win32com - How to continuously monitor a new mail in outlook and unread mails of a specific folder in python

Question

I want to check for a particular sender email and process it automatically wherever it arrives

However, there may be some situation where my outlook was restarted, mean while i received mail from sender and marked as unread

For continuous monitor for a new mail for a specific subject i have found the following code

import win32com.client
import pythoncom
import re

class Handler_Class(object):
  def OnNewMailEx(self, receivedItemsIDs):
    # RecrivedItemIDs is a collection of mail IDs separated by a ",".
    # You know, sometimes more than 1 mail is received at the same moment.
    for ID in receivedItemsIDs.split(","):
        mail = outlook.Session.GetItemFromID(ID)
        subject = mail.Subject
    print subject   
        try: 
            command = re.search(r"%(.*?)%", subject).group(1)

            print command # Or whatever code you wish to execute.
        except:
            pass


outlook = win32com.client.DispatchWithEvents("Outlook.Application",Handler_Class)

#and then an infinit loop that waits from events.
pythoncom.PumpMessages() 

Even i want to go through all the unread mails to check whether a mail from a sender has came and process it( if found)

Is there any function to check for unread mails to add within handler_class

Or let me know for any alternate procedure

Answer 1

So if you restart your python script every time your Outlook restart, then add these lines to your code to check unread emails in your Inbox:

ol = win32com.client.Dispatch( "Outlook.Application")
inbox = ol.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(6)
for message in inbox.Items:
    if message.UnRead == True:
        print message.Subject #or whatever command you want to do

Put this code before your definition of outlook in your code

EDIT

For me, the code you posted works great until I close Outlook and then even if I reopen it, I don't get anything when a new message is received (see one of my comments). I guess the fact of closing Outlook "unlink" with pythoncom.PumpMessages(). Anyway, I come around to do both your checking for unread email in the class Handler_Class and restart the monitoring in case you restart Outlook.

import win32com.client
import ctypes # for the VM_QUIT to stop PumpMessage()
import pythoncom
import re
import time
import psutil

class Handler_Class(object):

    def __init__(self):
        # First action to do when using the class in the DispatchWithEvents     
        inbox = self.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(6)
        messages = inbox.Items
        # Check for unread emails when starting the event
        for message in messages:
            if message.UnRead:
                print message.Subject # Or whatever code you wish to execute.

    def OnQuit(self):
        # To stop PumpMessages() when Outlook Quit
        # Note: Not sure it works when disconnecting!!
        ctypes.windll.user32.PostQuitMessage(0)

    def OnNewMailEx(self, receivedItemsIDs):
    # RecrivedItemIDs is a collection of mail IDs separated by a ",".
    # You know, sometimes more than 1 mail is received at the same moment.
        for ID in receivedItemsIDs.split(","):
            mail = self.Session.GetItemFromID(ID)
            subject = mail.Subject
            print subject   
            try: 
                command = re.search(r"%(.*?)%", subject).group(1)
                print command # Or whatever code you wish to execute.
            except:
                pass

# Function to check if outlook is open
def check_outlook_open ():
    list_process = []
    for pid in psutil.pids():
        p = psutil.Process(pid)
        # Append to the list of process
        list_process.append(p.name())
    # If outlook open then return True
    if 'OUTLOOK.EXE' in list_process:
        return True
    else:
        return False

# Loop 
while True:
    try:
        outlook_open = check_outlook_open()
    except: 
        outlook_open = False
    # If outlook opened then it will start the DispatchWithEvents
    if outlook_open == True:
        outlook = win32com.client.DispatchWithEvents("Outlook.Application", Handler_Class)
        pythoncom.PumpMessages()
    # To not check all the time (should increase 10 depending on your needs)
    time.sleep(10)

Not sure it is the best way, but it seems to work the way you look for.