asked on

Outlook instantiated via COM wont quit, hangs around in memory forever?

I am trying to automate Outlook using COM. I am using VB.Net

So I instantiate an outlook object, make it visible, If i quit is using
Outlook.Quit() function it works, however if i close this Outlook instance manually using the mouse and click on the top right hand side close icon. Outlook looks like it quit, but it hangs around in memory forever.

I can see it in the process list using Ctrl+Alt+Del

How do i fix this ?

Bob Learned

Look the Finalize method:

Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Public Class Appointment
Public AllDayEvent As Boolean
Public Body As String = String.Empty
Public Creation As Date
Public Duration As Integer
Public [End] As Date
Public Importance As String = String.Empty
Public IsRecurring As Boolean
Public MeetingStatus As String = String.Empty
Public Start As Date
Public Subject As String = String.Empty
Public UnRead As Boolean
End Class

<CLSCompliant(False)> _
Public Class OutlookAppointments

Private _appOutlook As Outlook.Application

Public Sub New()

_appOutlook = New Outlook.Application

End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub Finalize()
MyBase.Finalize()

_appOutlook.Quit()

Marshal.ReleaseComObject(_appOutlook)

GC.Collect()

End Sub

Public ReadOnly Property CalendarFolder() As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Get
Return _appOutlook.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderCalendar)
End Get
End Property

Public ReadOnly Property Appointments() As ArrayList
Get

Dim listAppointments As New ArrayList
For Each item As Outlook.AppointmentItem In Me.CalendarFolder.Items

Dim newAppointment As New Appointment

newAppointment.AllDayEvent = item.AllDayEvent
newAppointment.Body = item.Body
newAppointment.Creation = item.CreationTime
newAppointment.Duration = item.Duration
newAppointment.End = item.End
newAppointment.Importance = item.Importance.ToString()
newAppointment.IsRecurring = item.IsRecurring
newAppointment.MeetingStatus = item.MeetingStatus.ToString()
newAppointment.Start = item.Start
newAppointment.Subject = item.Subject
newAppointment.UnRead = item.UnRead

listAppointments.Add(newAppointment)
Next
Return listAppointments
End Get
End Property

End Class

Bob

vikky999

ASKER

Hi bob....yes i also did the same thing. But for some reason, when i shut outlook manually , the code gets to my event_handler i.e. i see a messagebox with "outlook Shutdown" , but it never reaches the destructor.

Public Class LibMAPI
Inherits WAFL

' The following fields can be provided by user
' but are initialized to defaults set in XML config file

Private WithEvents olApp As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application
Private olNS As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace
Dim olFolder As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim olExplorer As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Explorer

Public Sub StartOutlook()

olApp = DirectCast(CreateObject("Outlook.Application"), Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application)

olNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
olNS.Logon()
olFolder = olNS.GetDefaultFolder(OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox)
olFolder.Display()
olExplorer = CType(olApp.ActiveWindow, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Explorer)
olExplorer.WindowState = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlWindowState.olMaximized
olExplorer.Display()

End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub Finalize()

MsgBox("Destructor")
MyBase.Finalize()
End Sub

Private Sub olApp_Quit() Handles olApp.Quit
MsgBox("Outlook shutdown")
olExplorer = Nothing
olFolder = Nothing
olNS = Nothing
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(olApp)
End Sub
End Class

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Bob Learned

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vikky999

ASKER

Basically, I was to see my destructor getting called after Im done with handling the olapp.quit event.

Bob Learned

You can't set the variables to Nothing before you call Marshal.ReleaseComObject.

Bob

vikky999

ASKER

So I dont want to quit the outlook instance programatically, I want the user the quit outlook manually , and then after the user quits the instance manually, it should call my destructor where i want to do some final cleanup.

Bob Learned

I am talking about in here:

Private Sub olApp_Quit() Handles olApp.Quit
MsgBox("Outlook shutdown")
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(olApp)
End Sub

Bob

vikky999

ASKER

sorry bob..yeah i didnt do that in my code. It was too long..copying/pasting..did it in the wrong order. Did not set it to nothing before calling releaseCOMObject.

Anyway...so basically i need to implement IDisposable..But just for my understanding. Why is this happening, i mean why once outlook is shut manually, my quit event handler is being called, in the event handler i release the COM object, and set olApp= NOthing...why isnt my destructor being called ?

vikky999

ASKER

okay did the IDispsable stuff..now finally outlook doesnt hang around in memory !!!

yay !

but my destructor still doesnt get called until i shut down my applicatoin

vikky999

ASKER

Public Class LibMAPI
Implements IDisposable

' The following fields can be provided by user
' but are initialized to defaults set in XML config file

Private WithEvents olApp As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application
Private olNS As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace
Private outlookVersion As String
Dim olFolder As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim olExplorer As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Explorer
Dim autoit As New AutoItX3Lib.AutoItX3
'Dim counter1 As New LibMAPIPopUpKiller
'Dim Thread1 As New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf counter1.Count)

Public Sub New()

MyBase.New()

' Set AutoItX to use substring matching for window titles

autoit.Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)
autoit.ProcessClose("WINWORD.EXE")
autoit.ProcessClose("OUTLOOK.EXE")
autoit.Sleep(5000)

'Thread1.Start()

End Sub

Public Sub StartOutlook()
olApp = DirectCast(CreateObject("Outlook.Application"), Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application)
outlookVersion = olApp.Version
olNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
olNS.Logon()
olFolder = olNS.GetDefaultFolder(OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox)
olFolder.Display()
olExplorer = CType(olApp.ActiveWindow, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Explorer)
olExplorer.WindowState = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlWindowState.olMaximized
olExplorer.Display()
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub Finalize()

MsgBox("Destructor")
'Thread1.Abort()
MyBase.Finalize()
End Sub

Protected Sub Dispose() Implements IDisposable.Dispose
olApp.Quit()
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(olApp)
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(olExplorer)
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(olFolder)
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(olNS)
GC.Collect()

End Sub

Private Sub olApp_Quit() Handles olApp.Quit
MsgBox("Outlook shutdown")
Dispose()

End Sub

Bob Learned

Here is the thing about .NET is if you don't explicitly clear the object, then it will happen when the garbage collector runs, or when the application exits.

Bob