outlook.TableView; 
 
                // Use GetTable of that table view to obtain items in that 
                // aggregated view in a Table object. 
                Outlook.Table table = tableView.GetTable(); 
                while (!table.EndOfTable) 
                { 
                    // Then display each row in the Table object 
                    // that represents an item in the search results. 
                    Outlook.Row nextRow = table.GetNextRow(); 
                    Debug.WriteLine(nextRow["Subject"]); 
                } 
            } 
        } 
    } 
}