How PowerShell Interacts with Outlook
The purpose of this page is to employ PowerShell to GetNameSpace("MAPI"), and thus make it possible to interact with Microsoft's Outlook client.
PowerShell with Outlook
- Planning: PowerShell Interrogates Outlook
- List Senders' Addresses
- Instructions: Creating a PowerShell Function
- Ideas for Analyzing Outlook Emails
- Another Example Reading Email Subjects
♣
Planning: PowerShell Interrogates Outlook
Stage 1: We create a new ComObject
New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
Next, we set the namespace
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
$NameSpace.Folders.Item(1)
Stage 2: We will retrieve information about the actual messages.
Stage 1: PowerShell Lists Outlook's Folders
Clear-host
Add-Type -Assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook"
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
$NameSpace.Folders.Item(1).Folders | FT FolderPath
Stage 2: List Senders' Addresses Stored in Outlook's Inbox
This script connect to the logged on user's Outlook Inbox, then enumerates the email addresses of each message's sender.
Clear-Host
$Folder = "InBox"
Add-Type -Assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook"
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
$NameSpace.Folders.Item(1)
$Email = $NameSpace.Folders.Item(1).Folders.Item($Folder).Items
$Email | Sort-Object SenderEmailAddress -Unique | FT SenderEmailAddress
Note 1: Folders.Item(1).Folders.Item($Folder).items is correct
Instructions: Creating a PowerShell Function
By wrapping the above instructions in a function we introduce extra flexibility, for example, changing the folder from Inbox to Customers.
Function: Get-EmailAddress
Function Global:Get-EmailAddress{
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False,Position=0)]
[string]$Folder ="InBox"
)
Process {
Clear-Host
Add-Type -assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook"
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
$NameSpace.Folders.Item(1)
$Email = $NameSpace.Folders.Item(1).Folders.Item($Folder).Items
$Email | Sort-Object SenderEmailAddress -Unique | FT SenderEmailAddress, To -Auto
} # End of Process
}
Get-EmailAddress #-Folder Customers
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Ideas for Analyzing Outlook Emails
I love discovering additional properties to incorporate in my PowerShell scripts; for this research my cmdlet of choice is Get-Member.
Clear-Host
$Folder = "InBox"
Add-Type -assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook"
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
$NameSpace.Folders.Item(1)
$Email = $NameSpace.Folders.Item(1).Folders.Item($Folder).Items
$Email | Get-Member -MemberType Properties |Ft Name
Note 2: Using this technique I discovered the 'To' property for my Get-EmailAddress function. Get-Member also introduced me to properties such as 'Importance' and 'Unread'.
Another Example Reading Email Subjects
The design brief: To filter out 'Unread', then sort on a variety of criteria; finally, list the subject and sender of each matching email.
At the heart of any PowerShell function is the Process. What this Get-Email function does is create an Outlook object, and then retrieve messages from a named folder. The default location is set to the Inbox, but the benefit of a function is that you can amend the source of messages using the -Folder parameter.
Function Global:Get-Email {
Param(
[String]$Folder = "InBox",
[String]$Test ="Unread",
[String]$Compare =$True
)
Process{
$Folder = $Folder
Add-Type -Assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook"
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
$NameSpace.Folders.Item(1)
$Email = $NameSpace.Folders.Item(1).Folders.Item($Folder).Items
Clear-Host
Write-Host "Trawling through Outlook, please wait …."
$Email | Where-Object {$_.$Test -match $Compare} | Sort-Object -Property `
@{Expression = "Unread";Descending=$true}, `
@{Expression = "Importance";Descending=$true}, `
@{Expression = "SenderEmailAddress";Descending=$false} -Unique `
| Format-Table Subject, " ", SenderEmailAddress -AutoSize
} # End of main section 'Process'
}
Get-Email #-Compare false
Note 3: This function has three parameters
-Folder: Specifies on of the yellow directories seen in Outlook
-Test: Allows you to change the criterion.
-Compare: Enables you to switch false to true, or use a string if that is more appropriate.
Note 4: @Expression enables us to sort on a variety of criteria.
Other Outlook Tasks for PowerShell
If you remember, I used Get-Member to list properties; we could modify the output to list methods. Methods open up more possibilities, for example, to delete emails, and even add 'Rules' for Outlook to handle incoming messages. Here is a case in point:
Clear-Host
Add-Type -assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook"
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$Namespace = $Outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
# Try this
$Namespace | Get-Member -MemberType Property
# and then
$NameSpace.DefaultStore | Get-Member -MemberType Method
This is how I discovered:
$Rules = $Namespace.DefaultStore.GetRules()
$Rules | Format-Table Name
Vaguely Related Topic: Test-Email Function
I came accross this little function to check the validity of an email address; what attracted me was the existence of [System.Net.Mail.MailAddress].
Function Global:Test-Email {
Param(
[String]$Message = "Wrong#gmail.com"
)
Begin {
Clear-Host
}
Process {
If ($Message -As [System.Net.Mail.MailAddress])
{
Write-Host "$Message is a good email address"
}
else
{
Write-Host "$Message is a bad email address"
}
} # End of Process
} # End of function
Test-Email
Note 5: While this function has a default email address, you can easily append your own thus:
Test-Email guythomas'cp.com.
See my PowerShell Send-Email function ยป
Summary PowerShell Send-Mail Function
This page shows how PowerShell can interrogate Microsoft Outlook. If you are going to investigate the email messages in detail, then it's worth creating a function with parameters.
If you like this page then please share it with your friends
See More PowerShell Function Parameters
• Scripting PowerShell Function • PowerShell Function Clear-Recyclebin • PowerShell Get-File
• Create PowerShell Function Get-ServiceStatus • PowerShell Function Get-Driver • PowerShell Outlook
• Show-BalloonTip • PowerShell Function Get-IPConfig • Free Permissions Analyzer
Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.
