Multiple Actions for one Outlook rule in Powershell

Question

I have a question about Outlook Rules in Powershell. I wrote some code that successfully stores any incoming e-mail from a certain sender to the deleted-items folder. I did this because when the mails enter the junk folder, the junk folder still has the counter token of mails, so in the end it will say I have 10-mails in the junk folder.

I want to avoid this by just throwing the incoming mails from that sender to the deleted-items folder and also marking the mail as "read" so that I don't see the clutter in the deleted items folder.

The question is really:

Can I add multiple actions to the same outlook rule in powershell? if so, how?
What is the syntax / code for the "run script" action?

My code so far:

$ol = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$ns = $ol.GetNamespace("MAPI")

$olFolders = "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders"
$outlook = New-Object -ComObject outlook.application
$namespace  = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")

$inBox = $ns.GetDefaultFolder([Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders]::olFolderInbox)
$deleted = $ns.GetDefaultFolder([Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders]::olFolderDeletedItems)

$rules = $outlook.session.DefaultStore.GetRules()
$rule = $rules.create("Move mail: to DeletedItems", [Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlRuleType]::olRuleReceive)

$rule_Address = $rule.Conditions.SenderAddress
$rule_Address.Enabled = $true
$rule_Address.Address = @("<Sender Address>")
$action = $rule.Actions.MoveToFolder
$action.Enabled = $true 

[Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._MoveOrCopyRuleAction].InvokeMember("Folder",[System.Reflection.BindingFlags]::SetProperty,$null, $action, $deleted)

$rules.Save()

This code works so far.

Please help. Thanks!

Matt Matt · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-09T19:27:14

Can I add multiple actions to the same outlook rule in powershell? if so, how?

Took a bit but I got a working test that uses multiple actions applied to a single rule. It is actually easy and you just need to repeat the steps you have already done and create a different action variable.

In my example, just showing the end of the code, I have added a action to display a message in the New Item Alert window.

...
$action = $rule.Actions.MoveToFolder
$action.Enabled = $true 

$anotherAction = $rule.Actions.NewItemAlert
$anotherAction.Text = "I am awesome!"
$anotherAction.Enabled = $true 

[Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._MoveOrCopyRuleAction].InvokeMember("Folder",[System.Reflection.BindingFlags]::SetProperty,$null, $action, $deleted)

$rules.Save()

You quite possibly already tried something like this. If not there is an important reference for this that you need to be aware of.

What is the syntax / code for the "run script" action?

This is one of the actions you cannot programatically set as per this reference for Office 2007 or this one for Office 2010/2013. The tables are similar and rather large to include here but I will reference the one in your 2nd bullet.

Action                                              : Start a script
Constant in olRuleActionType                        : olRuleActionRunScript
Supported when creating new rules programmatically? : No
Apply to olRuleReceive rules?                       : Yes
Apply to olRuleSend rules?                          : No

There are others as well where you are restricted. So you need to keep that in mind when you are making your rules.

Multiple Actions for one Outlook rule in Powershell

1 Answers