InfoConnect VBA Guide
HowTos / Generate Email
In This Topic
    Generate Email
    In This Topic

    You can automate Outlook or other email programs to automatically generate emails that include data or text displayed on the screen.

    If you prefer to run macros in pre-configured sessions instead of creating your own sessions, you can download the VBA Sample Sessions and open the generate-email.rd3x (IBM) and generate-email.rdox (Open Systems) files. The download package contains everything you need to run the macros in these files. See Download the VBA Sample Sessions.

     

    This sample shows how to create an email that uses screen data for it's body text and adds an email address.

    This article contains tabbed content that is specific to each terminal type. Be sure the tab for your Which Terminal Type are you Using? is selected.

    This sample runs a macro that creates an email if the program is on the INTERNATIONAL KAYAK ENTERPRISES screen.

    To run this sample

    1. Create a new Ibm 3270 terminal session and enter "demo:ibm3270.sim" in the Host name / IP Address field.
    2. On the first screen, enter any credentials.
    3. On the second screen, enter "kayak".
    4. In the Visual Basic Editor Project window, under the session project folder, create a new module, copy the code into the new module, and press F5 to run the macro.
      Email screen data
      Copy Code 
      Sub CreateEmail()
    Dim myOutlookApp As Object
    Dim mail As Object
    Dim screenID As String
    Const ERR_APP_NOTRUNNING As Long = 429
    'Get text to identify screen
    screenID = ThisIbmScreen.GetText(1, 25, 31)
   
    'Don't run the macro unless the program is on the screen with the data
    If screenID = "INTERNATIONAL KAYAK ENTERPRISES" Then
        ' Get a handle to the Microsoft outlook object
        On Error Resume Next
        Set myOutlookApp = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application")
        'If Outlook is not open, create an instance
        If Err = ERR_APP_NOTRUNNING Then
            Set myOutlookApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
        End If
      
        'Create an email message and pass in a null string to include all the screen text in the body
        ThisIbmTerminal.Productivity.OfficeTools.CreateNewEmailMessage (vbNullString)
      
        'Get the new email object
        Set mail = myOutlookApp.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
      
        'Use the HTML format
        mail.olBodyFormat = olFormatHTML
       
        'Get text from the screen for the subject
        mail.Subject = ThisIbmScreen.GetText(3, 31, 20)
      
        'Use a text string for the email address
        mail.Recipients.Add ("salesGroup@xyz.com")
          
        'uncomment to send the email automatically
        'mail.send
      
        Set myOutlookApp = Nothing
        Set mail = Nothing
      
    Else:
        MsgBox ("You must be on the 'INTERNATIONAL KAYAK ENTERPRISES' screen to send a sales status email.")
    End If
End Sub
                     

    This example generates an email.

    To run this sample

    1. Create a new VT terminal session and enter "demo:UNIX" in the Host name / IP Address field.
    2. On the first screen, enter any credentials.
    3. On the second screen, enter "demodata". 
    4. In the Visual Basic Editor Project window, under the session project folder, create a new module, copy the code into the new module, and press F5 to run the macro.
      Email screen data
      Copy Code 
      'This macro creates an email that uses screen data for its body text and adds an email address.
Sub CreateEmail()
    Dim myOutlookApp As Object
    Dim mail As Object
    Dim screenID As String
    Const ERR_APP_NOTRUNNING As Long = 429
                                  
    'Get a handle to the Microsoft outlook object
    On Error Resume Next
    Set myOutlookApp = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application")
   
    'If Outlook is not open, create an instance
    If Err = ERR_APP_NOTRUNNING Then
        Set myOutlookApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
    End If
   
    'Create an email message and pass in a null string to include all the screen text in the body
    ThisTerminal.Productivity.OfficeTools.CreateNewEmailMessage (vbNullString)
   
    'Get the new email object
    Set mail = myOutlookApp.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
   
    mail.olBodyFormat = olFormatHTML
   
    'Use text from the screen for the subject
    mail.Subject = "Sales Data"
   
    'Use a text string for the email address
    mail.Recipients.Add ("salesGroup@xyz.com")
          
    'Uncomment to automatically send email
    'mail.send
   
    Set myOutlookApp = Nothing
    Set mail = Nothing
     
End Sub

    Concepts

    This macro gets or creates an Outlook application object.

    Then it uses the InfoConnect CreateNewEmailMessage method to create an email message. Passing in a null value captures the entire screen and places it in the body. (Another option is to pass a region of the screen to this method captured using an InfoConnect method such as the Screen object's GetText3 method.)   

    After you have an email object, you can set the format, subject, recipients, and other properties just as you would if you were writing an Outlook VBA macro.

     

    See Also

    Quickstart

    Navigating Through Open Systems Sessions