Set view filters with VBA (Outlook 2002)

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At work I have manually set a filter on a folder view (it shows emails with the word “loan” in the “subject”) but this filter setting has cascaded from my Inbox across all sub folders in the Inbox, and private folders and public folders. Deleting the filter setting manually at the Inbox level does not repeat the cascade so I keep having to manually clear the filter at individual sub-folder level. I have several hundred sub folders so this is a drag. My company IT Support say they can not clear the problem.

I have some vba code using the PickFolder function that will drill down through a folder / sub folder collection. However I can not identify from the Object Browser what object I need to manipulate to clear the View Filter for each folder (I am assuming each folder has an active view set with the filter on).

Can anyone help with the vba syntax to manipulate view filters?

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VBA cannot deal effectively with individual View settings. Your best bet is to make sure that the View itself is correctly defined and reapply it. Naturally, I haven’t tested this idea.

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VBA cannot deal effectively with individual View settings. Your best bet is to make sure that the View itself is correctly defined and reapply it. Naturally, I haven’t tested this idea.

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As Jefferson states, neither Views nor Filters are directly exposed in the VBA Object Model. The Outlook VBA Filter Mehod creates a Search, and the Items.Restrict Method does not change the View. Look here to see if there’s anything that can be done with the XML View definitions, I’m out of my depth with it.

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As Jefferson states, neither Views nor Filters are directly exposed in the VBA Object Model. The Outlook VBA Filter Mehod creates a Search, and the Items.Restrict Method does not change the View. Look here to see if there’s anything that can be done with the XML View definitions, I’m out of my depth with it.

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Hi,
Something like this, adapted from an MSDN article, will remove the filter from the selected view (in the example I have used Messages as the view; obviously if you use another view you will need to use that name instead):

Sub SetTableProperties(ByVal strViewName As String, ByVal strProp As String, _
                        ByVal strValue As String)

    Dim objViews As Views
    Dim objView As View
    'Set a reference to the MSXML 2.6 type library.
    Dim objXML As New MSXML2.DOMDocument
    Dim objXMLNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
   
    Set objViews = Outlook.Application.GetNamespace(Type:="MAPI") _
                   .GetDefaultFolder(FolderType:=olFolderInbox).Views
    Set objView = objViews(strViewName)
    
    'Load the schema into the MSXML parser.
    objXML.loadXML bstrXML:=objView.XML
            
    'Select the node you want to modify and assign the new value.
    Set objXMLNode = objXML.selectSingleNode(querystring:=strProp)
    objXMLNode.nodeTypedValue = strValue
                  
    'Copy the modified XML back to the new view.
    objView.XML = objXML.XML
    'Save and apply the new view.
    objView.Save
    objView.Apply
   
End Sub

Called with something like:

Sub RemoveFilterFromView()
   Call SetTableProperties("Messages", "view/filter", "")
End Sub

Hope that helps.

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Rory, I need help understanding this. If the coder wants to loop through a series of Folders, where/how is the target folder addressed? In the code you provided, are the views in the target Folder set to the Default Inbox view?

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John,
You are correct – I did not address that as the OP indicated he already had code to iterate through the Folders and it’s easily enough adapted to pass a folder variable – something like:

Sub SetTableProperties(ByRef fdrFolder As MAPIFolder, ByVal strViewName As String, _
                     ByVal strProp As String, ByVal strValue As String)

    Dim objViews As Views
    Dim objView As View
    'Set a reference to the MSXML 2.6 type library.
    Dim objXML As New MSXML2.DOMDocument
    Dim objXMLNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
   
    Set objViews = fdrFolder.Views
    Set objView = objViews(strViewName)
    
    'Load the schema into the MSXML parser.
    objXML.loadXML bstrXML:=objView.XML
            
    'Select the node you want to modify and assign the new value.
    Set objXMLNode = objXML.selectSingleNode(querystring:=strProp)
    objXMLNode.nodeTypedValue = strValue
                  
    'Copy the modified XML back to the new view.
    objView.XML = objXML.XML
    'Save and apply the new view.
    objView.Save
    objView.Apply
   
End Sub

called with

Sub testit()
   Dim fdr As MAPIFolder
   Set fdr = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
   Call SetTableProperties(fdr, "Messages", "view/filter", "")
End Sub

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Sorry, Rory, I’m still not getting all of it. Now I follow how to pass the folder to the Function, using code such as the attached.

