How to Search Phone number in Address book? - vba

Question

There are options to get a contact detail from Mail id or Contact's Name using
Namespace.CreateRecipient / Recipient.Resolve
Is there any option to perform a direct search on Outlook Addressbook with Phone number or Company name etc.?
I am able to get many VBA coding options to loop through each contact in addressbook & find matching contact for phone number.

Answer 1

Please, try the next function. It should return the account name, searching by a phone number.
I played some minutes with my Outlook settings, because it used to not return any Address Book, even if it has a custom one from where it suggests the accounts address when start typing in the To box. If a similar problem in your case, I will try explaining what I did. But you maybe are luckier:
Function nameByPhoneNo(strPhNo As String) As String
Dim olApp As Outlook.Application, olNS As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim olGAL As Outlook.AddressList, olAdLs As Outlook.AddressLists
Dim olEntry As Outlook.AddressEntries, olMember As Outlook.AddressEntry
Set olApp = Outlook.Application
Set olNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set olAdLs = olNS.AddressLists
Set olGAL = olAdLs.item(1) 'Your "Contacts" address book must be the first!
'the code can be adapted to search in all of them, if many...
If olGAL.AddressEntries.count < 1 Then
MsgBox "You must set ""Contacts"" folder as ""Outlook Address Book"", from its ""Properties""."
nameByPhoneNo = "No Address Book coould be found..."
Exit Function
End If
Set olEntry = olGAL.AddressEntries
For Each olMember In olEntry
If InStr(olMember.GetContact.BusinessTelephoneNumber, strPhNo) > 0 Or _
InStr(olMember.GetContact.HomeTelephoneNumber, strPhNo) > 0 Or _
InStr(olMember.GetContact.MobileTelephoneNumber, strPhNo) > 0 Then
nameByPhoneNo = olMember.GetContact.fullName: Exit Function
End If
Next
End Function
The function can be adapted to also search by "Company Name" etc.
It can be tested in this way:
Sub testNameByPhoneNo()
Debug.Print nameByPhoneNo("123252900") 'use it as string (between double quotes)
End Sub

Answer 2

Unlike message store providers, most address book providers do not support arbitrary searches (only because Outlook does not use them), so on the low level most of them support simple PR_ANR searches, which is what CreateRecipient / Resolve use AFAIK - it is essentially "here is a string, find the best match that makes sense to you".
Some address book providers (such as GAL) expose search templates (you can see its UI in the Outlook address book if you click "Advanced Search". That functionality is available either in Extended MAPI (C++ or Delphi only) or in Redemption (I am its author - any language - see RDOAddressListSearch object). Unfortunately, phone number is not one of the supported search fields for GAL - only fist/last names, department, company, city, etc. are.