Resolving a Recipient Name

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Applies to: Office 2010 | Outlook 2010 | Visual Studio

When a message is addressed, a recipient list is built with properties relating to each recipient. By the time the message is sent, one of those properties must be the recipient's long-term entry identifier. To ensure that each recipient includes the PR_ENTRYID (PidTagEntryId) property, pass the ADRLIST structure describing your recipient list in the contents of the lpAdrList parameter in a call to IAddrBook::ResolveName.

ResolveName begins processing by ignoring the entries in the ADRLIST structure that have already been resolved, as indicated by the presence of an entry identifier in the corresponding ADRENTRY structure's SPropValue array. Next, ResolveName automatically assigns one-off entry identifiers to two types of recipients:

  • Recipients with an address formatted as an Internet address

  • Recipients with an address formatted as follows:

    displayname[address type:e-mail address]

For all remaining entries, ResolveName searches the address book for an exact match on the display name. ResolveName uses the PR_AB_SEARCH_PATH (PidTagAbSearchPath) property to determine the set of containers to search and the search order. MAPI calls the IABContainer::ResolveNames method of every container to attempt to resolve all of the names. Because some containers do not support ResolveNames, if the container returns MAPI_E_NO_SUPPORT, MAPI applies a PR_ANR (PidTagAnr) property restriction against its contents table. All address book containers are required to support name resolution with this restriction. Once all the names are resolved, no further container calls are made. If all the containers have been called, but ambiguous or unresolved names remain, MAPI displays a dialog box if possible to prompt the user to resolve the remaining names.

The PR_ANR restriction matches the value of the PR_ANR property against the display name in the ADRLIST structure. Limiting the view of a container's contents table with the PR_ANR property restriction causes the address book provider to perform a "best guess" type of search, matching against the property that makes sense for the provider. For example, one address book provider might always match names in the recipient list against PR_DISPLAY_NAME (PidTagDisplayName) while another might allow an administrator to select the property.

To set a PR_ANR property restriction on an address book container's contents table

  1. Create an SRestriction structure as shown in the following code:

    SRestriction SRestrict;
SRestrict.rt = RES_PROPERTY;
SRestrict.res.resProperty.relop = RELOP_EQ;
SRestrict.res.resProperty.ulPropTag = PR_ANR;
SRestrict.res.resProperty.lpProp->ulPropTag = PR_ANR;
SRestrict.res.resProperty.lpProp->Value.LPSZ = lpszName;

  2. Call the contents table's IMAPITable::Restrict method, passing the SRestriction structure as the lpRestriction parameter.