[AccessD] Automating Outlook from Access

[Jim Dettman]

<< The web site belongs to a company my partner and I own
so yes I do have control, or at least my partner does.  >>

  Well that's good.

  Scraping e-mails or web pages I have always found to be problematic.
Usually an app ends up being quite fragile, breaking often. But then I was
never in control of the things I was scraping.

<< He was tasked with hiring a web developer to develop the site and get the
payments.  I didn't want to have to mess with going into a web database.>>

  Sounds like you need a custom setup from what you describe, but I would
have tried very hard to use one of the e-com sites already out there (Big
Commerce, Magento, etc).   They take care of all the hassle (and liability)
of collecting payments. If you are allowing for CC, meeting PCI 2
requirements can be difficult.   They also allow for different payment
gateways, like Amazon Pay or Paypal, and almost all offer an secure API as a
way of getting data to/from with the site.

  Of course, you get the ultimate control when you do it yourself, but
that's a costly route to take.  If you do continue down the DIY path, you
might want to consider getting some Cyber Liability Insurance.   Break-ins
are becoming almost routine now and many companies are getting policies to
cover themselves.

Food for thought...

Jim.


-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD On Behalf Of John Colby
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2021 9:04 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Automating Outlook from Access

I'll get into that.  The web site belongs to a company my partner and I own
so yes I do have control, or at least my partner does.  He was tasked with
hiring a web developer to develop the site and get the payments.  I didn't
want to have to mess with going into a web database.

If I get emails then I know when an order is placed because I get an
email.  If I get one a week or a hundred a day, this program automates
processing the order.  I handle the email, build out my tables from data in
the email, then grab the program we are selling (an access database).  The
order tells me all the stuff about money as well as about the client.  I
then take the access database, write custom properties into the database
which allows me to lock it down as well as set up license information and
expiration dates etc.  I then attach the db to an email and immediately
email it out to the purchaser.

On Sat, Aug 21, 2021 at 8:43 AM Jim Dettman via AccessD <
accessd at databaseadvisors.com> wrote:

>
>  Actually, sounds like the long way around; the web site doesn't offer an
> API?
>
>  Scraping info from e-mails can be problematic, especially if you are not
> in
> control of the message format.
>
> Jim.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AccessD On Behalf Of John Colby
> Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2021 8:21 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Subject: [AccessD] Automating Outlook from Access
>
> I am working on an app to process orders for a program.  A web site takes
> an order, accepts payment, then sends an email containing the order info.
> I need to receive the email, put email info into an email table, parse the
> order info out of the email body, put the order into an Order table, pull
> client info out of the order, place the client info into a client table,
> then go back and tie the email and order to the client via a client id.
>
> All of the outlook automation I learned from my best friend Google.  I'll
> write up how I am doing this stuff for anyone interested. I am not an
> expert and so any suggestions for how to do it better is good.  I will
> write a handful of emails to detail the parts and pieces.  This is actual
> code I am using
>
> In order to automate Outlook I need to sink Outlook events as email comes
> in which requires a class.  I create a plain old module to hold pointers
to
> the Outlook class:
>
> Option Compare Database
> Option Explicit
>
> Private mclsOutlook As clsOfficeOutlook
>
> Function cOl() As clsOfficeOutlook
>     If mclsOutlook Is Nothing Then
>         Set mclsOutlook = New clsOfficeOutlook
>     End If
>     Set cOl = mclsOutlook
> End Function
>
> Function cOlTerm()
>     Set mclsOutlook = Nothing
> End Function
>
> --
> John W. Colby
> Colby Consulting
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> AccessD mailing list
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> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>
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>


-- 
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
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