Avoid duplicate items when creating contact in Php-Ews

Question

I'm using https://github.com/Garethp/php-ews/ library to access to my public contact folder on Exchange server.

This is how i create a contact.

$api = API::withUsernameAndPassword($server, $user, $pass);
$folder = $api->getFolderByDisplayName('Public', Enumeration\DistinguishedFolderIdNameType::PUBLICFOLDERSROOT);
$contattiTotali = $api->getFolderByDisplayName('Contacts', $folder->getFolderId());
$id=$contattiTotali->getFolderId()->getId();
$api->setFolderId($contattiTotali->getFolderId());

$api->createContacts(array(
    'GivenName' => 'Homer',
    'Surname' => 'Simpson',
    'EmailAddresses' => array(
        'Entry' => array('Key' => Enumeration\EmailAddressKeyType::EMAIL_ADDRESS_1, '_value' => 'h.simpson@gmail.com')
    ),
    //Creating multiple entries
    'PhoneNumbers' => array(
        'Entry' => array(
            array('Key' => Enumeration\PhoneNumberKeyType::HOME_PHONE, '_value' => '000'),
            array('Key' => Enumeration\PhoneNumberKeyType::BUSINESS_PHONE, '_value' => '111'),
        )
    ),
    'PhysicalAddresses' => array(
        'Entry' => array(
            'Key' => Enumeration\PhysicalAddressKeyType::HOME,
            'street' => '123 Street',
            'city' => '123 City',
            'state' => '123 State',
            'countryOrRegion' => '123 Country',
            'postalCode' => '12345',
        )
    ),
));

The code, actually, works fine, but if i execute it several times, it duplicates the contact.

Is there a way to check if the contact (email address is good enough) already exists before creating a new one?

Answer 1

The easiest way to telling if a contact already exists with a particular email address is to use the ResolveName operation eg

    $request = new EWSType_ResolveNamesType();

    $request->UnresolvedEntry = "address@domain.com";
    $request->ReturnFullContactData = true;
    $return = $ews->ResolveNames($request);

    if ($return->ResponseMessages->ResolveNamesResponseMessage->ResponseCode == "NoError") {
        return $return->ResponseMessages->ResolveNamesResponseMessage->ResolutionSet->Resolution->Mailbox->EmailAddress;
    }