E.mail interface

[Win]

Dear Monks,

I would like to write a Perl program that will read my Microsoft Outlook email account and then search through subject headings and pick out emails with particular headings. When the emails of interest are found I want them to detach an attached file and save it to a local folder. Please can people suggest modules that I should be looking at?

[bassplayer]

For interfacing with Windows programs, check out the Win32::OLE module on CPAN, and as suggested above, search nodes on this site, as others may have done parts of your task already.

[NetWallah]

It always helps to have a working sample, to use as a starting point - so here is some:

#Read Outlook Folder...
use strict;
use Win32::OLE qw(in);
use Constant olFolderCalendar=>9;

my $Outlook = Win32::OLE->GetObject("Outlook.Application")
 || Win32::OLE->new("Outlook.Application");

my $Session = $Outlook->Session;
#my $NameSpace = $Session->GetNameSpace("MAPI");
#my $ContactsFolder = $NameSpace->GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts);

ShowSubFolders ($Session->Folders);
#################################################
sub ShowSubFolders{
  my $FolderCollection = shift;
  my $level = shift || 0;

  for my $Folder (in $FolderCollection) {
    print "  " x $level . "Folder$level: $Folder->{Name}\t(" . $Folder
+->Items->{Count}. ")\n";
    #if ($Folder->{Name} =~ /Personal Folders/) {
    if ($Folder->{Name} =~ /^Mailbox|^Issues/) {
      ShowSubFolders($Folder->Folders, $level + 1);
    }
    if ($Folder->{Name} =~ /Inbox/) {
      my $msgCount=1;
      print "*** Please OK the msgbox in outlook that requests externa
+l program access**\n";
      $Folder->Items->Sort ("CreationTime",1); # Descending by date
      for my $Item (in $Folder->Items) {
        print "$msgCount:  $Item->{SenderName} : $Item->{Subject}\n";
        #print "\t $Item->{Body} \n\n";
        last if $msgCount++ > 9;
      }
    }
  }
}

[Popcorn Dave]

Start by looking at Mail::Pop3Client. That should do what your'e after as far as being able to access your e-mail. If however you want to look at your e-mail already in your Outlook Express, that's quite a different story.

[eweaver]

You need to specify what exactly you mean by "read my outlook account". I think you are referring to already downloaded messages on your computer, not your email account itself, but maybe not. If you connect using IMAP you can bypass outlook altogether, because IMAP saves all your mail server-side. POP3 does not.

[SamCG]

Hey Win,

I did almost exactly this recently...this script takes a folder that you want to search, a folder you want to move processed mail items to, and a regex to search on the subject line.

The datestamping could use work, I was just lazy b/c it was just for me.

#! perl -w
use strict;
use Win32::OLE qw(in valof with OVERLOAD);
my $infolder;

my $tstamp = &getDateString;

my ($in, $to, $submatch)=@ARGV;
my $mail = new Win32::OLE('Outlook.Application');

my $ns = $mail->GetNamespace("MAPI");
my $inbox = $ns->GetDefaultFolder(6);
if ($in !~ /inbox/i){
    $infolder = $inbox->Folders($in);
    }
else {
    $infolder = $inbox;
    }

my $tofolder = $inbox->Folders($to);


my $count = $infolder->Items->Count;
print "There are $count messages in the $in folder\n";
my $i=0;
my $result = &saveAttachments($submatch);



sub saveAttachments(){
my ($sub) = @_;

foreach my $item(in $infolder->Items){
    #my $bdy = $item->Body;
    my $subject = $item->Subject;
    #print "$subject\n";
    #print "$bdy\n";
    if ($subject =~ /$sub/i){
        foreach my $atm(in $item->Attachments){
            my $atmname = $atm->FileName;
            $tstamp = &getDateString;
            print "\nSaving $tstamp.$atmname...";
            $atm->SaveAsFile("H:\\erepts\\$tstamp.$atmname");
            (-e "H:\\erepts\\$tstamp.$atmname") or print "Could not sa
+ve $tstamp.$atmname\n";
            }
        $item->Move($tofolder);
        }
    }
        
}

sub getDateString(){

    my @fields=localtime();

    $fields[5] += 1900;
    $fields[4]++;
    for (@fields){
        $_ = sprintf ("%01d", $_) if length($_) gt 2;
        }
    my $time_stamp = join "-", reverse @fields[0..5];
    return $time_stamp;
}


#$mail->Quit();

[marto]

Win,

What have you tried so far?
Have you looked on Cpan for pop3/imap modules which would help you with this?
If you did a Super Search you may find that someone else has done something similar in the past.

Hope this helps.

Martin