Deferring Errors

Some interface methods accept the MAPI_DEFERRED_ERRORS flag as an input parameter. When this flag is set, the method does not have to return immediately with a value; it can let the caller know the result of the call at some later time.

Deferring errors helps service providers in their implementation of complex methods, making processing faster. Rather than handling many requests and returning a value for each, deferring errors allows the calls to be bundled within the service provider. Processing many requests at once cuts down on network traffic, thereby improving performance. Deferring errors is especially useful in calls to delete or copy properties, which can be very time-consuming operations.

When a client makes a call without setting the MAPI_DEFERRED_ERRORS flag that can only be handled in a deferred manner, service providers can either defer the errors regardless or return MAPI_E_TOO_COMPLEX. Most clients should defer errors as a preferable strategy to failing the call.

Setting the MAPI_DEFERRED_ERRORS flag changes a client's error handling implementation in that the returned information can be delivered at any time rather than at a planned time. It is possible for an error to be returned when it is too late to do anything about it or after data about the original request is no longer available. For example, if a client calls IMsgStore::OpenEntry to open a deleted folder with MAPI_DEFERRED_ERRORS set, the client will not know of the problem until an IMAPIProp::GetProps call is made to retrieve one of the folder's properties. GetProps will then return MAPI_E_NOT_FOUND.