Coder Programming: Opening up Outlook By Wes Peterson 7/20/2010   Take Away: Long a proprietary data store format, Microsoft is opening up the Outlook PST file format with the release of a couple new products.  Tags: Outlook , PST , .pst , Outlook Data , Outlook SDK , SDK , , Programming

Since, oh, about forever, the only way programmers could work with the Outlook data store was via COM. It could certainly be done, but it wasn't as much fun as it might have been if Microsoft had, say, used an ordinary database for Outlook data.

That is beginning to change with the release of two new tools (both under the Apache open source license).

One is an Outlook PST Data Structure View tool. It's purpose is to give developers better insight into the data structures used in PST files.  You can get it here:
http://pstviewtool.codeplex.com/

The other is the PST File Format SDK. For now, this is a header-only, C++ release, but Microsoft is said to be readying the bits we'll need for complete read/write access. The PST File Format SDK is here:
http://pstsdk.codeplex.com/

If your projects involve the need to access Outlook PST files, you'll definitely want to keep an eye on these.

KB Post Contributed By Prestwood staff member Wes Peterson:

Wes► Email Approved! E CA USA Wes Peterson is a Senior Programmer Analyst with Prestwood IT Solutions where he develops custom Windows software and custom websites. When Wes is not coding for clients, he participates in this online community. Prior to his 10-year love-affair with Delphi, he worked with several other tools and databases. Currently he specializes in VS.Net using C# and VB.Net. To Wes, the .NET revolution is as exciting as the birth of Delphi.

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Reader... Prestwood IT Solutions Staff Moderator Mike Prestwood Rank: Fleet Admiral Joined: Oct 2000 Location: Citrus Heights, CA USA Mike Prestwood Email Approved! E CA USA Member Points: 56899 Visits: 7857 MB Posts: 1333 KB Articles: 1484

Comment 1 of 1 Wednesday, July 28, 2010 After these are developed and released, it would be great if someone builds an ADO driver.

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