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  1. #1

    Join Date
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    Default Automating Outlook

    I would like to automate the extraction of gpx files from the zipped Outlook attachment in which they arrive. I want to extract just one of the 2 files into a specific directory.

    At present this takes about 14 mouse clicks. I have to click to open the attachment, select the file I want, make sure WinZip is pointing to the correct directory (which may vary depending on which PQ has sent the file), tell it to extract, to overwrite the existing file, and then close down several windows. I have to repeat this for the 5 PQ's for that day. It's a tedious process.

    I'm a programmer, and while I do mostly C and Delphi I'm sure I could manage VB, which is what I assume I would need in order to automate Outlook. But I can't really see where to get started. Any pointers?

    Rgds, Andy

  2. #2
    dino Guest

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    Do you use GSAK? If so this is what I do:

    Right click on the zip file attachment and save to a folder in My Documents called PQs* (Do that until they are all saved)

    In GSAK click Open, click the folder option and navigate to the PQs folder.

    Click Go and it opens all the PQs in that folder. The next time I do it GSAK remembers the last folder location I used so that saves a bit of time on repeat loads.

    * I name my PQs Name1, Name2, Name3, etc and each day overwrite the old one so that my data doesn't get duplicated and I don't have to go back and delete the old ones each day

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by dino View Post
    Do you use GSAK? If so this is what I do:

    Right click on the zip file attachment and save to a folder in My Documents called PQs* (Do that until they are all saved)
    Thanks for that info dino, but this isn't for GSAK. I've written my own mapping software for the PC that imports the gpx files into SQL server and overlays the caches on my maps.

    I could easily modify my own map software to unzip the zips before reading the gpx files, but saving out the zip files still involves more clicks than ideally I want to do - I'm looking to automate it so I just click on one button in Outlook and it does everything for me.

    Rgds, Andy

  4. #4
    dino Guest

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    Ok.....good luck then

  5. #5
    Alan White Guest

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    Two thoughts:

    Firstly. you do know that WinZip has a CLI? Perhaps that could automate a part of the task?

    Secondly, and this is a bit off the wall and perhaps OTT, you didn't say if you used GSAK so I don't know if you know that it has a very good macro language and a POP3 reader. You could easily write a GSAK macro that would fetch the PQs, put them in the directory of your choice, unzip them, delete the -wpts file, and leave the PQs in the directory ready for the rest of your processing. You needn't, if you didn't want to, use any of the other features of GSAK.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Alan White View Post
    Two thoughts:

    Firstly. you do know that WinZip has a CLI? Perhaps that could automate a part of the task?

    Secondly, and this is a bit off the wall and perhaps OTT, you didn't say if you used GSAK so I don't know if you know that it has a very good macro language and a POP3 reader. You could easily write a GSAK macro that would fetch the PQs, put them in the directory of your choice, unzip them, delete the -wpts file, and leave the PQs in the directory ready for the rest of your processing. You needn't, if you didn't want to, use any of the other features of GSAK.
    Thanks Alan,

    Yes, I knew about WinZip CLI, and it is installed on my machines, but I can easily write code to unzip a file in Delphi as part of my import routine. If I fail to find a completely integrated Outlook solution that is my most likely course of action, as it reduces the number of mouse clicks involved to:

    Double click to open the email
    right click the attachment and saveas
    navigate to directory (only on first of batch)
    OK to overwrite
    click to close email

    but even that is pretty boring to do 5 times a day every day .

    I don't use GSAK, but it may be worth looking at. I'm a bit hazy about how it would pick out the appropriate emails on my mail server, and I would have to be sure to run it every day because the emails are deleted off my server a couple of days after Outlook has collected them. It is handy to know what sort of facilities it offers.

    Rgds, Andy

  7. #7
    keehotee Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by amberel View Post
    I would like to automate the extraction of gpx files from the zipped Outlook attachment in which they arrive. I want to extract just one of the 2 files into a specific directory.

    At present this takes about 14 mouse clicks. I have to click to open the attachment, select the file I want, make sure WinZip is pointing to the correct directory (which may vary depending on which PQ has sent the file),
    Click to open your zipped GPX. Once winzip has opened, just drag the file you want to the location you want it unzipped to - you don't have to use winzip's directory / "unzip to".
    That should cut out at least 4 of your clicks.......

    Failing that, if you're using XP, just right click on the zipped file and select "extract to" and bypass winzip altogether.

    Sorry - answers are a bit rusty - I switched to winrar a while ago and haven't used winzip for months.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by keehotee View Post
    Click to open your zipped GPX. Once winzip has opened, just drag the file you want to the location you want it unzipped to - you don't have to use winzip's directory / "unzip to".
    That should cut out at least 4 of your clicks.......

    Failing that, if you're using XP, just right click on the zipped file and select "extract to" and bypass winzip altogether.

    Sorry - answers are a bit rusty - I switched to winrar a while ago and haven't used winzip for months.
    Thanks, I tried that but the benefits are marginal. It replaces 3 clicks with one click and drag, but requires that I open Explorer first and navigate to the appropriate sub-directory, which pretty much cancels out the gains.

    I am using XP, but there is no context sensitive "extract to" when I right click on the file in the Outlook attachment bar.

    Rgds, Andy

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