C# Outlook Acces CommandBar Programmatically

Question

I'm trying to access to some buttons on my Outlook Ribbon Programmatically. So i am using:

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application();
CommandBar command = app.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.OfType<CommandBar>().First();
CommandBarControl button = command.Controls.OfType<CommandBarControl>().Where(x => x.Caption == "label of my button").First();
button.Execute();

The problem is every CommandBars only return 1 Control... How can i access to all Controls inside a Ribbon ?

Thanks

Answer 1

As Eugene mentioned, you can use the Accessibility API. If using Redemption is an option (I am its author), it exposes SafeExplorer and SafeInspector objects that provide access to the ribbon controls and allow to execute their default actions. The example below (VB script) executes the "OneNote" button on the "Home" ribbon:

 set sExplorer = CreateObject("Redemption.SafeExplorer")
 sExplorer.Item = Application.ActiveExplorer
 set Ribbon = sExplorer.Ribbon
 oldActiveTab = Ribbon.ActiveTab
 Ribbon.ActiveTab = "Home"
 set Control = Ribbon.Controls("OneNote")
 Control.Execute
 Ribbon.ActiveTab = oldActiveTab 'restore the active tab