I'm trying to search my inbox and all subfolders for a given string in the subject line. I found the following code online(https://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2012/05/31/outlook-search-csharp-vbnet/), but it returns zero results which is not the expected result.
I looked at the filter under view settings in outlook for a given search term that returns results in the outlook explorer and got this query: "http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x0037001f" LIKE '%Ticket%'
When I plug that in to the below code I likewise get zero results.
When I use LINQ to query those folders(LINQ is too slow to be a real solution here) I can get results so I'm guessing I'm making a syntactical error with advancedsearch. It is hard to find examples of usage on the web. I will appreciate anyone that can help me.
private Search RunAdvancedSearch(Outlook._Application OutlookApp, string wordInSubject)
{
string advancedSearchTag = "New Search";
string scope = "Inbox";
string filter = "\"urn:schemas:mailheader:subject\" LIKE '%"+ wordInSubject +"%'";
Outlook.Search advancedSearch = null;
Outlook.MAPIFolder folderInbox = null;
Outlook.MAPIFolder folderSentMail = null;
Outlook.NameSpace ns = null;
try
{
ns = OutlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI");
folderInbox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
folderSentMail = ns.GetDefaultFolder(
Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderSentMail);
scope = "\'" + folderInbox.FolderPath +
"\',\'" + folderSentMail.FolderPath + "\'";
advancedSearch = OutlookApp.AdvancedSearch(
scope, filter, true, advancedSearchTag);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(advancedSearch.Results.Count);
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "An exception is thrown!");
}
finally
{
if (advancedSearch != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(advancedSearch);
if (folderSentMail != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderSentMail);
if (folderInbox != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderInbox);
if (ns != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(ns);
}
return advancedSearch;
}
Your filter is working good, use Application:
private Search RunAdvancedSearch(Outlook.Application OutlookApp, string wordInSubject)
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/microsoft.office.interop.outlook.application.aspx
Read about using _Application and Application in msdn "Remarks". There is very well written.
I was not waiting long enough for the results. When AdvancedSearch(which runs in a separate thread) is finished it fires off an event called AdvancedSearchComplete. I had to tell the code to handle the event in order to wait for the search to complete.
In RunAdvancedSearch I do this in the Try with this:
Application.AdvancedSearchComplete += Application_AdvancedSearchComplete;
Here is the whole thing.
string advancedSearchTag = "MY FOOFOO Search";
//SEARCH Function
Search RunAdvancedSearch(Outlook.Application Application, string wordInSubject)
{
string scope = "Inbox";
string filter = "urn:schemas:mailheader:subject LIKE \'%" + wordInSubject + "%\'";
Outlook.Search advancedSearch = null;
Outlook.MAPIFolder folderInbox = null;
Outlook.MAPIFolder folderSentMail = null;
Outlook.NameSpace ns = null;
try
{
ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI");
folderInbox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
folderSentMail = ns.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderSentMail);
scope = "\'" + folderInbox.FolderPath + "\',\'" +
folderSentMail.FolderPath + "\'";
advancedSearch = Application.AdvancedSearch(
scope, filter, true, advancedSearchTag);
Application.AdvancedSearchComplete += Application_AdvancedSearchComplete;
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "An eexception is thrown");
}
return advancedSearch;
finally
{
if (advancedSearch != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(advancedSearch);
if (folderSentMail != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderSentMail);
if (folderInbox != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderInbox);
if (ns != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(ns);
}
}
//Handle AdvancedSearchComplete event
void Application_AdvancedSearchComplete(Outlook.Search SearchObject)
{
Outlook.Results advancedSearchResults = null;
Outlook.MailItem resultItem = null;
System.Text.StringBuilder strBuilder = null;
try
{
if (SearchObject.Tag == advancedSearchTag)
{
advancedSearchResults = SearchObject.Results;
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Count: " + advancedSearchResults.Count);
if (advancedSearchResults.Count > 0)
{
strBuilder = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
strBuilder.AppendLine("Number of items found: " +
advancedSearchResults.Count.ToString());
foreach (MailItem item in advancedSearchResults)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(item.Subject);
}
for (int i = 1; i <= advancedSearchResults.Count; i++)
{
resultItem = advancedSearchResults[i] as Outlook.MailItem;
if (resultItem != null)
{
strBuilder.Append("#" + i.ToString());
strBuilder.Append(" Subject: " + resultItem.Subject);
strBuilder.Append(" \t To: " + resultItem.To);
strBuilder.AppendLine(" \t Date: " +
resultItem.SentOn.ToString());
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(resultItem);
}
}
if (strBuilder.Length > 0)
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(strBuilder.ToString());
else
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(
"There are no Mail items found.");
}
else
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("There are no items found.");
}
}
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "An exception is occured");
}
finally
{
if (resultItem != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(resultItem);
if (advancedSearchResults != null)
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(advancedSearchResults);
}
}
private void btnOutlookSrch_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Outlook.Application OLook = new Outlook.Application();
RunAdvancedSearch(OLook, "Hello?");
}
