Find all unread emails using Exchange Web Service 2010 then mark as read?

Question

I'm using Exchang Web Services 2010 to try and read all unread emails from a mailbox, then mark them as read.

I'm basing off this example:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/exchange/aa563373(v=exchg.140).aspx

And have come up with this to find all unread emails, and read the body contents:

        //Set up the connection to exchange service
        ExchangeServiceBinding exchangeService = new ExchangeServiceBinding();
        exchangeService.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("userid", "password", "domain");
        exchangeService.Url = "https://exchangeserver/ews/exchange.asmx";

        //REturn all properties
        FindItemType findType = new FindItemType();
        findType.Traversal = ItemQueryTraversalType.Shallow;
        findType.ItemShape = new ItemResponseShapeType();
        findType.ItemShape.BaseShape = DefaultShapeNamesType.AllProperties;

        //Only search the inbox
        DistinguishedFolderIdType[] foldersToSearch = new DistinguishedFolderIdType[1];
        foldersToSearch[0] = new DistinguishedFolderIdType();
        foldersToSearch[0].Id = DistinguishedFolderIdNameType.inbox;
        findType.ParentFolderIds = foldersToSearch;

        //Only unread emails
        RestrictionType restriction = new RestrictionType();
        IsEqualToType isEqualTo = new IsEqualToType();
        PathToUnindexedFieldType pathToFieldType = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();
        pathToFieldType.FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.messageIsRead;

        //Not IsRead
        FieldURIOrConstantType constantType = new FieldURIOrConstantType();
        ConstantValueType constantValueType = new ConstantValueType();
        constantValueType.Value = "0";
        constantType.Item = constantValueType;
        isEqualTo.Item = pathToFieldType;
        isEqualTo.FieldURIOrConstant = constantType;
        restriction.Item = isEqualTo;

        //set the not IsRead restriction
        findType.Restriction = restriction;

        try
        {
            FindItemResponseType findResponse = exchangeService.FindItem(findType);
            ResponseMessageType[] responseMessType = findResponse.ResponseMessages.Items;

            List<ItemIdType> unreadItemIds = new List<ItemIdType>();

            //get all unread item IDs
            foreach (ResponseMessageType respMessage in responseMessType)
            {
                if(respMessage is FindItemResponseMessageType)
                {
                    FindItemResponseMessageType itemResponse = (FindItemResponseMessageType)respMessage;

                    if (itemResponse.ResponseClass == ResponseClassType.Success)
                    {
                        if (itemResponse.RootFolder.Item != null)
                        {

                            if (itemResponse.RootFolder.Item is ArrayOfRealItemsType)
                            {
                                ArrayOfRealItemsType items = (ArrayOfRealItemsType)itemResponse.RootFolder.Item;

                                if (items.Items != null)
                                {
                                    ItemType[] itemTypes = items.Items;

                                    foreach (ItemType item in itemTypes)
                                    {
                                        if (item is MessageType)
                                        {
                                            unreadItemIds.Add(item.ItemId);
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

            if (unreadItemIds.Count == 0)
                MessageBox.Show("No unread emails found");
            else
            {
                //Get all unread mail messages, display body
                GetItemType getItemType = new GetItemType();
                getItemType.ItemShape = new ItemResponseShapeType();
                getItemType.ItemShape.BaseShape = DefaultShapeNamesType.AllProperties;
                getItemType.ItemShape.BodyType = BodyTypeResponseType.Text;
                getItemType.ItemShape.BodyTypeSpecified = true;
                getItemType.ItemIds = unreadItemIds.ToArray();

                GetItemResponseType getItemResponse = exchangeService.GetItem(getItemType);

                if(getItemResponse.ResponseMessages != null)
                {
                    ArrayOfResponseMessagesType responseMessages = getItemResponse.ResponseMessages;
                    foreach(ResponseMessageType responseMessage in responseMessages.Items)
                    {
                        if (responseMessage is ItemInfoResponseMessageType)
                        {
                            ItemInfoResponseMessageType responseItemInfo = (ItemInfoResponseMessageType)responseMessage;
                            if (responseItemInfo.Items != null)
                            {
                                ArrayOfRealItemsType responseRealItems = (ArrayOfRealItemsType)responseItemInfo.Items;

                                if (responseRealItems.Items != null)
                                {
                                    foreach (ItemType responseItemType in responseRealItems.Items)
                                    {
                                        if (responseItemType is MessageType)
                                        {
                                            MessageType fullMessage = (MessageType)responseItemType;

                                            BodyType body = fullMessage.Body;

                                            if (body != null)
                                            {
                                                MessageBox.Show(body.Value);
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        catch(Exception ee)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(ee.Message +" " + (ee.InnerException ?? new Exception("")).Message);
        }

That does return the text version of all unread email bodies, however there must be a more effecient way, no?

Does anyone know how I can update the email MessageTypes as read and have it send back to the server?

Answer 1

There is not a good way to mark a MessageType as read using EWS v1. See this MSDN blog post for a workaround if you are stuck with EWS v1.

EWS v2 introduced the IsRead property as writable (message.IsRead = true; message.Update();), which makes it trivial. You can use the EWS v2 managed API for Exchange 2007 and above, but it is a separate installation. See the MSDN page on EWS Managed API 2.0 for more.