Lotus Notes 8.5 - Check for unread messages/documents

maybe

Maildb.GetAllUnreadDocuments()

instead of
Maildb.db.GetAllUnreadDocuments()

I hope this helps !

Thanks for noting the error SysExpert. Am so sorry, it was a mistake on my part while copying and pasting the code from my VB project to the Experts-Exchange site and modifying the same. Please treat the line
             Maildb.db.GetAllUnreadDocuments()
AS
             Maildb.GetAllUnreadDocuments()0

Apologies again for the typo in the code snippet. Please treat it as follows:
             Maildb.db.GetAllUnreadDocuments()
AS
             Maildb.GetAllUnreadDocuments()

maybe it should be

Inboxfolder.GetAllUnreadDocuments()

Thanks for the info SysExpert. I checked in the NotesView class and found one entry called GetAllUnreadEntries() that retrieves all the unread documents present in the view. I tried using the same but ended with the same error "Object doesnt support the property or method".

More information from my side:
I am using trial downloads of Lotus Domino Server 8.5 and Lotus Notes client 8.5
I am referencing "Lotus Domino Objects" and "Lotus Notes Automation Classes" in my VB project.

I would add error checking and logging at each command to be sure that it is doing, what you think it is.

Could it be that the object libraries you use are from an older Notes release?

Couple of remarks:
1.  Dim unreadmsgcollxn As domino.NotesNoteCollection - when you get the unread entries from a view/folder then actually the type must be Domino.NotesViewEntryCollection.

notesdatabase.GetAllUnreadDocuments() returns NotesNoteCollection

2. When you are typing the method name: Inboxfolder.GetAllUnreadDocuments() in VB editor, can you actually see the method name in object propeties? If you are using Visual Studio, then type-ahead must show you the list of existing properties and methods. If it is not in list, then the method is not supported in COM.

I tried it, using Lotus Domino Objects  COM version 1.2.0 and did not see those methods in list.

Seems those functions are NOT implemented in COM, as stated in document http://www.ipi.org/help/help8_designer.nsf/f4b82fbb75e942a6852566ac0037f284/434a089c9d8af96b8525731b0049e5c1?OpenDocument.
Function view.GetAllUnreadDocuments() is not mentioned at all, db.GetAllUnreadDocuments() is specified as not supported.

Maybe you can modify and use the functions from class, described in http://www.nsftools.com/tips/NotesTips.htm#unreaddocs .

Hello Olaraak

Thanks for the information. I was also thinking of the same! However, the URL  http://www.ipi.org/help/help8_designer.nsf/f4b82fbb75e942a6852566ac0037f284/434a089c9d8af96b8525731b0049e5c1?OpenDocument details about Lotus 8.0. I am actually using 8.5. Is there any documentation for 8.5 that describes the differences in COM?

http://www.xjhapac.mdi-international.com.au/help/help85_designer.nsf/b3266a3c17f9bb7085256b870069c0a9/684949767c7b2aca852574cf006b76db?OpenDocument

Seems identical...

yes sief bosman..it does look identical!! Looks like i will have to take the long way around in storing the message ids of each of the message and if that id is not present in the DB, then read the message!!

However, I can foresee another potential problem here! Even if I read the message, there seems to be no flag that I can set to let Lotus Domino/Notes that this message has been read!!

It seems possible to call GetAllUnreadDocuments from a Java application or class. Is Java an option for you?

Hello Sief Bosman..thanks for the information!! Java is not feasible as we are planning to use COM components for our application.

It doesn't seem to be impossible to call Java from VB...

http://visualbasic.ittoolbox.com/groups/technical-functional/visualbasic-l/call-java-objects-from-vb-321298
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/152967/can-you-use-java-libraries-in-a-vb-net-program

thanks for the info Sief Bosman. Will try this out. However, if you find anything else please let me know.

Regards

Whilst still tryin to find a way to get the Unread documents, I have hit upon 2 more issues

- If I get an unread document, how can i set the same to READ? Is there a flag to be set in COM?
- If I need to reply to the mail, I use CreateReplyMessage method of Notesdocument class. But it doesnt seem to append the text!! Please find the code snippet

    Dim inboxfolder As Domino.NotesView
    Dim doc As Domino.NotesDocument
    Dim MailDoc As Domino.NotesDocument
 
    Set inboxfolder = Maildb.GetView("$Inbox")
    Set MailDoc = inboxfolder.GetFirstDocument
    Set doc = MailDoc.CreateReplyMessage(False)
    Call MailDoc.CopyAllItems(doc, True)
    Call doc.AppendItemValue("Body", "This is a reply to the mail - NS ")
    doc.SaveMessageOnSend = True
    doc.Send False
    doc.PutInFolder ("$Sent")
    
    Dim lb As Boolean
    lb = doc.Save(True, True)

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As to the READ flag, there are the methods NotesDocumentCollection.MarkAllRead and NotesDocument.MarkRead. Whether they are available in COM I couldn't tell.