What I don’t understand is where the desired replacement View is set; I had the idea of selecting a folder which has the desired View, and getting it’s View into the code, then passing it through your routine (tweaked as necessary).

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Hi John,
The view does not get replaced, it gets modified. I have assumed that the OP is using a standard view (such as “Messages” in my example) but has customised it with a filter. All this code does, is check the Messages View for the relevant folder and remove the filter aspect of it.
Does that make sense?

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It makes perfect sense.

Sadly, it’s not quite what I’m trying to do. I’m as equally annoyed as Jamloo about the Show In Groups View in Outlook 2003, where that ‘feature’ cannot be turned off globally, or a View cascaded through a selection of Folders. So my question is can I create code that gets the active XML View from a specified Folder (in this case one where ‘Show In Groups’ is off) and replicate it to other folders of the same IPM class?

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It makes perfect sense.

Sadly, it’s not quite what I’m trying to do. I’m as equally annoyed as Jamloo about the Show In Groups View in Outlook 2003, where that ‘feature’ cannot be turned off globally, or a View cascaded through a selection of Folders. So my question is can I create code that gets the active XML View from a specified Folder (in this case one where ‘Show In Groups’ is off) and replicate it to other folders of the same IPM class?

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OK, I’m slowly getting smarter. The code you posted resets the filter string to “” in the following to the XML definitions, correct?

Messages …
… (many lines later)
%today(“urn:schemas:httpmail:datereceived”)%

How would I set:

Messages …
…
1

to

0

Like this?

SetTableProperties(fldr, “Messages”, “view/autogroup”, 0)

I don’t know or understand the syntax.

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I’m glad you guys are working on this one. After the trauma with gridline colors, I really don’t want to go back there.

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I’m searching for your gridline colors post at this moment! So as to get a better understanding (starting from zero) of how the XML settings are tweaked.

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I’m searching for your gridline colors post at this moment! So as to get a better understanding (starting from zero) of how the XML settings are tweaked.

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I’m glad you guys are working on this one. After the trauma with gridline colors, I really don’t want to go back there.

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John,
You are correct. I would have thought that

Call SetTableProperties(fldr, "Messages", "view/autogroup", "0")

should work – does it not?

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I have been concerned about hosing my Views, but upon trying it, I get a runtime error.

Set objXMLNode = objXML.selectSingleNode(querystring:=strProp) ‘ objXMLNode is not set/remains Nothing
objXMLNode.nodeTypedValue = strValue ‘ so this line errors out

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I have been concerned about hosing my Views, but upon trying it, I get a runtime error.

Set objXMLNode = objXML.selectSingleNode(querystring:=strProp) ‘ objXMLNode is not set/remains Nothing
objXMLNode.nodeTypedValue = strValue ‘ so this line errors out

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AHA! My mistake, it works! I missed part of the XML hierachy, it should have been:

Call SetTableProperties(allSubFolders(lngC), “Messages”, “view/arrangement/autogroup”, “0”)

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AHA! My mistake, it works! I missed part of the XML hierachy, it should have been:

Call SetTableProperties(allSubFolders(lngC), “Messages”, “view/arrangement/autogroup”, “0”)

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Glad you got it sorted. I think I may have to reset my view as my inbox is now a mess of various coloured fonts on a somewhat garish orange background…

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Rory, thanks for your help and patience on this.

Did you try Jefferson’s code here, and any ideas on what the problem was in that thread?

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I’ve just had a quick look (and I hasten to add I’ve been out most of the night at a leaving do! ) and the only thing I can see initially that might be an issue is that I couldn’t spot an explicit command to apply the modified view. I will try and do some testing tomorrow to see if that is relevant.

Later:
All tests on OL2002 seem to work perfectly as is, so I will see if I can find any information as to why it would not work in 2003. I may even finally get around to installing the beta of Office2003 that I have lying around onto a test machine.

Reply | Quote

I’ve just had a quick look (and I hasten to add I’ve been out most of the night at a leaving do! ) and the only thing I can see initially that might be an issue is that I couldn’t spot an explicit command to apply the modified view. I will try and do some testing tomorrow to see if that is relevant.

