How to: Create a Message

Article
08/28/2006

New messages are always created from a message store's Drafts folder. After you create a message, you can set its property values (subject, body, list of recipients, and so on) and then send the message.

To create a message object

Initialize the MAPI subsystem, and log onto a MAPI session. For more information, see How to: Begin a MAPI Session.
Establish a connection to a message store. For more information, see How to: Connect to a Message Store.
Initialize the property tag array to request the Entry ID property value of the Drafts folder by setting the property tag of the array to PR_CE_IPM_DRAFTS_ENTRYID:
```
SPropTagArray STags = { 1, {PR_CE_IPM_DRAFTS_ENTRYID} };
```
Get the Entry ID property value of the Drafts folder by calling IMAPIProp::GetProps on the message store object:
```
hr = pStore->GetProps(&STags, 0, &cValues, &pSProps);
```

Open the Drafts folder by calling IMsgStore::OpenEntry for the returned Entry ID:

hr = pStore->OpenEntry(pSProps[0].Value.bin.cb, 
                      (LPENTRYID)pSProps[0].Value.bin.lpb, 
                      NULL, 
                      0, 
                      &ulObjType, 
                      (IUnknown **)&pFldrDrafts);

Declare a NULL IMessage interface object, and then create a new message in the Drafts folder by using the IMAPIFolder::CreateMessage method:
```
hr = pFldrDrafts->CreateMessage(NULL, 0, &pMsg);
```
If no longer needed, release the message store and Drafts folder by calling IUnknown::Release on their interface objects, and free the memory allocated for the property value structure by calling MAPIFreeBuffer:
```
pStore->Release();
pFldrDrafts->Release();
MAPIFreeBuffer(pSProps);
```

Example

The following code demonstrates how to create a message.

HRESULT hr;
IMsgStore * pStore = NULL;
SPropTagArray STags = { 1, {PR_CE_IPM_DRAFTS_ENTRYID} };
ULONG cValues = 0;
SPropValue * pSProps = NULL;
ULONG ulObjType = 0;
IMAPIFolder * pFldrDrafts = NULL;

// See the code example in "How to: Connect to a Message Store" for 
// information on obtaining pStore.

BOOL GPError = FALSE;
hr = pStore->GetProps(&STags, 0, &cValues, &pSProps);
if (hr != S_OK) {
    GPError = TRUE;
} else if (pSProps == NULL) {
    GPError = TRUE;
} else if (pSProps[0].ulPropTag != PR_CE_IPM_DRAFTS_ENTRYID) {
    GPError = TRUE;
}
if (GPError) {
    // GetProps failed.
    MessageBox(NULL, 
               _T("GetProps failed."),
               _T("Warning"), 
               MB_OK);
    exit(0);  // Replace with specific error handling.
}

BOOL OEError = FALSE;
hr = pStore->OpenEntry(pSProps[0].Value.bin.cb, 
                      (LPENTRYID)pSProps[0].Value.bin.lpb, 
                      NULL, 
                      0, 
                      &ulObjType, 
                      (IUnknown **)&pFldrDrafts);
if (hr != S_OK) {
    OEError = TRUE;
} else if (pFldrDrafts == NULL) {
    OEError = TRUE;
}
if (OEError) {
    // OpenEntry failed.
    MessageBox(NULL, 
               _T("OpenEntry failed."),
               _T("Warning"), 
               MB_OK);
    exit(0);  // Replace with specific error handling.
}

BOOL CMError = FALSE;
hr = pFldrDrafts->CreateMessage(NULL, 0, &pMsg);
if (hr != S_OK) {
    CMError = TRUE;
} else if (pMsg == NULL) {
    CMError = TRUE;
}
if (CMError) {
    // CreateMessage failed.
    MessageBox(NULL, 
               _T("CreateMessage failed."),
               _T("Warning"), 
               MB_OK);
    exit(0);  // Replace with specific error handling.
}

pStore->Release();
pFldrDrafts->Release();
MAPIFreeBuffer(pSProps);
pStore = NULL;
pFldrDrafts = NULL;
pSProps = NULL;

How to: Create a Message

Example

See Also

Additional resources