Automate Windows Office Home Business 2016 out of office reply for

[dnaman]

Hi every one,

Just joined the Forum, we are busy database developers and constantly being asked to set up Out of Office replies.

Our question is : "Can WinBatch automate Windows Office Home Business 2016 out of office reply for POP Email accounts ? "

Thanking you in advance, from Sale, Manchester, UK

[td]

Assuming you are referring to Outlook with MS Exchange 2016, you should in theory be able to setup an auto-reply using Outlook's COM Automation objects.   There are a few VBA examples in various forums that involve setting up custom rules for auto reply in Outlook. There are many Outlook examples in the Tech Database but I do not believe any of them involve rule creation.   You can use the 'GetNameSpace' method of the 'outlook.application' object to get the MAPI name space object but I am not sure if that object will allow you to set an out of office reply on Exchange 2016.

Exchange 2016 has dropped support for MAPI over RPC which was the protocol used to configure MS servers from email clients.  Exchange now supports MAPI over HTTP.  Since WinBatch has multiple ways to handle the HTTP protocol including COM Automation, dotNet, and the WinInet extender, you should, in theory again, be able to configure out of office replies.

I believe Exchange 2016 also still uses Active Directory so if you are using Active Directory with Exchange on your network, it may be possible to configure out of office replies using the WinBatch ADSI extender.  A web search may turn up examples that could be converted to WinBatch syntax.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[stanl]

Programming Outlook rules, I think, requires API calls to Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.  But doesn't Exchange have a built-in Out of Office Reply.

[td]

Programming Outlook rules, I think, requires API calls to Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.  But doesn't Exchange have a built-in Out of Office Reply.

Outlook 2016 rules have COM Automation objects as well as dotNet classes and yes, Exchange has built-in out of office functionality.  I believe both facts were covered in the original response (note the references to MAPI and ADSI with regard to configuring Exchange.) 

[stanl]

I pointed out the Exchange Out of Office feature because if it exists, programming to it may be superfluous.

[td]

The OP's question is short on specifics - which is fine.  There is no indication of whether or not Exchange is even being used as an Email server and no indication of why the tasks needs to be automated.  It could be that the OP simple wants to avoid  all the mouse clicks Outlook requires to set up a personal out of office reply or it could be because of a long list of non-computer literate vacationers from a large organization.  But presumably, there is a some reason, valid or not, for the desire to automate the task.

Outlook can be used to setup a server-side out of office reply but, IIRC, only if the Exchange is the mail server.   A rule based out of office reply could be used in cases where you only want the replay to be sent to certain senders.  But since there are few details, mentioning any of this stuff is more or less throwing a bunch of stuff up against the wall in the hope that something sticks. (Throwing stuff against walls is an occasional free service provided by WinBatch Technical Support.)

[stanl]

Agreed.