Outlook addin throwing errors I don't understand - email

Question

I'm attempting to write an outlook-addin that reads appointments from a user's inbox and generates reminder emails 72 hours prior to the meeting. I learned how to do this by piecing together snippets from SO and the web, but I'm running into a few errors. I'm not sure I understand what's going on enough to even ask the correct questions, so please forgive my bumbling through this.
So, when I try to spoof the "Sender" using the code below, I get the following error:
"Generating server: MBX080-W3-CO-1.exch080.serverpod.net
josh.alcorn#crmpoint.net
Remote Server returned '550 5.6.2 STOREDRV.Submit; subscription not found'
Original message headers:
Received: from MBX080-W3-CO-1.exch080.serverpod.net ([10.224.117.52]) by
MBX080-W3-CO-1.exch080.serverpod.net ([169.254.1.30]) with mapi id
15.00.1044.021; Mon, 8 Jun 2015 08:28:25 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 08:28:25 -0700
X-MS-Exchange-Transport-FromEntityHeader: Hosted
Message-ID:
<b8690284ffb04af794a676b8efdee58d#MBX080-W3-CO-1.exch080.serverpod.net>
Subject: This is the subject"
WHen I remove the sender code, it seems to be firing correctly for 2 of my test appointments, but throws a nullreferenceexception on the third. I can't seem to figure out how to use the debugger in conjunction with Outlook so I don't have much better information on that error. As for this issue, any advice on how to debug an Outlook 2013 addin in real-time would be tremendously appreciated. I've tried all the tricks I know.
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Linq;
using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
using Office = Microsoft.Office.Core;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
using System.Windows.Forms;
//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6425776/outlook-2010-how-to-get-a-list-of-all-appointments-including-recurrences
//https://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2013/06/10/outlook-calendar-appointment-meeting-items/
//http://www.sperrysoftware.com/outlook/email-reminders.asp
//myEmailAddress = this.ActiveExplorer().Session.CurrentUser.EmailAddress;
//Application.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry.Address
//https://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2013/06/10/outlook-calendar-appointment-meeting-items/#enumerate
//http://www.scrubly.com/blog/how-to-outlook/how-to-install-enable-and-disable-outlook-2013-add-ins/
//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5472493/making-vsto-add-in-installable
//https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc442767.aspx#Download
namespace OutlookAddIn1
{
public partial class ThisAddIn
{
private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
doStuff();
}
private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
}
#region VSTO generated code
/// <summary>
/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
/// the contents of this method with the code editor.
/// </summary>
private void InternalStartup()
{
this.Startup += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Startup);
this.Shutdown += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Shutdown);
}
//https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268866.aspx
private void doStuff()
{
Thread.Sleep(120000); //120 seconds
DateTime firstRun = DateTime.Now; //So we can check every 24 hours? Maybe once initially as well.
DateTime lastRun = DateTime.Now;//.AddHours(1); //We're going to compare this to firstRun
bool whileTrue = true;
//int test = 0;
try
{
while (whileTrue)
{
if (whileTrue == true)//(firstRun > lastRun.AddDays(1))
{
Outlook.MAPIFolder calendarFolder = Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderCalenda r);
Outlook.Items outlookCalendarItems = calendarFolder.Items;
outlookCalendarItems.IncludeRecurrences = false; //was true
List<Outlook.AppointmentItem> lst = new List<Outlook.AppointmentItem>();
foreach (Outlook.AppointmentItem item in outlookCalendarItems)
{
lst.Add(item);
//We can probably just handle logic in here without the second for loop that comes next
}
foreach (Outlook.AppointmentItem x in lst)
{
//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16329581/getting-system-runtime-interopservices-comexception-error-in-server-side-generat
DateTime startDate = DateTime.Now.AddDays(1);
DateTime endDate = DateTime.Now.AddDays(5);
DateTime apptDate = x.Start;
if (x.Subject.ToLower().Contains("telos"))
{
MessageBox.Show("X: " + x.Start + "XYZ: " + x.Subject);
if (x.Start > startDate && x.Start < endDate)
{
Outlook.MailItem mailItem = (Outlook.MailItem)
this.Application.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olMailItem);
//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11223462/how-to-send-a-mail-using-microsoft-office-interop-outlook-mailitem-by-specifying
//Outlook.Recipient recipient = this.Application.Session.CreateRecipient("someone#example.com");
//mailItem.Sender = recipient.AddressEntry;
Outlook.Recipient recipTo =
mailItem.Recipients.Add("someone#example.com");
recipTo.Type = (int)Outlook.OlMailRecipientType.olTo;
mailItem.Sender = (Outlook.AddressEntry)recipTo;
//Outlook.Account account = new Account();// Application.Session.Accounts["MyOtherAccount"];
//mailItem.SendUsingAccount = account;
mailItem.Subject = "This is the subject";
mailItem.To = Application.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry.Address; //"someone#example.com";
mailItem.Body = "This is the message.";
mailItem.Importance = Outlook.OlImportance.olImportanceLow;
mailItem.Display(false);
((Outlook._MailItem)mailItem).Send();
//mailItem.Send();
/*
//Here we generate the email
Outlook.Application app = new Outlook.Application();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MailItem email = app.CreateItem((OlItemType.olMailItem));
Outlook.Recipient recipient = app.Session.CreateRecipient("someone#example.com");
email.Sender = recipient.AddressEntry;
email.Display(false);
email.Subject = "You have a new appointment";
email.To = Application.Session.CurrentUser.AddressEntry.Address; //Current email address.
email.Body = "This email was automatically generated to remind you have an upcoming appointment on: " + x.Start.ToString();
((Outlook._MailItem)email).Send();
//email.Send();
//((Outlook._MailItem)mailItem).Send();
app.Quit();
* */
}
}
}
lastRun = DateTime.Now;
whileTrue = false;
}
else
{
}
}
}
catch (System.Exception e) //Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Exception e
{
MessageBox.Show(e.ToString());
}
}
public void createContact()
{
Outlook.ContactItem newContact = (Outlook.ContactItem)
this.Application.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olContactItem);
try
{
newContact.FirstName = "Person";
newContact.LastName = "LastName";
newContact.Email1Address = "someone#example.com";
newContact.Save();
newContact.Display(true);
}
catch
{
MessageBox.Show("The new contact was not saved.");
}
}
#endregion
}
}

Answer 1

Running a time-consuming task in the Startup event handler is a good idea. The fact is that Outlook measures the time required for loading add-ins and may disable it automatically (if it takes a lot of time). See the Performance criteria for keeping add-ins enabled section in the What's new for Outlook 2013 developers article in MSDN for more information.
Also I'd suggest creating a log file and writing any action in the log. Thus, you will be aware what happens at runtime and what line of code generates an error.