open an existing email with outlook from a website

Question

We are saving some Emails from a specific Inbox of an Exchange Server to some kind of tracking system. User look at this tracking system by using the browser.

What I am trying to do now is to generate a link on a webpage which opens an existing email in Outlook 2010 on the client of course.

To generate this link I have all necessary information of the email/item (using Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices).

So how to do that?

ok what i have so far: convert the ewsId (id of the mail on exchange server) from exchange server to entryid of outlook. this is done by using the ConvertId method of EWS.

now i have the problem that when i try to load the mail with outlook i get an error "element could not be opened. try again".

Answer 1

ok i found a solution an post my code here:

on the serverside (c# with exchange webservice):

    private static String GetOutlookEntryId( EmailMessage message, ExchangeService esb ) {
        AlternateId ewsId = new AlternateId( IdFormat.EwsId, message.Id.ToString(), "[email protected]" );
        AlternateIdBase entryId = esb.ConvertId( ewsId, IdFormat.EntryId );
        return Base64StringToHexString( ( (AlternateId)entryId ).UniqueId );
    }

    public static String Base64StringToHexString( String base64String ) {
        byte[] bytes = System.Convert.FromBase64String( base64String );

        StringBuilder sbHexString = new StringBuilder();
        for( int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++ ) {
            sbHexString.Append( bytes[i].ToString( "X2" ) );
        }
        return sbHexString.ToString();
    }

on the client side (Internet explorer, Outlook installed, vbscript):

<script language="vbscript">
sub openMailInOutlook
    mailID = "the entry id converted from exchange id on the server side"

    set olApp = createobject("Outlook.Application")

    set session = olApp.Session
    set originalMailItem = session.GetItemFromID( mailID )

    originalMailItem.Display

    set olNs = Nothing
    set olApp = Nothing
end sub

Answer 2

Hi I think This Will help U

Basically there are three ways of doing this.

• Using mailto to open the outlook Application
• Using the traditional SMTP Send Mail
• Using the Outlook Object Library to open the outlook along with an added attachment as an integral part of the application.

Using Mailto Link

<A href=”mailto:[email protected]
         ?Cc:[email protected]
         &Subject:Using Mailto to send mails&Body:this is a test”>. 

This is a cheesy way of doing it. Pass the attributes along with the mailto

However if you want to use this in a VB.Net LinkLabel. You can do it this way

Dim strURL as String strURL = “mailto:[email protected]
                              ?Cc:[email protected]
                              &Subject:Using Mailto to send mails&Body:this is a test” 
Process.Start(strURL)

Using SMTP Send Mail

Before you start coding make sure you import the related namespace

Imports System.Web.Mail

Here goes the code

Public Function SMTPCall()
    Dim strTo As String
    Dim strFrom As String 
    Dim strBody As String 
    Dim strSubject As String 
    strTo = "[email protected]" 

    'Make sure you set the from address, 
    'some SMTP servers wouldn't send a mail without the FROM address 
    strFrom = "[email protected]" `
    strBody = "Test on Sending Mail"` 
    strSubject = "Did this mail reach you yet?" `
    SmtpMail.Send(strFrom, strTo, strSubject, strBody) `
End Function`

Looks good, but the limitation with the above two methods is you cannot send an attachment. What if the user wants to access the outlook address book and also send the mail an attachment?

Using MSOutlook Object Library

Here’s a small piece of code for outlook integration with VB.Net using MS Outlook object Library.

• First instantiate the Outlook application object.
• Make sure you add the references in the Project References.

• Right click on the References in the Solution Explorer. Add “Microsoft Outlook 10.0 Object Library”.

  public Function OutlookCall() 'Take an instance of the Outlook App Dim oOutlook As New Outlook.Application()

  'Create an instance of the MailItem 
  Dim oMailitem As Outlook.MailItem`
  
  'Create an instance of the Attachment 
  Dim oAttach As Outlook.Attachment
  oMailitem = oOutlook.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olMailItem)
  oMailitem.To = “[email protected]”
  oMailitem.Cc = “[email protected]”
  oMailitem.Subject = "Email Integration with Outlook and VB.Net"
  
  'txtFilepath is a text box that contains the path for attachment.
  If (txtFilepath.Text = "") Then
      MsgBox ("You did not attach a file")
  Else
      'Attach the file Path to the Mail Item 
      oMailitem.Attachments.Add(txtFilepath.Text)
  End If
  
  'PING….Displays the Outlook along with the To,Cc,Subject and Attachment 
  oMailitem.Display()
  

  End Function

There are a lot of other features you can do with this outlook object. Hope this helps.

Note:

• Microsoft Outlook should be the installed on the machine.
• Microsoft Outlook is assumed as the default mail client application.
• If an existing instance of outlook send item is already running, it would still create a new mail Message.

this vl help u