Obtaining unique ID for contact?

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miner2049er - 29 Apr 2006 01:16 GMT

I export my Outlook 2003 contacts as a CSV file, which I then import
into my website MYSQL database using a PHP script.

In my Outlook 2003, contacts will be added, changed and deleted and I
want somehow a unique identifier to stay with a contact, that travels
with it during the export-import process.

I originally thought of using the "creation time" field of a contact as
the unique ID, but this only seems to have a resolution of one minute,
so it's possible I could create multiple contacts with this field being
the same.

Any advice on what I can use?

Thanks in advance for any replies,

Miner2049er.

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miner2049er - 29 Apr 2006 02:32 GMT

In the previous message the "Creation Time" field should in fact be
"Created".

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Karl Timmermans - 29 Apr 2006 06:50 GMT

The only item that uniquely identifies a contact is it's EntryID (or
LongEntryID for Exchange and you're using CDO). This is a very large
identifier and the one caveat with the EntryID is that it changes when the
contact is moved by the user. The other problem with this field is that you
can't view or export it within Outlook.

Karl

PS - As an aside - ContactGenie Exporter does include the EntryID in the
available export field list.
__________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2003"
http://www.contactgenie.com

>I export my Outlook 2003 contacts as a CSV file, which I then import
> into my website MYSQL database using a PHP script.
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> Miner2049er.

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miner2049er - 29 Apr 2006 09:08 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

Is there a macro I could run on contacts, that would transfer the
EntryID into another contact field that IS available when exporting,
e.g. User1 etc?

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Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 29 Apr 2006 15:06 GMT

The code sample at http://www.outlookcode.com/d/code/convertfields.htm shows how to transfer data from one field to another and should be adaptable to your scenario.

Signature

Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Is there a macro I could run on contacts, that would transfer the
> EntryID into another contact field that IS available when exporting,
> e.g. User1 etc?

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miner2049er - 29 Apr 2006 18:43 GMT

Thanks Sue!

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miner2049er - 29 Apr 2006 17:24 GMT

In other words, what I would like to do is select a bunch of contacts -
run my VBA macro on them - and then use the in-built Outlook exporter
to export the contacts as a CSV file as usual.

EntryID is exposed to VBA, right?

It is writing this macro that I need some advice. Basically I just have
to iterate through the selected contact items, copying one field into
another.

Any tips folks?

Miner2049er.

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