Saving Properties

Many objects support a transaction model of processing whereby changes to properties are not made permanent until they are committed at a later time. Whereas changes to properties are handled by the IMAPIProp::SetProps and IMAPIProp::DeleteProps methods, the commit step is handled by IMAPIProp::SaveChanges. It isn't until after a successful call to SaveChanges that the most recent version of an object's properties can be accessed.

When SaveChanges returns the error value MAPI_E_OBJECT_CHANGED, this is a warning that another client is simultaneously committing changes to the object. It is possible, depending on the provider implementing the object, for multiple clients to successfully open an object by calling its OpenEntry method with the MAPI_MODIFY flag set, giving them read/write access. The object that is returned from such an OpenEntry call is a snapshot of the storage data. Each subsequent attempt to change this data can overwrite the previous attempt.

Upon receiving MAPI_E_OBJECT_CHANGED from SaveChanges, a client has the option to:

• Make a copy of the object to hold the changes.
• Make another call to SaveChanges, specifying FORCE_SAVE.

Calling SaveChanges with the FORCE_SAVE flag overwrites the previous save and makes a client's changes permanent.