Question

Retrieve an email ID from Outlook when creating an email from Access

Asked by: pauldonson

I have an Access ADP project that allows users to send an email from the system, I use Redemption to bypass the Outlook security dialogues. Once the email has been sent it must be saved in the database so that other users can view it at a later date.

Currently, the way I do this is to have a form "Send email" that has boxes for the "To","CC","BCC","Subject","Body", read receipts, attachments etc. Using VBA I then construct the email, save it as an MSG file, import it into the SQL database using ADO.Stream, then Send it.

This achieves the objective but it isn't very "nice" - the user cannot see what the email looks like before it goes, signatures are a problem and when it is viewed at a later date Outlook kindly states on the email "This message has not been sent" (which is a lie) which causes a bit of uncertainty amongst users.

So, I am wondering if we can fire up an email in Outlook (I can do this bit) maybe obtain the ID of the email - the user can do what they want to the email and then send it. My code would then retrieve the email from the sent items using the ID it obtained earlier.

Is this possible? Or does anyone have another way of doing it?

One other idea I had was to fire up the email, prompt the user to make any changes and then close it without sending it. I would then save and send it in VBA. The problem I had with this method is detecting when the user has closed the msg file (see this question for details about this issue:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS_Access/Access_Coding-Macros/Q_23637767.html

)

Thanks!

(I have previously asked this question in the Access section so apologies if you have seen it before)

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Asked On
2008-08-13 at 07:28:36ID23644762
Tags

VBA

,

Outlook 2003/2007

Topics

Outlook Groupware Software

,

Email Software

Participating Experts
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: BlueDevilFanPosted on 2008-08-17 at 15:53:21ID: 22248520

Hi, pauldonson.

Why do you use your own form rather than Outlook's form?  That aside, yes, you can get the email ID.  In your code create a message using Redemption, then save the item.  That should save it to the Drafts folder.  It should also fill in the EntryID property, which is what you're looking for.  You can use that value to retrieve the message at any time.

 

by: pauldonsonPosted on 2008-08-18 at 06:18:29ID: 22251520

OK, that is just what I need! I have managed to save the message and retrive the EntryID into a String. Do you know a quick way to grab that message from Outlook? I have had a scout round and most of the code I can find involves trawling through the sent items until the correct ID is found, is there not a way of just fetching the email back by its ID?

I have attached my code so far which sends the email (in the final version it will pause until the user clicks send)

Dim objOutlook As Object
Dim objMessage As Object
Dim oItem
 
Set objOutlook = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set objMessage = CreateObject("Redemption.SafeMailItem")
Set oItem = objOutlook.createitem(0)
 
With objMessage
    .Item = oItem
    .Recipients.Add "user@company.co.uk"
    .Subject = "Test email"
    .HTMLBody = "HTML Body"
End With
 
objMessage.Save
 
Dim strID As String
strID = objMessage.EntryID
 
objMessage.send
 
Set oItem = Nothing
Set objMessage = Nothing
Set objOutlook = Nothing

                                              
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by: pauldonsonPosted on 2008-08-18 at 07:32:33ID: 22252188

OK, I have figured out the attached which (in theory) saves the email - gets the EntryID, waits for the user to amend and send the email then fetches the email back from the sent items folder.

Of course, now I find out that the EntryID changes when the email moves from drafts to sent items!

Any suggestions please?

Dim objOutlook As Object
Dim objMessage As Object
Dim oItem
 
Set objOutlook = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set objMessage = CreateObject("Redemption.SafeMailItem")
Set oItem = objOutlook.createitem(0)
 
With objMessage
    .Item = oItem
    .Recipients.Add "pdonson@prospecit.co.uk"
    .Subject = "Test email"
    .HTMLBody = "HTML Body - what does it look like"
End With
 
objMessage.Save
 
Dim strID As String
strID = objMessage.EntryID
 
objMessage.Display
 
MsgBox "Please format the email as required and click send. Press OK when you have finished, or cancel to abandon"
 
Set objMessage = Nothing
 
Dim objNameSpace As Object, objDrafts As Object
Set objNameSpace = objOutlook.getnamespace("MAPI")
Set objDrafts = objNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(5) '5 = olFolderSent
Set objMessage = objNameSpace.GetItemFromID(strID)
 
objMessage.Display

                                              
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by: BlueDevilFanPosted on 2008-08-18 at 17:19:52ID: 22256415

Hmmmm.  EntryID shouldn't change between Drafts and Sent Items unless those folders are in different information stores (i.e. a PST of mailbox), which is unlikely.  Here's what Microsoft says about EntryID, "A MAPI store provider assigns a unique ID string when an item is created in its  store. Therefore, the EntryID property is not set for an Outlook item  until it is saved or sent.  The Entry ID changes when an item is moved into another store ..."  I ran a test by creating and saving an item to my Drafts folder, then checking it's EntryID property.  Next, I sent the message and checked the EntryID of the message in Sent Items.  Here are the results.

  1. 00000000D3E5F7DEED86F1458E604FF49BD57BC9A4475900 
  2. 00000000D3E5F7DEED86F1458E604FF49BD57BC9C4475900 
At first glance they appeared the same.  Then I noticed that they are indeed different (i've highlighted the differences).  That shouldn't happen.  Drafts and Sent Items are in the same store.  Since this is clearly NOT behaving as described, the only solution I can recommend is to create your own unique identifier and store it in a user property field.  

 

by: pauldonsonPosted on 2008-09-01 at 04:46:24ID: 22359379

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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