how to wait for getting all mail items? - outlook

Question

I am working on outlook addin and have to call another funcion after collecting all to, cc, bcc
I want to process all information with to1, cc1, bcc1 but
After the toRecipients.getAsync() is called, the control returns to process function and to1 is empty.
How do I handle this ?
Also within getAllRecipients(), after the getAsync() is called, variables 'to1' / 'cc1' / 'bcc1' outside its scope (getAsync) are empty.
Any better way to handle both the above cases ?
Please see the below function and callers
function getAllRecipients(event) {
var to1 = [];
var cc1 = [];
var bcc1 = [];
// Local objects to point to recipients of either
// the appointment or message that is being composed.
// bccRecipients applies to only messages, not appointments.
var toRecipients, ccRecipients, bccRecipients;
item = Office.context.mailbox.item;
// Verify if the composed item is an appointment or message.
if (item.itemType == Office.MailboxEnums.ItemType.Appointment) {
toRecipients = item.requiredAttendees;
ccRecipients = item.optionalAttendees;
} else {
toRecipients = item.to;
ccRecipients = item.cc;
bccRecipients = item.bcc;
}
// Use asynchronous method getAsync to get each type of recipients
// of the composed item. Each time, this example passes an anonymous
// callback function that doesn't take any parameters.
if (toRecipients) {
toRecipients.getAsync(function (asyncResult) {
if (asyncResult.status == Office.AsyncResultStatus.Failed){
console.log(asyncResult.error.message);
}
else {
// Async call to get to-recipients of the item completed.
// Display the email addresses of the to-recipients.
console.log('To-recipients of the item:');
for (var i = 0; i < asyncResult.value.length; i++) {
var mailID = asyncResult.value[i].emailAddress;
to1.push(mailID);
}
}
}); // End getAsync for to-recipients.
}
// Get any cc-recipients.
if (ccRecipients) {
ccRecipients.getAsync(function(asyncResult) {
if (asyncResult.status == Office.AsyncResultStatus.Failed) {
console.log(asyncResult.error.message);
} else {
// Async call to get cc-recipients of the item completed.
// Display the email addresses of the cc-recipients.
console.log("Cc-recipients of the item:");
for (var i = 0; i < asyncResult.value.length; i++) {
var mailID = asyncResult.value[i].emailAddress;
cc1.push(mailID);
}
}
}); // End getAsync for cc-recipients.
}
// If the item has the bcc field, i.e., item is message,
// get any bcc-recipients.
if (bccRecipients) {
bccRecipients.getAsync(function(asyncResult) {
if (asyncResult.status == Office.AsyncResultStatus.Failed) {
console.log(asyncResult.error.message);
} else {
// Async call to get bcc-recipients of the item completed.
// Display the email addresses of the bcc-recipients.
console.log("Bcc-recipients of the item:");
for (var i = 0; i < asyncResult.value.length; i++) {
var mailID = asyncResult.value[i].emailAddress;
bcc1.push(mailID);
}
}
}); // End getAsync for bcc-recipients.
}
return to1;
}
getAllRecipients(event);
process(to1);

Answer 1

The recipient APIs for compose are asynchronous, so you will need to await the resolved value from the API.
There is some documentation about asynchronous programming with Office add-ins and some common patterns with asynchronous functions here.