And your code is not quite right:
    Set MailDoc = inboxfolder.GetFirstDocument
    Set doc = MailDoc.CreateReplyMessage(False)
These lines created a reply-message, with everything set as it should except for the Subject-field.

But with
    Call MailDoc.CopyAllItems(doc, True)
you practically undo the CreateReplyMessage: all items are overwritten.

Then, the next line
    Call doc.AppendItemValue("Body", "This is a reply to the mail - NS ")
That's impossible, because that method is used for multi-value text-items, but in 99.9% of all messages, the Body-item is a rich-text item and has to be handled accordingly. You have to Get the Body-item, and use APpendText to add text at the end.

Hello Stef
Taking your suggestions into consideration, I applied the same in my code. The reply kinda worked!! Please see the attached snippet and also the Lotus Notes mail that got generated from the code.

As seen in the attached file, the appended text along with the original is coming in the below part of the mail (i.e. the parent mail) while the Reply mail body is blank. Any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong in the code? (Also, I need to just add the text to the reply mail and not append it to the parent mail)

Thanks in advance

Regards

    Dim inboxfolder As Domino.NotesView
    Set inboxfolder = Maildb.GetView("$Inbox")
 
    Set MailDoc = inboxfolder.GetFirstDocument
 
    Dim doc As Domino.NotesDocument
 
    Set doc = MailDoc.CreateReplyMessage(False)
     Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("Form", "Reply")
    Dim strbody As String
    Dim ritem As Domino.NotesRichTextItem
    Set ritem = MailDoc.GetFirstItem("Body")
    ritem.AppendText ("This is a reply to the mail242434 - NS")
    ritem.AddNewLine (1)
    Call doc.CopyItem(ritem, "Body")
    Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("Subject", "Re: " & MailDoc.GetFirstItem("Subject").Text)
    
    doc.SaveMessageOnSend = True
    Call doc.Send(False, "system/sone")
    doc.PutInFolder ("$Sent")
    
    Dim lb As Boolean
    lb = doc.Save(True, True)

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ReplyMail.JPG

Progress! Love it :-)

Do you really have to copy over the rich text item? According to this link:
      http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21192171
CreateReplyMessage does a lot more than you think. There should already be a Body in the reply message. Apparently, you can get it and start appending text at the right place.

Change your code into:
    Set ritem = doc.GetFirstItem("Body")
    ritem.AppendText ("This is a reply to the mail242434 - NS")
    ritem.AddNewLine (1)
    ' Call doc.CopyItem(ritem, "Body") ' or remove this line
and test again.

thanks for the input Sief.

However it is the same result!! Please find the code snippet and the mail that was received in the attachment

    Dim session As Domino.NotesSession
    Dim Maildb As Domino.NotesDatabase
    Dim UserName As String
    Dim MailDoc As Domino.NotesDocument
    Dim dir As Domino.NotesDbDirectory
    Dim doccoll As Domino.NotesDocumentCollection
 
    Set session = New Domino.NotesSession
    Call session.Initialize(<password>)
    
    UserName = session.UserName
    Set dir = session.GetDbDirectory(<directory>)
    Set Maildb = dir.OpenDatabase(<nsf file>)
    
    Dim inboxfolder As Domino.NotesView
    Set inboxfolder = Maildb.GetView("$Inbox")
 
    Set MailDoc = inboxfolder.GetFirstDocument
 
    Dim doc As Domino.NotesDocument
    Dim ritem As Domino.NotesRichTextItem
 
    Set doc = MailDoc.CreateReplyMessage(False)
    Set ritem = doc.GetFirstItem("Body")
    Call ritem.AppendText("This is a reply to the mail242434 - NS")
    
    Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("Form", "Reply")
    Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("Subject", "Re: " & MailDoc.GetFirstItem("Subject").Text)
    
    doc.SaveMessageOnSend = True
    Call doc.Send(False, "system/sone")
    doc.PutInFolder ("$Sent")
    
    Dim lb As Boolean
    lb = doc.Save(True, True)

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ReplyMail2.JPG

Then add, after line 24
    Call body.BeginInsert(rtitem)

I believe I cannot use it as is! I looked at certain examples and found that they require NotesRichTextNavigator objects as well !! Please correct me if  I am wrong

Well..some progress at least!! I scanned thro' the IBM infocenter and found some code that was useful. I have changed it accordingly and have attached the code snippet and also the Reply mail that gets generated from it. Please do have a look at the same and guide me on where Iam coding it wrong.

