how can i watch a mail folder for incoming email?

[Nancy Drew]

hi all

i want to build a trouble ticket system. i'd like to have a component
written in vbscript watch a specific mail folder for income email (something
like '(e-mail address removed)') the system should write the sender's email
address, time received, and message body to sql server, return a new trouble
ticket, etc. anybody know how to set this kind of thing up?

tks

 

[Mark Schupp]

Are you using an email server such as MS Exchange? If so check the
documentation to see if you can set up rules to run a program on receipt of
an email.

If not, you will need to have an email client that will periodically check
for email and trigger your script when new mail arrives. There are probably
some 3rd-party utilities that can do this.

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

How is the e-mail generated? If a tool generates the e-mail, can't it also
add an entry to a table, and the system can monitor the table?

 

[Tom Kaminski [MVP]]

i want to build a trouble ticket system. i'd like to have a component
written in vbscript watch a specific mail folder for income email (something
like '(e-mail address removed)') the system should write the sender's email
address, time received, and message body to sql server, return a new trouble
ticket, etc. anybody know how to set this kind of thing up?

Use the dropdirectory:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cdosys/html/_cdosys_dropdirectory_coclass.asp

.... then schedule your component/script to check it every so often.

 

[Jeff Cochran]

i want to build a trouble ticket system. i'd like to have a component
written in vbscript watch a specific mail folder for income email (something
like '(e-mail address removed)') the system should write the sender's email
address, time received, and message body to sql server, return a new trouble
ticket, etc. anybody know how to set this kind of thing up?

Exchange, internet, Microsoft's mail server or another vendor's, etc.?
If Exchange, this is easily programmed but not an ASP issue and an
Exchange programming group could help. If Microsoft's SMTP you could
trigger on a mail drop folder, but also not an ASP issue.

Jeff

 

[Nancy Drew]

the email could be from a web app, in which case i'd just copy the form
values over to sql, or it could be sent from a stand alone email client,
which is why i need to watch the mail folder for these messages and then
insert into sql

 

[Nancy Drew]

thanks tom. this looks like it will work, but i don't usually work with com
objects. i've getting a permissions error. there's this passage in the link
you sent me:

"You cannot change the credentials used to access a folder using the CDO
Configuration object. The current thread's security context is always used.
If you need to change security contexts to access a particular folder on the
network, you must change the thread's security context."

i intend to set up the watch process as a vbs file, running under windows
scripting host. does this mean i need to give windows scripting host
credentials to the mail folder, or the com object itself? if the latter, how
do i do that?

tks again

 

[Tom Kaminski [MVP]]

thanks tom. this looks like it will work, but i don't usually work with com
objects. i've getting a permissions error. there's this passage in the link
you sent me:

"You cannot change the credentials used to access a folder using the CDO
Configuration object. The current thread's security context is always used.
If you need to change security contexts to access a particular folder on the
network, you must change the thread's security context."

i intend to set up the watch process as a vbs file, running under windows
scripting host. does this mean i need to give windows scripting host
credentials to the mail folder, or the com object itself? if the latter, how
do i do that?

What's generating the error? Are you using the local IIS SMTP service?
Just run the script under the context of a user that has read/write access
to the folders.

 

[Nancy Drew]

What's generating the error? Are you using the local IIS SMTP service?
Just run the script under the context of a user that has read/write access
to the folders.

thanks tom - i was running it as an asp page. i needed to grant IUSR read
permsissions on the drop folder. works fine now. i'll eventually convert
the asp into vbs and have to get our server admin to grant read perms to
whatever account windows scripting host runs under(?)...

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

the asp into vbs and have to get our server admin to grant read perms to

whatever account windows scripting host runs under(?)...

It runs as whoever starts the script. If you double-click the VBS file, it
runs as you. If you create a windows scheduled task, it runs as whoever is
specified in the "Run as..." field.