Computers and devices are more connected now than ever before. Why? Because the humans who use those computers need to collaborate. We need to share information, and we need to do it quickly, without regard to the physical distance that separates us. Corporate solution developers now more than ever have the opportunity and responsibility to enable people to communicate in ways never before possible. CDO and MAPI Programming with Visual Basic: Developing Mail and Messaging Applications dives deep into Microsoft's Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) and the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI), then moves into succinct explanations of the types of useful messaging applications that can be written in Visual Basic. Microsoft has given the Visual Basic community Collaboration Data Objects (CDO)--a technology that goes far beyond simple email, fully into the realm of information workflow. CDO enables Visual Basic applications to exchange not only classic email, but in fact any information in a straightforward and easy way. The Internet--sometimes seen as a barrier by developers--is turned into an open pipe, ready to take your application's data around the world. Routing documents and building email list servers is just the beginning. Harness the power of worldwide communication in your everyday business applications. MAPI is the cornerstone of messaging on the Windows platforms, and profoundly influences the way you will write your collaboration applications. Understanding this technology lays the foundation for adding effective collaboration capabilities to your own applications. CDO and MAPI Programming with Visual Basic: Developing Mail and Messaging Applications fills a gap in an exciting and relatively young, yet popular, technology that lacks adequate documentation.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 6 Ratings

Not dry! - 2000-10-26
Reviewer Rating:
This book is written in a warm, conversational tone. The set up is easy to read with important points highlighted. It is apparent the author really knows a lot about computer programming.

Simple; to the point - 2003-01-01
Reviewer Rating:
This book is very thin, but don't let that throw you. The examples are easy to follow, and very concise. I just wish that there was a .NET version available.

Excellent Book - 2002-02-28
Reviewer Rating:
Excellent Book. All the code works. The only gripe I have is it doesn't tell you where to find the dlls.

Very useful reference - 2001-08-09
Reviewer Rating:
For the size of this book, it does a good job of covering the MAPI/CDO (both Win32 API and ActiveX) objects at an intermediate-programmer level - presenting the objects and object models with enough information that you can begin to use them right away, but not getting so technical that you lose interest or begin to only understand the minority of what you are reading.

The author does include sample code for most of the objects that are covered, although many of those sample codes are spread out over a page or more and separated by paragraphs of explanatory text which can cause a little delay for readers that skim, or jump directly to topics, as back-tracking is often needed to find the start of the desired code. The publisher's web site does provide a download for some of the sample code - but the download only includes the full projects the book goes into, and not most of the smaller projects or snippets used in the bulk of the book.

I did find that the author had included many unnecessary screenshots for a book aimed at intermediate to advanced programmers; it was also frustrating that many of the screenshots the author choose were of related topics but only used to explain how to `point-and-click' through making settings changes, rather than how to perform the task programmatically. One such example is the Mail control panel applet, where the author showed how to add an information provider to the selected user's profile (in the book's case the Personal Address Book service was added) but did not cover how to do it through programming. In fact, it was never mentioned if the task could even be performed programmatically.

Overall, the book is a great reference for MAPI/CDO objects and will come in very handy for anyone needing to generically access the common e-mail functions and folders (inbox, calendar, contacts, etc.) quickly.

Not dry! - 2000-10-26
Reviewer Rating:
This book is written in a warm, conversational tone. The set up is easy to read with important points highlighted. It is apparent the author really knows a lot about computer programming.

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