Read my Outlook inbox

Tim Golden > Python Stuff > Win32 How Do I...? > Read my Outlook inbox

Introduction

The requirement: Iterate over an Outlook inbox, reading the subject of each message.

Although ostensibly two different things, Outlook and Exchange are pretty tightly coupled in reality. This code uses the CDO technique, an IDispatch-based mechanism under the application name MAPI.Session. For any work with CDO I highly recommend the CDOLive website.

import win32com.client

session = win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch ("MAPI.Session")

#
# Leave blank to be prompted for a session, or use
# your own profile name if not "Outlook". It is also
# possible to pull the default profile from the registry.
#
session.Logon ("Outlook")
messages = session.Inbox.Messages

#
# Although the inbox_messages collection can be accessed
# via getitem-style calls (inbox_messages[1] etc.) this
# is the recommended approach from Microsoft since the
# Inbox can mutate while you're iterating.
#
message = messages.GetFirst ()
while message:
  print message.Subject
  message = messages.GetNext ()

This approach will work for any folder with .Messages. A useful class wrapper for this provides its own iterator:

class Folder (object):
  def __init__ (self, folder):
    self._folder = folder
  def __getattr__ (self, attribute):
    return getattr (self._folder, attribute)
  def __iter__ (self):
    #
    # NB You *must* collect a reference to the
    # Messages collection here; otherwise GetFirst/Next
    # resets every time.
    #
    messages = self._folder.Messages
    message = messages.GetFirst ()
    while message:
      yield message
      message = messages.GetNext ()

if __name__ == '__main__':
  import win32com.client
  session = win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch ("MAPI.Session")
  constants = win32com.client.constants
  session.Logon ()
  
  sent_items = Folder (session.GetDefaultFolder (constants.CdoDefaultFolderSentItems))
  for message in sent_items:
    print message.Subject