Accessing Outlook Shared Calendar with only "Can view titles and locations" permissions using Python and win32com

Question

I'm trying to access a shared calendar in Microsoft Outlook using Python and the win32com client, but I'm encountering an issue when the calendar has restricted permissions. The shared calendar I'm trying to access has permissions set to "Can view titles and locations".

I don't have access to the graph API and would prefer to not have to jump through those hoops.

I would only like to read the meeting titles, locations, and start/end times. Since i can see these in the outlook UI perfectly fine i figure there must be a programmatic way.

When I attempt to iterate over the calendar items, I receive the following (not very helpful) error:

File "<file_path>", line <line_number>, in <module>
access_shared_calendar("<email_address>")
File "<file_path>", line <line_number>, in access_shared_calendar
for item in items:
File "<path_to_win32com>", line 322, in getitem
return self.get_good_object(self.enum.getitem(index))
File "<path_to_win32com>", line 41, in getitem
return self.__GetIndex(index)
File "<path_to_win32com>", line 62, in __GetIndex
result = self.oleobj.Next(1)
pywintypes.com_error: (-1075576561, 'OLE error 0xbfe4010f', None, None)

Here is the code snippet that I'm using to access the shared calendar:

import win32com.client

def access_shared_calendar(mailbox):
    # Create an instance of Outlook
    outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
    
    # Get the Namespace object
    namespace = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    
    # Access the shared calendar
    recipient = namespace.CreateRecipient(mailbox)
    recipient.Resolve()
    if not recipient.Resolved:
        print(f"Could not resolve {mailbox}. Check the email address.")
        return
    
    # Open the shared calendar
    shared_calendar = namespace.GetSharedDefaultFolder(recipient, 9)  # 9 refers to the calendar folder
    items = shared_calendar.Items

    # Iterate over calendar items
    for item in items:
        print(f"Subject: {item.Subject}, Start: {item.Start}, End: {item.End}")

# Example usage
access_shared_calendar("example@example.com")

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

When dealing with restricted permissions in Outlook via win32com, accessing shared calendars might not be straightforward. However, you can try to work around this by using the Restrict method to filter the items you're retrieving. This method allows you to apply specific criteria to limit the items returned.

Here's an example of how you might modify your code to retrieve the desired properties (subject, location, start, end) from the shared calendar using Restrict:

import win32com.client

def access_shared_calendar(mailbox):
    # Create an instance of Outlook
    outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
    
    # Get the Namespace object
    namespace = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    
    # Access the shared calendar
    recipient = namespace.CreateRecipient(mailbox)
    recipient.Resolve()
    if not recipient.Resolved:
        print(f"Could not resolve {mailbox}. Check the email address.")
        return
    
    # Open the shared calendar
    shared_calendar = namespace.GetSharedDefaultFolder(recipient, 9)  # 9 refers to the calendar folder
    
    # Apply a filter to retrieve specific properties
    filter = "[Start] >= '01/01/2023' AND [End] <= '12/31/2023'"
    filtered_items = shared_calendar.Items.Restrict(filter)
    
    # Iterate over filtered calendar items
    for item in filtered_items:
        print(f"Subject: {item.Subject}, Location: {item.Location}, Start: {item.Start}, End: {item.End}")

# Example usage
access_shared_calendar("example@example.com")

Adjust the filter string to set the date range or any other criteria you need for your calendar items. This code attempts to filter the items based on the date range ('01/01/2023' to '12/31/2023') and retrieves properties like subject, location, start, and end times.

Ensure you handle potential errors related to restricted permissions by using filtering and possibly accessing fewer properties at a time. Additionally, you might consider error handling around accessing specific properties to avoid encountering issues due to restricted permissions.