How do I retrieve global contacts with Exchange Web Services (EWS)?

Question

I am using EWS and wish to obtain the global address list from exchange for the company. I know how to retrieve the personal contact list.

All the samples in the API documentation deal with updating user information but not specifically how to retrieve them.

I've even tried the following to list the folders but it doesn't yeild the correct results.

private static void ListFolder(ExchangeService svc, FolderId parent, int depth) {
    string s;
    foreach (var v in svc.FindFolders(parent, new FolderView(int.MaxValue))) {
        Folder f = v as Folder;
        if (f != null) {
            s = String.Format("[{0}]", f.DisplayName);
            Console.WriteLine(s.PadLeft(s.Length + (depth * 2)));
            ListFolder(svc, f.Id, depth + 1);

            try {
                foreach (Item i in f.FindItems(new ItemView(20))) {
                    Console.WriteLine(
                        i.Subject.PadLeft(i.Subject.Length + ((depth + 1) * 2)));
                }
            } catch (Exception) {
            }
        }
    }
}

While the question has already been raised (How to get contact list from Exchange Server?) this question deals specifically with using EWS to get the global address list while this question asks for advice on a general level.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 24 '10 at 12:54

you may got ItemType objects in a specifiedfolder with the code snippet below and then cast ItemType objects to ContactItemType (for contact objects) ....

/// <summary>
    /// gets list of ItemType objects with maxreturncriteria specicification
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="esb">ExchangeServiceBinding object</param>
    /// <param name="folder">FolderIdType to get items inside</param>
    /// <param name="maxEntriesReturned">the max count of items to return</param>
    public static List<ItemType> FindItems(ExchangeServiceBinding esb, FolderIdType folder, int maxEntriesReturned)
    {
        List<ItemType> returnItems = new List<ItemType>();
        // Form the FindItem request 
        FindItemType request = new FindItemType();
        request.Traversal = ItemQueryTraversalType.Shallow;
        request.ItemShape = new ItemResponseShapeType();
        request.ItemShape.BaseShape = DefaultShapeNamesType.AllProperties;
        request.ParentFolderIds = new FolderIdType[] { folder };
        IndexedPageViewType indexedPageView = new IndexedPageViewType();
        indexedPageView.BasePoint = IndexBasePointType.Beginning;
        indexedPageView.Offset = 0;
        indexedPageView.MaxEntriesReturned = 100;
        indexedPageView.MaxEntriesReturnedSpecified = true;
        request.Item = indexedPageView;
        FindItemResponseType response = esb.FindItem(request);
        foreach (FindItemResponseMessageType firmtMessage in response.ResponseMessages.Items)
        {
            if (firmtMessage.ResponseClass == ResponseClassType.Success)
            {
                if (firmtMessage.RootFolder.TotalItemsInView > 0)
                    foreach (ItemType item in ((ArrayOfRealItemsType)firmtMessage.RootFolder.Item).Items)
                        returnItems.Add(item);
                        //Console.WriteLine(item.GetType().Name + ": " + item.Subject + ", " + item.DateTimeReceived.Date.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"));
            }
            else
            {
             //handle error log  here
            }
        }
        return returnItems;
    }

+1 because you are actually answering his question. Though just wanted to re-iterate that this will only grab users who have mailboxes in Exchange which is a subset of users in AD. — Mark Hosang, May 24 '11 at 06:43
I don't see how this answers the question? Brett mentions that he knows how to pull this information for a specific folder (Contacts) but not how to do it for the Global Address List. — Miles, Jan 05 '15 at 18:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 24 '11 at 06:37

