Sending E-Mail from a Simple Mail Client

The basic procedure for sending mail with a client that does not support COM (e.g., Microsoft Outlook, Eudora) is as follows:

• Launch a command line "mailto" URL request that opens the mail client. A "mailto" URL is properly formatted as: "mailto:someone@somewhere.com?Subject=Put%20Subject%20Here&CC=anyone@anywhere.com&Body=Message%20Goes%20Here!". Notice there are no spaces in a URL: they are replaced by "%20". In this example the e-mail will be sent to someone@somewhere.com with cc to anyone@anywhere.com, the subject is "Put Subject Here", and the message body is "Message Goes Here!".
• Populate the message subject, body, and recipient within the command line request.
• Create a Windows Script Host Shell object to send keystrokes to the e-mail client.
• Carefully time the delivery of specific keystrokes that will cause the client to send mail.
• Close the e-mail client, if necessary.

Sending e-mail with a client that does not support COM is a more risky and unreliable venture, but it can be done. The sample code below shows one possible implementation for Eudora:

Dim WshShell, StartTime
' Create a WSH Shell object.
Set WshShell = _
CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
' Launch e-mail URL.
WshShell.Run _
"mailto:someone@somewhere.com" + _
"?Subject=Test%20Message" + _
"&Body=Hi%20There!"
' Get current time
StartTime = Now()
' Wait for 20 seconds for mail app to start
Do While StartTime > Now() - 20/CDbl(3600*24)
Loop
' Activate Eudora's window.
WshShell.AppActivate "Eudora Pro"
' Send the Ctrl-e sequence to send mail.
WshShell.SendKeys "^e"
' Wait for 15 seconds to finish sending mail.
StartTime = Now()
Do While StartTime > Now() - 15/CDbl(3600*24)
Loop
' Activate Eudora window again.
WshShell.AppActivate "Eudora Pro"
' Send a Ctrl-q to quit the program.
WshShell.SendKeys "^q"


Similar techniques can be used for other e-mail clients. Notice that the "mailto" URL request must be formatted as a URL: no spaces are allowed and all spaces have been replaced with "%20".