MS Outlook Programming

[ksj]

So, a client with the ability to send emails from inside their Access database and have the fact that an email was sent logged to the relevant Contact record has asked if we can set it up so that when they send an email from Outlook, it also records it in the Access database, if it finds a matching "to" in the contacts table. Basically they email out of Outlook 90% of the time, and sending emails out of Access just doesn't fit how they interact with their computers.

Any ideas?

Kate

 

[darbid]

if we can set it up so that when they send an email from Outlook, it also records it in the Access database, if it finds a matching "to" in the contacts table.

Hi Kate;

Basically if they are only using Outlook then you are going to need to code in outlook. If it is just a few computers you could add the code manually to each computer via the VBEditor. If you want it more distributable then you would need to make this into an Outlook Addin.

Basically in word form here is what you would be doing.

In Outlook you set up a listener "Dim WithEvents" for each email that is sent. The SEND event will be fired each time they send an email. You could then look at this email and decide what to do with it based on your criteria of the TO or whatever.

Second you could wait for a new item to hit the sent items folder (this is a better solution) you then do the same inspection of the contents to decide what to do with it.

So you now have an email which matches your criteria.

At this stage you could do 2 things. You could pass the email as an object to an open access database (by way of a public function in your Access code) and then let access coding deal with it. Or in your outlook code could you could open a database and add the information to a table as needed. Then the next time they open any Access code that deals with these tables. The information will be there.

I know I have made what is a long and complicated task into a few lines so feel free to ask specifics.