Later:
All tests on OL2002 seem to work perfectly as is, so I will see if I can find any information as to why it would not work in 2003. I may even finally get around to installing the beta of Office2003 that I have lying around onto a test machine.

Reply | Quote

Rory, thanks for your help and patience on this.

Did you try Jefferson’s code here, and any ideas on what the problem was in that thread?

Reply | Quote

Glad you got it sorted. I think I may have to reset my view as my inbox is now a mess of various coloured fonts on a somewhat garish orange background…

Reply | Quote

John,
You are correct. I would have thought that

Call SetTableProperties(fldr, "Messages", "view/autogroup", "0")

should work – does it not?

Reply | Quote

OK, I’m slowly getting smarter. The code you posted resets the filter string to “” in the following to the XML definitions, correct?

Messages …
… (many lines later)
%today(“urn:schemas:httpmail:datereceived”)%

How would I set:

Messages …
…
1

to

0

Like this?

SetTableProperties(fldr, “Messages”, “view/autogroup”, 0)

I don’t know or understand the syntax.

Reply | Quote

Hi John,
The view does not get replaced, it gets modified. I have assumed that the OP is using a standard view (such as “Messages” in my example) but has customised it with a filter. All this code does, is check the Messages View for the relevant folder and remove the filter aspect of it.
Does that make sense?

Reply | Quote

Sorry, Rory, I’m still not getting all of it. Now I follow how to pass the folder to the Function, using code such as the attached.

What I don’t understand is where the desired replacement View is set; I had the idea of selecting a folder which has the desired View, and getting it’s View into the code, then passing it through your routine (tweaked as necessary).

Reply | Quote

John,
You are correct – I did not address that as the OP indicated he already had code to iterate through the Folders and it’s easily enough adapted to pass a folder variable – something like:

Sub SetTableProperties(ByRef fdrFolder As MAPIFolder, ByVal strViewName As String, _
                     ByVal strProp As String, ByVal strValue As String)

    Dim objViews As Views
    Dim objView As View
    'Set a reference to the MSXML 2.6 type library.
    Dim objXML As New MSXML2.DOMDocument
    Dim objXMLNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
   
    Set objViews = fdrFolder.Views
    Set objView = objViews(strViewName)
    
    'Load the schema into the MSXML parser.
    objXML.loadXML bstrXML:=objView.XML
            
    'Select the node you want to modify and assign the new value.
    Set objXMLNode = objXML.selectSingleNode(querystring:=strProp)
    objXMLNode.nodeTypedValue = strValue
                  
    'Copy the modified XML back to the new view.
    objView.XML = objXML.XML
    'Save and apply the new view.
    objView.Save
    objView.Apply
   
End Sub

called with

Sub testit()
   Dim fdr As MAPIFolder
   Set fdr = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
   Call SetTableProperties(fdr, "Messages", "view/filter", "")
End Sub

Reply | Quote

Rory, I need help understanding this. If the coder wants to loop through a series of Folders, where/how is the target folder addressed? In the code you provided, are the views in the target Folder set to the Default Inbox view?

Reply | Quote

Hi,
Something like this, adapted from an MSDN article, will remove the filter from the selected view (in the example I have used Messages as the view; obviously if you use another view you will need to use that name instead):

Sub SetTableProperties(ByVal strViewName As String, ByVal strProp As String, _
                        ByVal strValue As String)

    Dim objViews As Views
    Dim objView As View
    'Set a reference to the MSXML 2.6 type library.
    Dim objXML As New MSXML2.DOMDocument
    Dim objXMLNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
   
    Set objViews = Outlook.Application.GetNamespace(Type:="MAPI") _
                   .GetDefaultFolder(FolderType:=olFolderInbox).Views
    Set objView = objViews(strViewName)
    
    'Load the schema into the MSXML parser.
    objXML.loadXML bstrXML:=objView.XML
            
    'Select the node you want to modify and assign the new value.
    Set objXMLNode = objXML.selectSingleNode(querystring:=strProp)
    objXMLNode.nodeTypedValue = strValue
                  
    'Copy the modified XML back to the new view.
    objView.XML = objXML.XML
    'Save and apply the new view.
    objView.Save
    objView.Apply
   
End Sub

Called with something like:

Sub RemoveFilterFromView()
   Call SetTableProperties("Messages", "view/filter", "")
End Sub

Hope that helps.

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