Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Manish]

Hello,

I have to use Office and envy folks that can link to their emails
(Gnus, VM etc.) and contacts (bbdb) from Org mode.  So I was looking
around and found that links to Outlook items (emails, meetings,
contacts etc.)  of the form "Outlook:<GUID>" can be stored and opened
from other applications.  The links can be created (copied to
clipboard) using "Outlook Linker" utility as described in [1].

The links are understood by many Windows applications including Word,
Excel, Explorer and Internet Explorer.  I looked at "Externanl Links"
and "Link abbreviations" in the documentation to see how I can have
Org open these links using Windows Explorer but could not figure out
any way.

I request suggestions, pointers and alternate solutions.  And if it
seems useful to others as well, then may be a feature request?

Regards,
-- Manish

[1] http://www.davidtan.org/create-hyperlinks-to-outlook-messages-folders-contacts-events/

Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Ivan Kanis]

Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com> writes:

> I have to use Office and envy folks that can link to their emails
> (Gnus, VM etc.) and contacts (bbdb) from Org mode.

I have a macro that moves outlook to local e-mail that can be picked
by gnus. If you are interested, I will post it.
-- 
Ivan
http://kanis.fr

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.
    -- George Bernard Shaw 

Re: Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Manish]

On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Ivan Kanis wrote:
> Manish writes:
>
>> I have to use Office and envy folks that can link to their emails
>> (Gnus, VM etc.) and contacts (bbdb) from Org mode.
>
> I have a macro that moves outlook to local e-mail that can be picked
> by gnus. If you are interested, I will post it.

I would very much like to try it.

Thank you,
-- Manish

Re: Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Ivan Kanis]

Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com> writes:

> On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Ivan Kanis wrote:
>> Manish writes:
>>
>>> I have to use Office and envy folks that can link to their emails
>>> (Gnus, VM etc.) and contacts (bbdb) from Org mode.
>>
>> I have a macro that moves outlook to local e-mail that can be picked
>> by gnus. If you are interested, I will post it.
>
> I would very much like to try it.
>
> Thank you,
> -- Manish
>


Here is the script:

Sub ivan(MyMail As MailItem)
    Set SafeItem = CreateObject("Redemption.SafeMailItem")
    SafeItem.Item = MyMail
    SafeItem.SaveAs ("P:\ivan\tmp\bla.msg")
    Shell ("p:/perl58/bin/wperl.EXE p:/ivan/tmp/msgconvert.pl --mbox p:/ivan/tmp/mbox P:/ivan/tmp/bla.msg")
End Sub

You will need to install msgconvert on windows and redemption for Outlook.

You will also need to self certify your macro in outlook.

How to process incoming messages in Microsoft Outlook:
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx%3Fid%3D62

Bypass security with Redemption:
http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/home.htm]

Signing your own macros with SelfCert.exe:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/selfcert.htm

Locating SelfCert.exe

"By default you can find Selfcert.exe in the following location;
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office <version number> If it is
not there run Office setup and choose a custom installation and
then advanced customization. Expand the Office Shared Features
Section and select Digital Certificate for VBA Projects to run
from your computer. For Office 2000 you can find this under the
Office Tools section.

Simply run SelfCert.exe. It will prompt you to name the
certificate.  I use my username because that is most convenient to
me but you can also give it the name of your company or whatever
you want.

Create Digital Certificate with SelfCert.exe
As explained in the dialog a selfcert is for personal use only

Back in the VBA Editor (ALT+F11) where you created the macro
choose Tools-> Digital Signature. You’ll see that the current VBA
project isn’t signed. Press the Choose… button and you’ll get a
screen to select a certificate. Now you can choose the certificate
you just created."

Hope this helps,
-- 
Ivan
http://kanis.fr

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values
or religion ... but rather by its superiority in applying organized
violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
    -- Samuel Huntington 

Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Jason F. McBrayer]

Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com> writes:

> I have to use Office and envy folks that can link to their emails
> (Gnus, VM etc.) and contacts (bbdb) from Org mode.  So I was looking
> around and found that links to Outlook items (emails, meetings,
> contacts etc.)  of the form "Outlook:<GUID>" can be stored and opened
> from other applications.  The links can be created (copied to
> clipboard) using "Outlook Linker" utility as described in [1].

(w32-shell-execute "open" "outlook:blahblah") should do what you need.
The tricky part is getting the GUID into Emacs (requires gratis but
proprietary utility you link to).

