Java & Outlook integration - how to go about it

[Rohit Rai]

Hi,

I have successfully sent a meeting request from my java program to outlook using java.mail.* api. Now i am looking to go in for sending a task in place of a meeting request from my java program.

I did look around for some samples but not getting any. Anyone has any idea on this?

Sample code to send meeting request is done using the following:

   



import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Properties;

import javax.activation.DataHandler;
import javax.activation.DataSource;
import javax.mail.Message;
import javax.mail.Multipart;
import javax.mail.Session;
import javax.mail.Transport;
import javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeBodyPart;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMultipart;

public class SendMailTest
	{
	public boolean send(String uniqueId, Date reviewDateStartTime,
			String reviewLocation, int reviewDurationMnts, String from,
			String to, String title, String reviewSubject,
			String reviewDescription, String summary) throws Exception {

		reviewDateStartTime = new Date();		
		String fromMail = from;
		String toMail = to;
		uniqueId = "123456";
		reviewDescription = "testing only";
		reviewSubject = "testing review subject";
		title = "testing";
		summary = "testing summary";
		to="[e-mail]";
		reviewDurationMnts = 30;
		reviewLocation="test location";
		from=to;
		String meetingStartTime = getReviewTime(reviewDateStartTime,
				reviewDurationMnts, false);
		String meetingEndTime = getReviewTime(reviewDateStartTime,
				reviewDurationMnts, true);
		
		Properties prop = new Properties();
		StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
		StringBuffer buffer = null;
		Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(prop, null);
		Message message = new MimeMessage(session);
		

		try {
			prop.put("mail.smtp.host", "192.168.112.111");
			prop.put("mail.smtp.port", "25");

			// Define message
			message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(from));
			message.setRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress
					.parse(to, false));
			/*
			 * try { message .setRecipients( Message.RecipientType.CC,
			 * InternetAddress
			 * .parse("[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail]")); }
			 * catch (Exception e) { System.out .println("No exception in
			 * parsing recipients addresses"); System.out.println(">> Error: " +
			 * e.getMessage()); }
			 */
			message.setSubject(reviewSubject);
			message.setHeader("X-Mailer", "test-Mailer");
			// Create the message part
			MimeBodyPart messageBodyPart = new MimeBodyPart();
			buffer = sb
					.append("BEGIN:VCALENDAR\n"
							+ "PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 9.0 MIMEDIR//EN\n"
							+ "VERSION:2.0\n" + "METHOD:REQUEST\n"
							+ "BEGIN:VEVENT\n"
							+ "ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;RSVP=TRUE:MAILTO:"
							+ to + "\n" + "ORGANIZER:MAILTO:" + from + "\n"
							+ "DTSTART:" + meetingStartTime + "\n" + "DTEND:"
							+ meetingEndTime + "\n" + "LOCATION:"
							+ reviewLocation + "\n" + "TRANSP:OPAQUE\n"
							+ "SEQUENCE:0\n" + "UID:" + uniqueId
							+ "@iquest.com\n" + "DTSTAMP:" + meetingEndTime
							+ "\n" + "CATEGORIES:Meeting\n" + "DESCRIPTION:"
							+ reviewDescription + ".\n\n" + "SUMMARY:"
							+ summary + "\n" + "PRIORITY:1\n"
							+ "CLASS:PUBLIC\n" + "BEGIN:VALARM\n"
							+ "TRIGGER:PT1440M\n" + "ACTION:DISPLAY\n"
							+ "DESCRIPTION:Reminder\n" + "END:VALARM\n"
							+ "END:VEVENT\n" + "END:VCALENDAR");
			messageBodyPart.setFileName("TestMeeting.ics");
			messageBodyPart
					.setDataHandler(new DataHandler(new ByteArrayDataSource(buffer.toString(), "text/iCalendar")));
			messageBodyPart.setHeader("Content-Class",
					"urn:content-classes:calendarmessage");
			messageBodyPart.setHeader("Content-ID", "calendar_message");
			Multipart multipart = new MimeMultipart();
			multipart.addBodyPart(messageBodyPart);
			message.setContent(multipart);
			Transport.send(message);
			
		}

		catch (Exception me) {
			me.printStackTrace();
		}
		return false;
	}
		
	public String getReviewTime(Date reviewDateTime, int rDuration, boolean flag) {
		Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
		SimpleDateFormat s = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd");
		c.setTime(reviewDateTime);
		if (flag == true) {
			c.add(Calendar.MINUTE, rDuration);
		}
		String hour = c.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY) < 10 ? "0"
				+ c.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY) : ""
				+ c.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
		String min = c.get(Calendar.MINUTE) < 10 ? "0" + c.get(Calendar.MINUTE)
				: "" + c.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
		String sec = c.get(Calendar.SECOND) < 10 ? "0" + c.get(Calendar.SECOND)
				: "" + c.get(Calendar.SECOND);

		String date = s.format(new Date(c.getTimeInMillis()));
		String dateTime = date + "T" + hour + min + sec;
		return dateTime;
	}	

	private class ByteArrayDataSource implements DataSource {
		private byte[] data; // data for mail message

		private String type; // content type/mime type

		ByteArrayDataSource(String data, String type) {
			try {
				// Assumption that the string contains only ascii
				// characters ! Else just pass in a charset into this
				// constructor and use it in getBytes()
				this.data = data.getBytes("iso-8859-1");
			} catch (Exception e) {
				e.printStackTrace();
			}
			this.type = type;
		}

		// DataSource interface methods
		public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException {
			if (data == null)
				throw new IOException(
						"no data exception in ByteArrayDataSource");
			return new ByteArrayInputStream(data);
		}

		public OutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException {
			throw new IOException("illegal operation in ByteArrayDataSource");
		}

		public String getContentType() {
			return type;
		}

		public String getName() {
			return "dummy";
		}
	}

}

   

Regards,
Rohit

[Rakesh Shah]

Hi,

Could you please help me figure out a way using which i need to send a mail to OUTLOOk having 2 buttons "approve" and "reject"
and how i can recieve the value back for whatever options are chosen.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Could you please help me figure out a way using which i need to send a mail to OUTLOOk having 2 buttons "approve" and "reject" and how i can recieve the value back for whatever options are chosen.

<quibbling over words>You can't send anything to Outlook - it's a client application. You can only send something to a mail server like Exchange.</quibbling over words>

The easiest would probably be to send a link to a web app that shows a page containing those two buttons, and which can evaluate a form submission and do whatever you want done with the results. if you want to disambiguate between users, you can append an encrypted userID as a parameter to the link.