How To: Create a new Outlook Contact item programmatically

Not so long ago I described various ways of creating Outlook messages programmatically. Today we will examine contact items. So, let’s submerge in coding!

The first and easiest way of creating a new Contact item in Outlook is to use the CreateItem method of the Application class. This method accepts the OlItemType enumeration and returns a newly created item. In one of my posts I described How to create and show a new Outlook message programmatically. Now let’s see how we handle Outlook contact items.

C#:

private void CreateContactUsingCreateItem()
{
    Outlook.ContactItem contact = OutlookApp.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olContactItem)
           as Outlook.ContactItem;
    if (contact != null)
    {
        contact.Save();
        contact.Display(true);
        Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contact);
    }
}

VB.NET:

Private Sub CreateContactUsingCreateItem()
    Dim contact As Outlook.ContactItem = Nothing
    contact = OutlookApp.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olContactItem)
    If Not IsNothing(contact) Then
        contact.Save()
        contact.Display(True)
        Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contact)
    End If
End Sub

Another way is to use the Add method of the Outlook Items class. Here I would like to draw your attention to the fact that a new contact item is always created in the Contacts folder regardless of the Items collection we use (the collection may not belong to the Contacts folder).

C#:

private void CreateContactUsingItemsAdd()
{
    Outlook.NameSpace ns = null;
    Outlook.MAPIFolder contactsFolder = null;
    Outlook.Items items = null;
    Outlook.ContactItem contact = null;
    try
    {
        ns = OutlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI");
        contactsFolder = ns.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderContacts);
        items = contactsFolder.Items;
        contact = items.Add(Outlook.OlItemType.olContactItem) as Outlook.ContactItem;
        contact.Save();
        contact.Display(true);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (contact != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contact);
        if (items != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(items);
        if (contactsFolder != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contactsFolder);
        if (ns != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(ns);
    }
}

VB.NET:

Private Sub CreateContactUsingItemsAdd()
    Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace = Nothing
    Dim contactsFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder = Nothing
    Dim items As Outlook.Items = Nothing
    Dim contact As Outlook.ContactItem = Nothing
    Try
        ns = OutlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
        contactsFolder = ns.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderContacts)
        items = contactsFolder.Items
        contact = items.Add(Outlook.OlItemType.olContactItem)
        contact.Save()
        contact.Display(True)
    Catch ex As Exception
        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
    Finally
        If Not IsNothing(contact) Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contact)
        If Not IsNothing(items) Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(items)
        If Not IsNothing(contactsFolder) Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contactsFolder)
        If Not IsNothing(ns) Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(ns)
    End Try
End Sub

The third and the last one is to use a template item for creating a new contact item. The CreateItemFromTemplate method of the Application class does the job. In the list of my previous articles you can find the one which describes How to create a new Outlook message based on a template. Now I use a contact item instead of a regular message.

C#:

private void CreateContactUsingCreateItemFromTemplate()
{
    Outlook.ContactItem contact = null;
    try
    {
        contact = OutlookApp.CreateItemFromTemplate("D:\\Eugene Astafiev.oft")
             as Outlook.ContactItem;
        contact.Save();
        contact.Display(true);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (contact != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contact);
    }
}

VB.NET:

Private Sub CreateContactUsingCreateItemFromTemplate()
    Dim contact As Outlook.ContactItem = Nothing
    Try
        contact = OutlookApp.CreateItemFromTemplate("D:\\Eugene Astafiev.oft")
        contact.Save()
        contact.Display(True)
    Catch ex As Exception
        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
    Finally
        If Not IsNothing(contact) Then Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contact)
    End Try
End Sub

As you can see, in the code above I used an oft file as a base for our contact item. My tests against Outlook 2010 show that you can pass an msg file as a template too.

See you on our forums and in the e-mail support!