InfoConnect for Airlines 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.

    This sample shows how to create an email that uses screen data for it's body text, gets text from the screen and adds it to the email's subject line, and then adds an email address.

    This article contains tabbed content that is specific to each terminal type. Be sure to select the tab for your terminal type. (If you're not sure about which terminal to select, see Which Terminal Type are you Using?)

    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                      
      
                     

    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
      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 = ThisScreen.GetText2(2, 28, 2, 52)
                                     
          If screenID = "XYZ Company Monthly Sales" 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
              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 = ThisScreen.GetText2(2, 28, 2, 52)
            
              '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
            
          Else:
              MsgBox ("You must be on the 'XYZ Company Monthly Sales' screen to send a sales status email.")
          End If
      End Sub
      

    Concepts

    This macro uses a screen recognition to ensure the program is on the right screen. When the macro is invoked on the screen that has screen data, it gets or creates an Outlook application object.

    One way to fully automate this task would be to navigate to the required screen and then run this macro (see Navigating Sessions). 

    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. You can get text from the string as we did for the subject or add your own strings as we did for the email recipient.

     

    See Also