Outlook Connector

Microsoft Outlook connector module, version 0.91

author: Igor Iric, [email protected]

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The module Outlook Connector will enable you to connect to MS Outlook session on your computer via few simple to use command line functions. You can pipe array of messages to PowerShell commands and do all the scripting with provided data (grouping, examining, logging, etc.). Or, you can export all or some messages to file system, which is functionality not provided in Outlook itself!

List of commands

Connect-Outlook
Start-Outlook
Get-OutlookInbox 
Get-OutlookMessage
Get-OutlookFolder 
Export-OutlookMessage
Export-OutlookMessageBody
Export-OutlookFolder

All commands have documented help system. Type Get-Help about_OutlookConnector, or Get-Command -Module OutlookConnector for more info.

Commands overview

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Connecting to Outlook

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• Connect-Outlook - creates Outlook instance in memory, returns MAPI instance
• Start-Outlook - starts MS Outlook application GUI, usefull for troubleshooting

Getting messages to memory

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• Get-OutlookInbox [-Outlook] - returns array of messages in default Inbox folder from Outlook instance, based on the Scripting Guy
• Get-OutlookFolder [-Outlook] [–Recurse] - lists all folder (and optionally subfolders) inside Outlook instance, returns array of Outlook folders
• Get-OutlookMessage –DefaultFolder [-Outlook] - returns messages in one of default folders based on the name (i.e SentItems, Drafts, etc.) [-Outlook] - if Outlook session is not specified, commands will automatically connect

Get functions are returning all properties of a message, so it's good practice to select only properties you need before output to screen. To list all properties of a message type for example Get-OutlookInbox | Get-Member.

Saving messages to disk

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• Export-OutlookFolder –InputFolder -OutputFolder -FilenameFormat - saves all messages to folder on a disk
• Export-OutlookMessage –Message –OutputFolder -FileNameFormat - saves individual message to folder on a disk Input parameter (folder or message) can be piped. Export functions are saving messages in individual MSG files.

Examples

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Get-OutlookFolder | Export-OutlookFolder 'C:\Email'   # saves all emails to disk
Get-OutlookInbox -Verbose | Group Sendername          # group inbox messages by sendername
Get-Help Export-OutlookMessage -Examples              # all messages have standard synopsis

Version history

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• 0.90 - Sep '15 - initial version, 7 functions, read only access to data
• 0.91 - Oct '15 - split to multiple files, separate module and manifest file, more help and verbose
• 0.92 - Nov '15 - 2nd public release, one more command added (Export Body), corrected email address

Requests for next versions

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• Export-OutlookFolder - add failed messages to error variable; this functionality is implemented in other Export-Outlook* functions

Any further suggestion is welcome!