Using POOM with .Net Compact Framework Whidbey Beta1

Using the POOM IDL

Windows Mobile Team Blog — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 21:38:00 GMT

re: Using POOM with .Net Compact Framework Whidbey Beta1

John Cody — Wed, 11 Aug 2004 13:59:00 GMT

Hi,

I know this is a little off-topic, but I have been beating my head against the wall, and would really appreciate any help anyone can offer :)

I designed a mod to eVB that allows it to create apps for both Smartphone 2002 and 2003 devices. Everything works great, eVB apps can use ActiveX components and even call API's of either OS.

The only remaing problem I have is trying to use the POOM functions (pimstore.dll) on the Smartphone. I can create the "Pocketoutlook.application" object, but when I try to invoke any method, even "pol.logon", I get a "Object doesn't support this action 'pol.logon'".

I am not a COM expert, but from my limited understanding of COM, it seems that the pimstore.dll file in Smartphones doesn't support the "IDispatch" interface, which I believe is what eVB needs in order to call the routines in POOM (something to do with late binding?).

Again, not being a COM expert, my understanding is that a TypeLib for POOM might just be what eVB needs to properly use the pimstore.dll file. Thats why my hope [to fix this issue] was raised when I saw this article. However, not being much of an eVC developer, I did not know how to fully use the info in this post to fix my issue.

I placed a copy of the pimtlb.dll file (typelib for POOM) that is included in the "eVB Runtimes for Pocket PC 2003" CAB file in the \windows directory of my Smartphone, and I have added the typelib's GUID "{4E130E40-7DBE-11D2-8F23-0000F87A4335}..." to the registry of the device, but all POOM calls still fail.

The one thing that I am confused about is this...how is eVB suppose to know that there is a typelib on the device when the typelib GUID regkey values doesn't reference the POOM GUID (0505...), and visa-versa? My last guess is that maybe there is some way to add the POOM typelib's GUID to my eVB project file so that my eVB app then becomes aware of the typelib and uses it to make all the POOM calls...but this may just be my mis-understanding of COM interfaces.

So, I was hoping that someone could shed some light on my issue and maybe confirm my assumtions, or even offer a solution that will allow eVB to call the functions in the pimstore.dll file in smartphone 2002 and 2003 devices.

REWARD: Anyone who provides a solution to this problem will receive a FREE copy of ALL of my apps (http://www.omnisoft.com/products.asp), expecially my most popular one: John Cody's SATALERT

Thanks for any help!
-John Cody

re: Using POOM with .Net Compact Framework Whidbey Beta1

stevenpr — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 17:30:00 GMT

Hi John - I've never used eVB so I'm not sure how great my help will be, but I'm happy to try. It was my understanding that installing the eVB runtime on a device should take care of registering the POOM type lib for you. If that's not the case, the C code in my post can help. Send me an email at stevenpr@microsoft.com and I'd be happy to build and send you an exe you can use to make sure the POOM type lib is registered properly on your Smartphone. In terms of your question about how eVB knows there's a typelib - basically the discovery of the type lib happens down in COM, so eVB doesn't need explicit knowledge. When you call a method through IDispatch, the component's IDispatch implementation typically delegates to the typelib so all this should be "hidden" from eVB. By the way, have you tried using eVB on a PocketPC to call POOM? That might shed some light on the problem as well. Anyway, contact me and I'll send you my registration program. In the meantime I'll try to find someone around here that knows more about eVB.

Thanks,
Steven

PocketOutlook and COM Interop

Jeremy Hance — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 02:23:00 GMT

PocketOutlook and COM Interop

Jeremy Hance — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 02:24:00 GMT

PocketOutlook and COM Interop

Jeremy Hance — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 02:41:00 GMT

re: Using POOM with .Net Compact Framework Whidbey Beta1

Paul Kubitscheck — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 20:40:00 GMT

Hi Steven,

your example provides high value for my work. Thanks! I have sucessfully created pimstore.tlb and pocketoutlook.dll. Afterwards, I created a UseVTable = 1 DWORD value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\.NETCompactFramework. Also successful was the creation of a Appointment item and of some properties in my app:

outlookApp.Logon(0);
PocketOutlook.AppointmentItem appointment = (PocketOutlook.AppointmentItem)outlookApp.CreateItem((int) PocketOutlook.OlItemType.olAppointmentItem);
//appointment.AllDayEvent = true; ->NotSupported
//appointment.Start = new DateTime(2004, 9, 15, 15, 0, 0); ->NotSupported
//appointment.End = new DateTime(2004, 9, 15, 16, 0, 0); ->NotSupported
appointment.Subject = "Paul\'s Birthsday";
appointment.ReminderOptions = PocketOutlook.OlReminderOptions.olVibrate;
appointment.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 60;
appointment.ReminderSet = true;
appointment.Location = "Room 53 542";
appointment.Save();
outlookApp.Logoff();

But, on stetting the properties AllDayEvent, Start, and End, I got a NotSupported exception! What can be the reasion for that?

Best Regards,
Paul

re: Using POOM with .Net Compact Framework Whidbey Beta1

stevenpr — Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:14:00 GMT

Hi Paul - The reason you are getting the NotSupportedExceptions is that the AllDayEvent, Start and End properties require marshaling types that we haven't implemented support for in Beta1. Specifically, we don't support Date by value (which is an 8 byte float) or VARIANT_BOOL by value. We will support these in the next community drop or in the next Beta. If you need to work around this now, you'll have to use IDispatch which involves registering the type library. If you decide to go that route feel free to send me an email (stevenpr@microsoft.com) and I'll send you a program to run on your device which will register the POOM type lib.

Thanks,
Steven

re: Using POOM with .Net Compact Framework Whidbey Beta1

Jose — Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:44:00 GMT

Thanks for this useful post, can you please send me the project? The email address is jose_simon at hotmail dot com .
regards,
Jose

Update on “Using POOM with .Net Compact Framework Whidbey”

Steven Pratschner's .Net CF WebLog — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 02:48:45 GMT

Last summer I wrote a post about how to access the PocketOutlook Object Model (POOM) using the Beta1...

Software Information » Windows Mobile Team Blog : POOM IDL

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Whidbey: can't find tlbimp under my 'Windows CE Tools' directory | keyongtech

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