Reading e-mails from Outlook with Python through MAPI
Question:
I’m trying to write a short program that will read in the contents of e-mails within a folder on my exchange/Outlook profile so I can manipulate the data. However I’m having a problem finding much information about python and exchange/Outlook integration. A lot of stuff is either very old/has no docs/not explained. I’ve tried several snippets but seem to be getting the same errors. I’ve tried Tim Golden’s code:
import win32com.client
session = win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch ("MAPI.Session")
#
# Leave blank to be prompted for a session, or use
# your own profile name if not "Outlook". It is also
# possible to pull the default profile from the registry.
#
session.Logon ("Outlook")
messages = session.Inbox.Messages
#
# Although the inbox_messages collection can be accessed
# via getitem-style calls (inbox_messages[1] etc.) this
# is the recommended approach from Microsoft since the
# Inbox can mutate while you're iterating.
#
message = messages.GetFirst ()
while message:
print message.Subject
message = messages.GetNext ()
However I get an error:
pywintypes.com_error: (-2147221005, 'Invalid class string', None, None)
Not sure what my profile name is so I tried with:
session.Logon()
to be prompted but that didn’t work either (same error). Also tried both with Outlook open and closed and neither changed anything.
Answers:
I had the same problem you did – didn’t find much that worked. The following code, however, works like a charm.
import win32com.client
outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI")
inbox = outlook.GetDefaultFolder(6) # "6" refers to the index of a folder - in this case,
# the inbox. You can change that number to reference
# any other folder
messages = inbox.Items
message = messages.GetLast()
body_content = message.body
print body_content
I have created my own iterator to iterate over Outlook objects via python. The issue is that python tries to iterates starting with Index[0], but outlook expects for first item Index[1]… To make it more Ruby simple, there is below a helper class Oli with following
methods:
.items() – yields a tuple(index, Item)…
.prop() – helping to introspect outlook object exposing available properties (methods and attributes)
from win32com.client import constants
from win32com.client.gencache import EnsureDispatch as Dispatch
outlook = Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
mapi = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")
class Oli():
def __init__(self, outlook_object):
self._obj = outlook_object
def items(self):
array_size = self._obj.Count
for item_index in xrange(1,array_size+1):
yield (item_index, self._obj[item_index])
def prop(self):
return sorted( self._obj._prop_map_get_.keys() )
for inx, folder in Oli(mapi.Folders).items():
# iterate all Outlook folders (top level)
print "-"*70
print folder.Name
for inx,subfolder in Oli(folder.Folders).items():
print "(%i)" % inx, subfolder.Name,"=> ", subfolder
I had the same issue. Combining various approaches from the internet (and above) come up with the following approach (checkEmails.py)
class CheckMailer:
def __init__(self, filename="LOG1.txt", mailbox="Mailbox - Another User Mailbox", folderindex=3):
self.f = FileWriter(filename)
self.outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI").Folders(mailbox)
self.inbox = self.outlook.Folders(folderindex)
def check(self):
#===============================================================================
# for i in xrange(1,100): #Uncomment this section if index 3 does not work for you
# try:
# self.inbox = self.outlook.Folders(i) # "6" refers to the index of inbox for Default User Mailbox
# print "%i %s" % (i,self.inbox) # "3" refers to the index of inbox for Another user's mailbox
# except:
# print "%i does not work"%i
#===============================================================================
self.f.pl(time.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
tot = 0
messages = self.inbox.Items
message = messages.GetFirst()
while message:
self.f.pl (message.Subject)
message = messages.GetNext()
tot += 1
self.f.pl("Total Messages found: %i" % tot)
self.f.pl("-" * 80)
self.f.flush()
if __name__ == "__main__":
mail = CheckMailer()
for i in xrange(320): # this is 10.6 hours approximately
mail.check()
time.sleep(120.00)
For concistency I include also the code for the FileWriter class (found in FileWrapper.py). I needed this because
trying to pipe UTF8 to a file in windows did not work.
class FileWriter(object):
'''
convenient file wrapper for writing to files
'''
def __init__(self, filename):
'''
Constructor
'''
self.file = open(filename, "w")
def pl(self, a_string):
str_uni = a_string.encode('utf-8')
self.file.write(str_uni)
self.file.write("n")
def flush(self):
self.file.flush()
Sorry for my bad English.
Checking Mails using Python with MAPI is easier,
outlook =win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI")
folder = outlook.Folders[5]
Subfldr = folder.Folders[5]
messages_REACH = Subfldr.Items
message = messages_REACH.GetFirst()
Here we can get the most first mail into the Mail box, or into any sub folder. Actually, we need to check the Mailbox number & orientation. With the help of this analysis we can check each mailbox & its sub mailbox folders.
Similarly please find the below code, where we can see, the last/ earlier mails. How we need to check.
`outlook =win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI")
folder = outlook.Folders[5]
Subfldr = folder.Folders[5]
messages_REACH = Subfldr.Items
message = messages_REACH.GetLast()`
With this we can get most recent email into the mailbox.
