A while back, Sami Aaron said she had a client that wanted to update their Outlook Contacts directly from RBase and was it possible. Well within just a little bit, I had some VB code that would use Oterro to connect to RBase and then using Automation to Connect to Outlook, I was able to shuttle info from my RBase db to the Contacts folder in Outlook.
But Nooo. Sami wasn't happy with that! (just kidding...) Actually I had already done the PdfMerge through Automation using Delphi, so I told here I would work it up. Well without giving the blow by blow, it turns out it would be much more flexible outputting RBase data to a CSV file, then calling the Delphi component to do the heavy lifting to Outlook, which by the way, her client and myself use Outlook with Exchange Server, so yes the Rb2OLook middleware works with Exchange as well and deals with Multiple Profiles, etc. What is required is Microsoft Outlook (Not Express) version 2000 or 2002 (tested) but might work ok with 97 as well. An INI file is the mechanism that is used to map the Schema of RBase (or any other program that exports CSV data can use the EXE version) data to the Outlook Contact field mapping. Some Sample files and a Help file are in the Rb2OLook.zip file. It hasn't been tested further than at Sami's client location and her and Is' personal systems, but seems to be working as designed. The UDF version is RBase specific and returns Success or Failure as a return value. The EXE version works as described above and can be run with Launch as well (which might be the preferred method if you don't need to wait for a completed operation in your RBase Program). You can control via the INI file, Silent or Verbose output and whether that output is to screen or to a textfile for later review... You are welcome to it at http://www.byerley.net/BdcDownSup.htm and scroll down to the Rb2OLook.zip. You must be a current registered user of an RBTI product to qualify for the license to use the software.
