Access Events from Shared Calendar Using Exchange Web Service and Store Events Data to SharePoint List with C# Console Application

Introduction:

We implemented the intranet solution for a consulting firm based out of Alpharetta, GA, USA. One of the requirements was to store events from Shared Outlook Calendar (Office 365) to SharePoint List for easier accessibility for the users. In this blog, we will learn how to get events from a Shared Outlook Calendar using Microsoft Exchange web service and store in SharePoint Online List with CSOM using C# console application.

So, now Let’s get started with the procedure to build the custom console application.

Step 1: Create Solution

1.  Open Visual Studio 2019, Click on Create New Project and then Choose Console App (.NET Framework).
   
2.  Give it a meaningful Project Name and in Framework select .NET Framework 4 and click "Create".
   

Step 2: Establish Connectivity with Microsoft Exchange Webservice

1. Install "Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices" NuGet package.
2. Add namespace “using Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data;”
3. We will be using Exchange Service class to connect the Shared Calendar.
4. We can use the below piece of code to create the instance of ExchangeService and define the credentials & endpoint URL.
   

    ExchangeService service = new ExchangeService(ExchangeVersion.Exchange2010);  
    service.Credentials = new WebCredentials("userEmailAddress", "userPassword");  
    service.Url = new Uri("https://outlook.office365.com/ews/exchange.asmx");  
   

Step 3: Get Calendar Events

1. The calendar can contain some folder, with the use of the "FolderView" class we can retrieve the same. Constructor FolderView(100) Initializes a new instance of the FolderView class with the maximum number of returned folders specified.
   

    FolderView view = new FolderView(100);
   

   
   
2. Initialize a new instance of the FolderId class with the specified folder name and mailbox.
   

    FolderId folderToAccess = new FolderId(WellKnownFolderName.Calendar, "shared Email");  
    FolderId(WellKnownFolderName, Mailbox)  

   Use this constructor to link this folder ID to a well-known folder (for example, Inbox, Calendar or Contacts) in a specific mailbox.
   
   
3. FindFoldersResults Represents the results of a folder search operation.
   

    FindFoldersResults findFolderResults = service.FindFolders(WellKnownFolderName.Root, view);  
   

   FindFolders Obtains a list of folders by searching the subfolders of the specified folder.
   
   
4. CalendarFolder Represents a folder that contains appointments.
   

    var calendar2 = CalendarFolder.Bind(service,folderToAccess);  
   

   CalendarFolder.Bind(service,folderToAccess) binds to an existing calendar folder and loads its first-class properties. Calling this method results in a call to Exchange Web Services (EWS).
   
   
5. Define a date range view of appointments in the calendar folder search operations.
   

    CalendarView cv = new CalendarView(StartDate, EndDate);  



6. FindAppointments obtains a list of appointments by searching the contents of a specified folder.
   

    FindItemsResults<Appointment> fapts = service.FindAppointments(folderToAccess, cv);  
   

   FindItemsResults<Appointment> a collection of appointments that represents the contents of the specified folder.
   
   Now with the use of appointment class property, we can retrieve Event Subject, Organizer, and other property.
   
   
7. Here, we will get the Event Title and Organizer.

Step 4: Store in SharePoint List.

1. Once we get data, we can store it in SharePoint List with CSOM. We will add the Event subject and Organizer Name, for that we create one Single Line of Text and one Person column in a SharePoint List.
2. Add namespace “using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;” and “using System.Security;”.
3. Represents the context for SharePoint objects and operations.
   

    ClientContext clientContext = new ClientContext(siteUrl);  
   



4. Give Email and Password, Gets or sets the authentication information for the client context
   

    clientContext.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials("username", "password");  
   



5. Connect List.
   

    List appointmentsList = clientContext.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Appointments");  
   



6. ListItemCreationInformation specifies the properties of the new list item.
   

    ListItemCreationInformation itemCreateInfo = new ListItemCreationInformation();  
   

   ListItem represents an item or row in a list.
   
   
7. List.AddItem method returns a ListItem instance representing the creation of a new list item in the list.
   

    ListItem newItem = appointmentsList.AddItem(itemCreateInfo);  
   



8.  As we know to add items in Person columns into the list, we need to provide Id, below code, will get Id of the organizer.
   

    var demo = Appoint.Organizer;  
    string testName = demo.ToString();  
    var demo2 = testName.Substring(0, testName.IndexOf("<") - 1);  
    User userTest = clientContext.Web.EnsureUser(demo2);  
    clientContext.Load(userTest);  
    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();  
   

   
   
9. Now, the final step to insert a record into the SharePoint list.
   

    newItem["Title"] = Appoint.Subject;  
    newItem["Users"] = userTest.Id;  
    newItem.Update();  
    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();  
   

