It's not that difficult if you know the Outlook object model and follow some
simple rules to mark your ActiveX control as safe for scripting and safe for
initialization if it will be started using automation from the Web site. Of
course any Outlook related code must run client-side on the target computer.

Then of course since the code will be running out-of-process with Outlook
(you don't say which Outlook versions you need to support) you will need to
write the code securely since you will be harvesting email addresses, to
avoid the security model. That has to be done using Extended MAPI (C++ or
Delphi only, long learning curve) or a MAPI wrapper such as Redemption
(www.dimastr.com/redemption). See
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=52 for information on that.

Code for those other email programs would be completely different than any
Outlook code, so that would have to be handled case by case.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm


wrote in message
...

Hi folks,

My dev team has been struggling for months to create an activex
control (add-in) for IE to read a person's Outlook contacts for the
social network I am building - assuming they agree to install it of
course.

Should this be difficult? Are there any libraries they could buy for
this?

P.S. Could also use the same thing for Hotmail, Gmail, etc...

- E