python - win32com.client.Dispatch works but not win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch

Question

i'm learning win32com for python and I've got a strange problem.

I'e trying to export Outlook Contacts in a List of Dictionnary. My code works perfectly with win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application). But it returns 0 contacts with win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch("Outlook.Application) that is supposed to be faster and "safer". Here's my code :

class MapiImport():
    def __init__(self):
        self.olApp = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
        self.namespace = self.olApp.GetNamespace(u"MAPI")
        # olFolderContacts = 10 :
        self.mapiContacts = self.namespace.GetDefaultFolder(10).Items

    def getContacts(self, *fields):
        contacts = []
        # Class == 40 is ContactItem
        # Class == 69 is DistListItem
        # Exclude ditribution list and others objects != ContactItem
        for contact in filter(lambda x: x.Class == 40,self.mapiContacts) :
            if not fields :
                ctact = dict((x.Name,x.Value) for x in contact.ItemProperties)
            else :
                ctact = {}
                for field in fields :
                    itemProp = contact.itemProperties[field]
                    ctact[field] = itemProp.Value
            contacts.append(ctact)
        return contacts

#====TEST SCRIPT====
myMAPI = MapiImport()
fields = (u"LastName",u"FirstName",u"Companies",
          u"HomeTelephoneNumber",u"Home2TelephoneNumber",
          u"MobileTelephoneNumber",
          u"BusinessTelephoneNumber",u"Business2TelephoneNumber",
          u"Email1Address",u"Email2Address",u"Email3Address",
          u"HomeAddress",u"BusinessAddress",
          u"Birthday",u"Anniversary",
          u"Body")
print(myMAPI.getContacts(*fields))

So when i replace :

olApp = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application")

With :

olApp = win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch("Outlook.Application")

It returns this errors :

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:Documents and Settingsda7950Mes documentsDropboxcheetahImportermapiImport.py", line 42, in <module>
    print(myMAPI.getContacts(*fields))
  File "D:Documents and Settingsda7950Mes documentsDropboxcheetahImportermapiImport.py", line 19, in getContacts
    for contact in filter(lambda x: x.Class == 40,self.mapiContacts) :
  File "D:Documents and Settingsda7950Mes documentsPython27libsite-packageswin32comgen_py0062FFF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046x0x9x2\_Items.py", line 122, in __getitem__
    return self._get_good_object_(self._oleobj_.Invoke(*(81, LCID, 1, 1, item)), "Item")
com_error: (-2147352567, "Une exception s'est produite.", (4096, u'Microsoft Office Outlook', u'Index de la matrice en dehors des limites.', None, 0, -2147352567), None)

The message means "Matrix index out of bounds". The strangiest thing is that after I called EnsureDispatch, win32com.client.Dispatch doesn't works anymore. I have to uninstall pywin32 and reinstall it...

I'm running with Python2.7.3 64-bit with Outlook 2007 32-bit

Thanks

Answer 1

I found a solution. It's a bug win32com makepy...

The main problem is that Outlook is 1-based indexed for olContactItem (as opposed to 0-based index for python)

olApp = win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch("Outlook.Application")           
namespace = olApp.GetNamespace(u"MAPI")           
# olFolderContacts = 10 :           
mapiContacts = namespace.GetDefaultFolder(10).Items
for i in range(1,len(mapiContacts)+1) :
    contact = self.mapiContacts[i]
    ...

There is another problem with contact.itemProperties. All properties are case sensitive with EnsureDispatch, so :

contact.ItemProperties("FullName").Value
#       ^

works, but not :

contact.itemProperties("FullName").Value
#       ^

To get the names right, consult: Microsoft Outlook ContactItem reference model on MSDN