I just did a similiar thing. However, I was unable to get the list of contacts via Exchange since that only gets users that have mailboxes, and not necessarily all users or groups. I eventually ended up getting all the users via AD

here is code to get all the contacts in AD. All you need is the folderID of the global address list which can be gotten from using the ADSI.msc tool on your AD server and browsing to the Global address list folder, look at properties and grab the value of the "purported search". In my system the searchPath for the global address list is"(&(objectClass=user)(objectCategory=person)(mailNickname=)(msExchHomeServerName=))"

 public List<ListItem> SearchAD(string keyword, XmlDocument valueXml)
    {           
        List<ListItem> ewsItems = new List<ListItem>();

        using (DirectoryEntry ad = Utils.GetNewDirectoryEntry("LDAP://yourdomain.com"))
        {
            Trace.Info("searcherをつくる");
            using (DirectorySearcher searcher = new DirectorySearcher(ad))
            {
                if (this.EnableSizeLimit)
                {         
                    searcher.SizeLimit = GetMaxResultCount();

                    if (Utils.maxResultsCount > 1000)
                    {
                        searcher.PageSize = 100;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    searcher.SizeLimit = 1000;
                    searcher.PageSize = 10;
                }

                string sisya = Utils.DecodeXml(valueXml.SelectSingleNode("Folder/SearchPath").InnerText);  //this is the folder to grab your contacts from.  In your case Global Address list

                //Container
                if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(sisya))
                {
                    return null;
                }

                keyword = Utils.EncodeLdap(keyword);

                string text = Utils.DecodeXml(valueXml.SelectSingleNode("Folder/Text").InnerText);

                searcher.Filter = this.CreateFilter(keyword, sisya);
                searcher.Sort = new SortOption("DisplayName", System.DirectoryServices.SortDirection.Ascending);

                //一つのPropertyをロードすると、全Propertyを取らないようになる
                searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("SAMAccountName");　//どのPropertyでもいい。


                SearchResultCollection searchResults = searcher.FindAll();



                foreach (SearchResult searchResult in searchResults)
                {
                    //ListItem contact = null;
                    using (DirectoryEntry userEntry = searchResult.GetDirectoryEntry())
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            string schemaClassName = userEntry.SchemaClassName;
                            switch (schemaClassName)
                            {
                                case "user":
                                case "contact":
                                    string fname = userEntry.Properties["GivenName"].Value == null ? "" : userEntry.Properties["GivenName"].Value.ToString();
                                    string lname = userEntry.Properties["sn"].Value == null ? "" : userEntry.Properties["sn"].Value.ToString();
                                    string dname = userEntry.Properties["DisplayName"][0] == null ? lname + " " + fname : userEntry.Properties["DisplayName"][0].ToString();

                                    //No Mail address
                                    if ((userEntry.Properties["mail"] != null) && (userEntry.Properties["mail"].Count > 0))
                                    {


                                        string sAMAccountName = "";
                                        if(userEntry.Properties["SAMAccountName"].Value != null){
                                            sAMAccountName = userEntry.Properties["SAMAccountName"].Value.ToString();
                                        }
                                        else{
                                            sAMAccountName = userEntry.Properties["cn"].Value.ToString();
                                        }
                                        string contactXml = Utils.ListViewXml(sAMAccountName, UserType.User, Utils.UserXml(fname, lname, userEntry.Properties["mail"].Value.ToString(), dname, null), ServerType.Ad);
                                        ewsItems.Add(new ListItem(dname + "<" + userEntry.Properties["mail"].Value.ToString() + ">", contactXml));
                                    }
                                    else
                                    {
                                        ListItem contact = new ListItem(dname, null);
                                        contact.Enabled = false;

                                        ewsItems.Add(contact);

                                        Trace.Info("追加できないユーザ: " + searchResult.Path);
                                    }
                                    break;
                                case "group":
                                    ewsItems.Add(new ListItem(userEntry.Properties["DisplayName"].Value.ToString(), Utils.ListViewXml(userEntry.Properties["SAMAccountName"].Value.ToString(), UserType.Group, null, ServerType.Ad)));
                                    break;
                                default:
                                   userEntry.Properties["SAMAccountName"].Value.ToString());
                                    ewsItems.Add(new ListItem(userEntry.Properties["name"].Value.ToString(), Utils.ListViewXml(userEntry.Properties["SAMAccountName"].Value.ToString(), UserType.Group, null, ServerType.Ad)));
                                    break;

                            }
                        }
                        catch (Exception ex)
                        {
                            Trace.Error("User data取得失敗", ex);
                        }
                    }
                }

                searchResults.Dispose();

            }
        }       
        return ewsItems;
    }

How do I retrieve global contacts with Exchange Web Services (EWS)?

2 Answers2