After some research and going through Microsoft's documentations on Outlook, I found a solution here which does just the job I want. And now I am clear what the mistake was with the "Session". @Dmitry Streblechenko , @ Yacoub Massad you were right about using Application.Session.AddressLists
.
So below is my code :
public partial class OutlookContacts : Form
{
private BindingSource supplierDataBindingSource = new BindingSource();
public static IEnumerable<Employees> displayListOfOutLookUsers = new List<Employees>();
public OutlookContacts()
{
InitializeComponent();
dataGridView1.DataSource = supplierDataBindingSource;
displayListOfOutLookUsers = EnumerateGAL();
}
private IEnumerable<Employees> EnumerateGAL()
{
Outlook.Application ol = new Outlook.ApplicationClass();
/*Outlook.AddressList gal = Application.Session.GetGlobalAddressList(); won't work because '_Application' needs to be instantiated using an object before using. */
Outlook.AddressList gal = ol.Session.GetGlobalAddressList();
/*Declaring a list emp of type Employees.*/
List<Employees> emp = new List<Employees>();
if (gal != null)
{
for (int i = 1;
i <= Math.Min(100, gal.AddressEntries.Count - 1); i++)
{
Outlook.AddressEntry addrEntry = gal.AddressEntries[i];
if (addrEntry.AddressEntryUserType == Outlook.OlAddressEntryUserType.olExchangeUserAddressEntry
|| addrEntry.AddressEntryUserType == Outlook.OlAddressEntryUserType.olExchangeRemoteUserAddressEntry)
{
Outlook.ExchangeUser exchUser =addrEntry.GetExchangeUser();
/*Storing fetched records in the list.*/
emp.Add(new Employees {EmployeeName = exchUser.Name,EmployeeEmail = exchUser.PrimarySmtpAddress});
}
if (addrEntry.AddressEntryUserType == Outlook.OlAddressEntryUserType.olExchangeDistributionListAddressEntry)
{
Outlook.ExchangeDistributionList exchDL = addrEntry.GetExchangeDistributionList();
}
}
}
displayListOfOutLookUsers = emp;
supplierDataBindingSource.DataSource = displayListOfOutLookUsers.Select(l => new { l.EmployeeName, l.EmployeeEmail });
dataGridView1.AutoResizeColumns(
DataGridViewAutoSizeColumnsMode.DisplayedCells);
dataGridView1.AutoSizeColumnsMode = DataGridViewAutoSizeColumnsMode.AllCells;
int j = 0;
foreach (DataGridViewColumn c in dataGridView1.Columns)
{
c.SortMode = DataGridViewColumnSortMode.Automatic;
j += c.Width;
}
dataGridView1.Width = j + dataGridView1.RowHeadersWidth + 232;
this.Width = dataGridView1.Width + 40;
return displayListOfOutLookUsers;
}
In the form OutlookContacts I have one datagridview, and I wanted to fill it with all the Exchange User's Name and Email Addresses.