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Jason F. McBrayer                    jmcbray@carcosa.net  |
| If someone conquers a thousand times a thousand others in |
| battle, and someone else conquers himself, the latter one |
| is the greatest of all conquerors.  --- The Dhammapada    |

Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Jason F. McBrayer]

jmcbray@carcosa.net (Jason F. McBrayer) writes:

> Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I have to use Office and envy folks that can link to their emails
>> (Gnus, VM etc.) and contacts (bbdb) from Org mode.  So I was looking
>> around and found that links to Outlook items (emails, meetings,
>> contacts etc.)  of the form "Outlook:<GUID>" can be stored and opened
>> from other applications.  The links can be created (copied to
>> clipboard) using "Outlook Linker" utility as described in [1].
>
> (w32-shell-execute "open" "outlook:blahblah") should do what you need.
> The tricky part is getting the GUID into Emacs (requires gratis but
> proprietary utility you link to).

Note: there is a better way of getting the GUID here:  doesn't require
you to install an extra program, just add a macro to your Outlook
settings:

http://mutable.net/blog/archive/2006/09/02/how_to_hyperlink_to_microsoft_outlook_messages.aspx

Now I just need to teach org-mode how to use w32-shell-execute to follow
those links...

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Jason F. McBrayer                    jmcbray@carcosa.net  |
| If someone conquers a thousand times a thousand others in |
| battle, and someone else conquers himself, the latter one |
| is the greatest of all conquerors.  --- The Dhammapada    |

Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Jason F. McBrayer]

jmcbray@carcosa.net (Jason F. McBrayer) writes:

> Note: there is a better way of getting the GUID here:  doesn't require
> you to install an extra program, just add a macro to your Outlook
> settings:
>
> http://mutable.net/blog/archive/2006/09/02/how_to_hyperlink_to_microsoft_outlook_messages.aspx
>
> Now I just need to teach org-mode how to use w32-shell-execute to follow
> those links...

Right (trivial):

(defun org-open-outlook-url (uid)
  "Open an outlook format url"
  (interactive "sGUID: ")
  (w32-shell-execute nil (format "Outlook:%s" uid)))
(org-add-link-type "Outlook" 'org-open-outlook-url)

I've now got a little toolbar icon now in Outlook that will copy a link
which I can yank right into org, and org is capable of following it.
Very trivial modification of the macro above to get it to output
fully-formatted org-mode links.

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Jason F. McBrayer                    jmcbray@carcosa.net  |
| If someone conquers a thousand times a thousand others in |
| battle, and someone else conquers himself, the latter one |
| is the greatest of all conquerors.  --- The Dhammapada    |

Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[R. P. Dillon]

Jason F. McBrayer wrote:
> Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com> writes:
>
>   
>> I have to use Office and envy folks that can link to their emails
>> (Gnus, VM etc.) and contacts (bbdb) from Org mode.  So I was looking
>> around and found that links to Outlook items (emails, meetings,
>> contacts etc.)  of the form "Outlook:<GUID>" can be stored and opened
>> from other applications.  The links can be created (copied to
>> clipboard) using "Outlook Linker" utility as described in [1].
>>     
>
> (w32-shell-execute "open" "outlook:blahblah") should do what you need.
> The tricky part is getting the GUID into Emacs (requires gratis but
> proprietary utility you link to).
>
>   

Does anyone know if this type of linking is possible with Thunderbird?  
Some Googling hasn't turned up anything, so maybe the solution is to 
switch to GNUs.  I like to use org-mode as my central repository of 
information, and linking to email messages would really round out that 
functionality.

Re: Opening links to Outlook items from Org mode (may be a FR)

[Jason F. McBrayer]

"R. P. Dillon" <rpdillon@gmail.com> writes:

> Does anyone know if this type of linking is possible with Thunderbird?
> Some Googling hasn't turned up anything, so maybe the solution is to
> switch to GNUs.  I like to use org-mode as my central repository of
> information, and linking to email messages would really round out that
> functionality.

If you have the freedom to use Thunderbird, you have the freedom to use
Gnus!  At work, I'm stuck with Outlook.  However, you might look at the
following thread, and see if it provides you enough to start rolling
your own solution:

http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.extensions/browse_thread/thread/a70339619f85a105/f4199f96df3ef426

You might look at this Thunderbird extension, too:

http://tobbe.nu/blog/2007/05/29/Thunderbird-extension-remote-message-id-RFC-2111/

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Jason F. McBrayer                    jmcbray@carcosa.net  |
| If someone conquers a thousand times a thousand others in |
| battle, and someone else conquers himself, the latter one |
| is the greatest of all conquerors.  --- The Dhammapada    |