Map Custom Outlook Fields to Windows Mobile 6.5

Synchronizing custom Microsoft Outlook contact fields with the Windows Mobile 6.5 address book required specific workarounds and third-party tools due to native schema limitations. While Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) and Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) natively synchronized standard contact fields, they did not support custom, user-defined Outlook fields out of the box. Users and administrators relied on field repurposing, custom synchronization software, and programmatic database extensions to ensure proprietary contact data appeared accurately on Windows Mobile devices.

Native Schema Limitations

Standard synchronization via ActiveSync, WMDC, and Exchange ActiveSync utilized a fixed synchronization schema based on the Pocket Outlook Object Model (POOM). This schema strictly recognized standard MAPI contact properties such as business phone numbers, home addresses, email accounts, and company names. User-defined fields created through customized Outlook contact forms were ignored during default synchronization passes, leaving that data inaccessible on the device unless alternative mapping methods were applied.

Repurposing Standard Outlook Fields

The most reliable native workaround was reallocating unused standard fields to act as custom data placeholders. Both Outlook and Windows Mobile supported several auxiliary fields that synchronized reliably:

  • User Fields (User 1 through User 4): Outlook included four designated general-purpose text fields that mapped across certain ActiveSync configurations into the device’s extended contact attributes.
  • Auxiliary Phone Fields: Seldom-used communication slots—such as "Radio Phone," "Car Phone," "Pager," or "Assistant Phone"—were commonly used to store custom numeric or short text codes.
  • The Notes Field: When structured fields were not available, custom data strings were often appended to the standard Outlook "Notes" (Body) field. Because the Notes field synced completely with the Windows Mobile address book, it served as a universal, searchable fallback for custom data.

Third-Party Synchronization Software

To achieve direct field-to-field alignment without altering the structure of standard data, users utilized specialized third-party synchronization engines. Tools such as CompanionLink, Chapura PocketMirror, and Pumatech XTNDConnect offered dedicated mapping interfaces.

These utilities bypassed the standard WMDC contact provider. Within these software suites, administrators could open a graphical field-mapping table, select any custom user-defined property from an Outlook .pst or Exchange profile, and map it directly to an available field or custom database slot within the Windows Mobile contact store.

POOM and Custom ActiveSync Service Providers

For enterprise deployments, developers implemented custom synchronization solutions using the ActiveSync API and the Pocket Outlook Object Model (POOM).

By creating a custom ActiveSync Service Provider (CESync DLL), developers could intercept data transfers between the desktop MAPI store and the mobile device. This allowed custom MAPI named properties in Outlook to be extracted, translated, and written directly into custom database tables or extended properties within the Windows Mobile CEDB/EDBS contact database. Custom mobile applications built in C++ or the .NET Compact Framework were then used to display these customized contact records on the device interface.