Complete Code

 using System;  
 using Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data;  
 using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;  
 using System.Security;  
 using Folder = Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.Folder;  
 namespace SharedCalender  
 {  
 class Program  
 {  
 static void Main(string[] args)  
 {  
 ExchangeService service = new ExchangeService(ExchangeVersion.Exchange2010);  
 service.Credentials = new WebCredentials("userEmailAddress", "userPassword");  
 service.Url = new Uri("https://outlook.office365.com/ews/exchange.asmx");  
 FolderView view = new FolderView(100);  
 FolderId folderToAccess = new FolderId(WellKnownFolderName.Calendar, "shared Email");  
 FindFoldersResults findFolderResults = service.FindFolders(WellKnownFolderName.Root, view);  
 foreach (Folder f in findFolderResults)  
 {  
 var calendar2 = CalendarFolder.Bind(service,folderToAccess);  
 DateTime StartDate = DateTime.Today.AddMonths(-1);  
 DateTime EndDate = DateTime.Today.AddMonths(1);  
 CalendarView cv = new CalendarView(StartDate, EndDate);  
 FindItemsResults<Appointment> fapts = service.FindAppointments(folderToAccess, cv);  
 if (fapts.Items.Count > 0)  
 {  
 foreach (Appointment Appoint in fapts)  
 {  
 string siteUrl = "https://constoso.sharepoint.com/sites/SiteName";  
 ClientContext clientContext = new ClientContext(siteUrl);  
 SecureString passWord = new SecureString();  
 foreach (char c in "Password".ToCharArray()) passWord.AppendChar(c);  
 clientContext.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials("userEmailAddress", passWord);  
 List appointmentsList = clientContext.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("TestList");  
 ListItemCreationInformation itemCreateInfo = new ListItemCreationInformation();  
 ListItem newItem = appointmentsList.AddItem(itemCreateInfo);  
 //get user id  
 var demo = Appoint.Organizer;  
 string testName = demo.ToString();  
 var demo2 = testName.Substring(0, testName.IndexOf("<") - 1);  
 User userTest = clientContext.Web.EnsureUser(demo2);  
 clientContext.Load(userTest);  
 clientContext.ExecuteQuery();  
 newItem["Title"] = Appoint.Subject;  
 newItem["Users"] = userTest.Id;  
 newItem.Update();  
 clientContext.ExecuteQuery()  
 }  
 }  
 Console.ReadLine();  
 }  
 }  
 }  
 }  

Conclusion:

This is how we can access Events from Shared Calendar using Exchange web service and store data to SharePoint list.

If you have any questions you can reach out our SharePoint Consulting team here.

Enable Auditing for Exchange On-Premise/Online

Email Auditing in Exchange On-Premise/Online (Office 365)

In Exchange, we can turn on mailbox auditing to log mailbox access by mailbox owners, delegates, and administrators. By default, mailbox auditing in Exchange is not turned on.

After we enable mailbox audit logging for a mailbox, certain actions performed by administrators and delegates will be logged by default. However, to log actions performed by the mailbox owner, we have to specify which actions of owner should be audited.

Mailbox audit logs are generated for every mailbox that has mailbox auditing is enabled.

Log entries are stored in the Recoverable Items folder in the audited mailbox, in the sub-folder named "Audits".

This ensures that all audit log entries are available from a single location, regardless of which client access method was used to access the mailbox OR which server/workstation is used by an administrator to access the audit logs.

1. Can we move and save Exchange Audit logs to another location?
If you move a mailbox to another Mailbox server, the mailbox audit logs for that mailbox are also moved because they're located in the mailbox itself.

2. Can we increase duration of Exchange Audit logs storage?
By default, mailbox audit log entries are retained in the mailbox for 90 days and then deleted. You can modify this retention period by using the AuditLogAgeLimit parameter with the Set-Mailbox cmdlet.

3. Can we increase Exchange Audit logging details?
Exchange provides out of the box features for Email auditing. But for additional settings/details we can use PowerShell commands.

How to Enable Mailbox auditing in Exchange On-Premise/Online

1.     This command can be skipped for Exchange On-Premise. On your local computer, open Windows PowerShell and run the following command.

$UserCredential = Get-Credential

2.     This command can also be skipped for Exchange On-Premise. Run the following command.

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic –AllowRedirection

3.     This command can be skipped for Exchange On-Premise. Run the following command.

Import-PSSession $Session

4.     To verify that you’re connected to your Exchange Online organization, run the following command to get a list of all the mailboxes in your organization.

Get-Mailbox

5.     Enable mailbox audit logging

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -Filter {RecipientTypeDetails -eq "UserMailbox"} | Set-Mailbox -AuditEnabled $true

6.     Increase duration of storage of logs

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -Filter {RecipientTypeDetails -eq "UserMailbox"} | Set-Mailbox - AuditlogAgelimit  “number of days to increase”

Example- Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -Filter {RecipientTypeDetails -eq "UserMailbox"} | Set-Mailbox -AuditlogAgelimit  120

You can visit TechNet Article for Exchange Online (Office 365) and TechNet Article for Exchange On-Premise for more details on PowerShell Commands for Exchange Auditing.

If you have any questions you can reach out our SharePoint Consulting team here.