According to the above mentioned code, we can check our all mail boxes, & its sub folders.
I’m trying to write a short program that will read in the contents of e-mails within a folder on my exchange/Outlook profile so I can manipulate the data. However I’m having a problem finding much information about python and exchange/Outlook integration. A lot of stuff is either very old/has no docs/not explained. I’ve tried several snippets but seem to be getting the same errors. I’ve tried Tim Golden’s code:
import win32com.client
session = win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch ("MAPI.Session")
#
# Leave blank to be prompted for a session, or use
# your own profile name if not "Outlook". It is also
# possible to pull the default profile from the registry.
#
session.Logon ("Outlook")
messages = session.Inbox.Messages
#
# Although the inbox_messages collection can be accessed
# via getitem-style calls (inbox_messages[1] etc.) this
# is the recommended approach from Microsoft since the
# Inbox can mutate while you're iterating.
#
message = messages.GetFirst ()
while message:
print message.Subject
message = messages.GetNext ()
However I get an error:
pywintypes.com_error: (-2147221005, 'Invalid class string', None, None)
Not sure what my profile name is so I tried with:
session.Logon()
to be prompted but that didn’t work either (same error). Also tried both with Outlook open and closed and neither changed anything.
I had the same problem you did – didn’t find much that worked. The following code, however, works like a charm.
import win32com.client
outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI")
inbox = outlook.GetDefaultFolder(6) # "6" refers to the index of a folder - in this case,
# the inbox. You can change that number to reference
# any other folder
messages = inbox.Items
message = messages.GetLast()
body_content = message.body
print body_content
I have created my own iterator to iterate over Outlook objects via python. The issue is that python tries to iterates starting with Index[0], but outlook expects for first item Index[1]… To make it more Ruby simple, there is below a helper class Oli with following
methods:
.items() – yields a tuple(index, Item)…
.prop() – helping to introspect outlook object exposing available properties (methods and attributes)
from win32com.client import constants
from win32com.client.gencache import EnsureDispatch as Dispatch
outlook = Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
mapi = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")
class Oli():
def __init__(self, outlook_object):
self._obj = outlook_object
def items(self):
array_size = self._obj.Count
for item_index in xrange(1,array_size+1):
yield (item_index, self._obj[item_index])
def prop(self):
return sorted( self._obj._prop_map_get_.keys() )
for inx, folder in Oli(mapi.Folders).items():
# iterate all Outlook folders (top level)
print "-"*70
print folder.Name
for inx,subfolder in Oli(folder.Folders).items():
print "(%i)" % inx, subfolder.Name,"=> ", subfolder
I had the same issue. Combining various approaches from the internet (and above) come up with the following approach (checkEmails.py)
class CheckMailer:
def __init__(self, filename="LOG1.txt", mailbox="Mailbox - Another User Mailbox", folderindex=3):
self.f = FileWriter(filename)
self.outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI").Folders(mailbox)
self.inbox = self.outlook.Folders(folderindex)
def check(self):
#===============================================================================
# for i in xrange(1,100): #Uncomment this section if index 3 does not work for you
# try:
# self.inbox = self.outlook.Folders(i) # "6" refers to the index of inbox for Default User Mailbox
# print "%i %s" % (i,self.inbox) # "3" refers to the index of inbox for Another user's mailbox
# except:
# print "%i does not work"%i
#===============================================================================
self.f.pl(time.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
tot = 0
messages = self.inbox.Items
message = messages.GetFirst()
while message:
self.f.pl (message.Subject)
message = messages.GetNext()
tot += 1
self.f.pl("Total Messages found: %i" % tot)
self.f.pl("-" * 80)
self.f.flush()
if __name__ == "__main__":
mail = CheckMailer()
for i in xrange(320): # this is 10.6 hours approximately
mail.check()
time.sleep(120.00)
For concistency I include also the code for the FileWriter class (found in FileWrapper.py). I needed this because
trying to pipe UTF8 to a file in windows did not work.
class FileWriter(object):
'''
convenient file wrapper for writing to files
'''
def __init__(self, filename):
'''
Constructor
'''
self.file = open(filename, "w")
def pl(self, a_string):
str_uni = a_string.encode('utf-8')
self.file.write(str_uni)
self.file.write("n")
def flush(self):
self.file.flush()
Sorry for my bad English.
Checking Mails using Python with MAPI is easier,
outlook =win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI")
folder = outlook.Folders[5]
Subfldr = folder.Folders[5]
messages_REACH = Subfldr.Items
message = messages_REACH.GetFirst()
Here we can get the most first mail into the Mail box, or into any sub folder. Actually, we need to check the Mailbox number & orientation. With the help of this analysis we can check each mailbox & its sub mailbox folders.
Similarly please find the below code, where we can see, the last/ earlier mails. How we need to check.
`outlook =win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI")
folder = outlook.Folders[5]
Subfldr = folder.Folders[5]
messages_REACH = Subfldr.Items
message = messages_REACH.GetLast()`
With this we can get most recent email into the mailbox.
According to the above mentioned code, we can check our all mail boxes, & its sub folders.