Core Python Programming (2nd Edition)

This script launches Outlook, creates a new message, "sends" it, and lets you view it by
opening and displaying both the Outbox and the message itself.
1 #!/usr/bin/env python
2
3 from Tkinter import Tk
4 from time import sleep
5 from tkMessageBox import showwarning
6 import win32com.client as win32
7
8 warn = lambda app: showwarning(app, 'Exit?')
9 RANGE = range(3, 8)
10
11 def outlook():
12 app = 'Outlook'
13 olook = win32.gencache.EnsureDispatch('%s.Application' % app)
14
15 mail = olook.CreateItem(win32.constants.olMailItem)
16 recip = mail.Recipients.Add('you@127.0.0.1')
17 subj = mail.Subject = 'Python-to-%s Demo' % app
18 body = ["Line %d" % i for i in RANGE]
19 body.insert(0, '%s\r\n' % subj)
20 body.append("\r\nTh-th-th-that's all folks!")
21 mail.Body = '\r\n'.join(body)
22 mail.Send()
23
24 ns = olook.GetNamespace("MAPI")
25 obox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(win32.constants.olFolderOutbox)
26 obox.Display()
27 obox.Items.Item(1).Display()
28
29 warn(app)
30 olook.Quit()
31
32 if __name__=='__main__':
33 Tk().withdraw()
34 outlook()
In this example, we use Outlook to send an e-mail to ourselves. In order to make the demonstration
work, you need to turn off your network access so that you do not really send the message, and thus
are able to view it in your Outbox folder (and delete it if desired after viewing it). After launching
Outlook, we create a new mail message and fill out the various fields such as recipient, subject, and
body (lines 1521). We then call the send() method (line 22) to spool the message to the Outbox where it
will be moved to "Sent Mail" once the message has actually been transmitted to the mail server.
Like PowerPoint, there are many constants available ... olMailItem (with a constant value of 0) is the
one used for e-mail messages. Other popular Outlook items include olAppointmentItem (1),
olContactItem (2), and olTaskItem (3). Of course, there are more, so you will have to find a VB/Office
programming book or search for the constants and their values online.
In the next section (lines 2427), we use another constant,olFolderOutbox (4), to open the Outbox folder
and bring it up for display. We find the most recent item (hopefully the one we just created) and display
it as well. Other popular folders include: olFolderInbox (6), olFolderCalendar (9), olFolderContacts (10),