Tried using RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTPARAGRAPH and RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTRUN to get to the beginning of the mail. didnt work!! Removed the line rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTPARAGRAPH) and tried to use just Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav), got an error!

Thanks in advance

Dim session As Domino.NotesSession
    Dim Maildb As Domino.NotesDatabase
    Dim MailDoc As Domino.NotesDocument
    Dim dir As Domino.NotesDbDirectory
    Dim doc As Domino.NotesDocument
    Dim body As Domino.NotesRichTextItem
    Dim rtnav As Domino.NotesRichTextNavigator
    Dim inboxfolder As Domino.NotesView
    Dim firstdoc As Domino.NotesDocument
    
    Set session = New Domino.NotesSession
    Call session.Initialize(<password>)
    
    Set dir = session.GetDbDirectory(<directory>)
    Set db = dir.OpenDatabase(<NSF File>)
    
    Set inboxfolder = db.GetView("$Inbox")
    Set firstdoc = inboxfolder.GetFirstDocument
    Set doc = firstdoc.CreateReplyMessage(False)
    Set body = doc.GetFirstItem("Body")
    
    Set rtnav = body.CreateNavigator
    Call rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTPARAGRAPH)
 
    Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)
    Call body.AppendText("Testing from command 4")
    Call body.AddNewLine(1)
    Call body.EndInsert
    Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("Form", "Reply")
    Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("Subject", "Re: " & firstdoc.GetFirstItem("Subject").Text)
  
    doc.SaveMessageOnSend = True
    Call doc.Send(False)
    Call doc.PutInFolder("$Sent")
    Call doc.Save(True, False, True)
    
    Set firstdoc = Nothing
    Set inboxfolder = Nothing
    Set rtnav = Nothing
    Set body = Nothing
    Set doc = Nothing
    Set dir = Nothing
    Set Maildb = Nothing
    Set session = Nothing

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ReplyMail3.JPG

Ah, good! Sorry I didn't mention that you have to create a navigator-object.

What I'm afraid of is that VB doesn't know the constant RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTPARAGRAPH. Try using the constant 4 instead.

HEllo Sief

Tried with constant 4. Its the same result yet again!! :(

or is it that I am missng setting some property? As you can see, the original mail's history says that the mail is forwarded, while the look and feel of a proper Reply mail in Lotus Notes is different.

Just one question: why do you change the Form to "Reply" ?? Can you try with "Memo" ?

And can you add some lines after you add the text?

Changed the Form to Memo and added a few more text and around 6 new lines..Please find the snapshot of the Reply Mail
ReplyMail4.JPG

Hmmm... Maybe the Reply-form wasn't so bad after all...

What I think is that the text is inserted in a table cell. Can you try with different calls to FindFirst, one per type of element, so that you know which element comes first?

If you want to delve into the murky depths of a Notes database:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/sandbox.nsf/ByDateNJ/2791869f4e1d3fa385256f2c00432973?OpenDocument

Hello Sjef,
Tried all the permutations and combinations!! But nothing worked!!
RTELEM_TYPE_TABLE (1)  - Lotus Mail client hung for this mail. I had to terminate the process and restart the client again
RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTPARAGRAPH (4) - You have seen the result already
RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTRUN (3) - same as paragraph
RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL (7) - overwrites on the mail icon of the original mail
RTELEM_TYPE_DOCLINK (5)  - VB error while executing
RTELEM_TYPE_FILEATTACHMENT (8)   - VB error while executing
RTELEM_TYPE_OLE (9)   - VB error while executing
RTELEM_TYPE_SECTION (6)   - VB error while executing

I hope to show you tomorrow how NotesPeek might help you how to find the right position to insert your text.

Any progress?

Got held up in other projects, Sorry. I am now free and will be able to look into this issue now.

using notespeek didnt help solve the problem!! But my sincere thanks to Sjef Bosman for taking me this far! Much appreciated!

But still this is open ended!! But I would definitely give the points to Sjef Bosman for helping me till here!! Thanks for everything