c# VSTO Outlook email body from opened window

Question

I've a problem with my VSTO application for Outlook. I want to process the email body from a selected e-mail. For selected e-mails out of the "default" list this code works fine:

Object selItem = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveExplorer().Selection[1];
        Outlook.MailItem mailItem = (Outlook.MailItem)selItem;
        return mailItem.Body;

But if a user opens an email from the list with a double click, the email is displayed in a new window. If the addin is executed in this window (over the ribbon), the email from the list is still used (which is now in the background).

Is there a way to find out if the plugin was started in a separate window and then get the email body from it?

Regards, Florian

manic_coder manic_coder · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-08T03:54:01

Coincidentally, I just dealt with something similar to this. My situation isn't identical, but since I could easily piece together what it seems like you're looking for see below. I haven't tested this, and obviously you'll have to handle passing the correct reference to your Outlook Application, but since i had this immediately available I figured it would pass it along with the hope that you'll find it helpful.

        private static void ribbonButton_Click(object sender, RibbonControlEventArgs e)
    {
        Outlook.Application application = new Outlook.Application();
        Outlook.Inspector inspector = application.ActiveInspector();

        if (application.ActiveExplorer().Selection[1] is Outlook.MailItem explorerMailItem)
        {
            // Write code to handle message if sourced from explorer (i.e., Reading Pane)
        }
        else if (inspector.CurrentItem is Outlook.MailItem inspectorMailItem)
        {
            // Write code to hanlde message if sourced from inspector 
            // (i.e., openened (double-clicked) message
        }
    }

c# VSTO Outlook email body from opened window

2 Answers