Why can't I access the HasPicture property?

Question

I'm trying to manage contact objects with a C# application.

I'm loading the contacts with BindToItems:

ServiceResponseCollection<GetItemResponse> responses = service.BindToItems(itemIds, PropertySet.FirstClassProperties);
foreach (var responseItem in responses)
{
    contactDict.Add(responseItem.Item.Id, (Contact)responseItem.Item);
}

Then I try to check if the contact has changed by comparing its properties with my stored values.

         return exchangeContact.Surname != user.Surname
             || exchangeContact.CompanyName != user.Company
             ...
             || (!exchangeContact.HasPicture && user.ThumbnailPhoto != null)

But when I try to access the HasPicture property, an exception is thrown.

ServiceObjectPropertyException: This property was requested, but it wasn't returned by the server.

Checking in the debugger, this exception is also thrown for other properties of the Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.Contact. Examples are:

• Birthday
• ContactSource
• IconIndex
• NormalizedBody
• TextBody
• PostalAddressIndex
• WeddingAnniversary

Why can't I access those properties? Are they not included in the FirstClassProperties? But this article says that HasImage is a FirstClassProperty of Contact objects.

Answer 1

Following on from BastianW comment, you can check if the account has a picture by using the Contact.TryGetProperty method.

bool HasPicture;
exchangeContact.TryGetProperty(ContactSchema.HasPicture, out HasPicture);