Application Hooks

[robert_sun]

I am deciding to develope a add-in or a program for outlook express which could enable outlook express to share WAB on different computers.

I have checked the this website: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm
But as far as I can see, All the methods it mentioned, they concern the outlook instead of outlook express. At the moment, the trouble I am having is I don't have API for outlook express, don't know how does outlook express access the WAB.

I visited http://www.nektra.com/products/oeapi/ , they provide API for outlook express in rip off price. But they did mention "any customization of outlook express must be done using application hooks written in C." So I am wondering what is C application hooks? How do you create or download and use those hooks???

[BountyX]

Basically a hook is a method to get another program to run your code. The most common way to hook a program is to take a dll it uses, overlaod a function within that dll with your own code, then have that dll call the real one. Another way is to determine a function call that the program will use and inject your dll into the programs memory via a loader and use the same technique as mentioned above (without the dll replacement however).

A hook dosn't have to be this specific, its basically anything that intercepts some procedure and "re-interprets" it. A keyboard hook for example may take letters stored in the buffer of the keyboard, and filter certain words or key combinations. For example, Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL is a low level keyboard hook.