How to Use The Microsoft Agent to Read Your Email Messages

Category:

C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET

Type:

Snippets

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Author: Anonymous

Version Compatibility: Visual Basic.NET

More information:

After you compile this, you can put the exe in your startup. When you log in, you will have all messages read to you by the Microsoft Agent. You must first add the following references: Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook Interop.AgentObjects

Instructions: Copy the declarations and code below and paste directly into your VB project.

Declarations:
Imports SpeechLib Imports AgentObjects Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop Dim a As New AgentObjects.Agent Dim rped As IAgentCtlCharacterEx Private sbEmail As New System.Text.StringBuilder Dim strPostAction As String = "Pleased"

Code:

Private Sub MyForm_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.Visible = False
        'Build the email string based on today's messages.
        SetUpEmailString()

'For example, "Robby".  You can use other characters, too, as long as the are installed.
        Dim strName As String = My.Settings.CharacterName
        a.Connected = True
        'ACS file.
        a.Characters.Load(strName, CType(strName & ".acs", Object))

rped = a.Characters(strName)
        rped.Show()
        'This will make sure the balloon does not show up. We just want to hear the messages.
        rped.Balloon.Style = 2
        rped.Play("read")
        'now read the email string.
        rped.Speak(sbEmail.ToString)
        'whatever the post-action is, do it.
        rped.Play(strPostAction)
        'now hide.
        rped.Hide()

Do Until rped.Active = 1
            'we need to wait until this is 1, otherwise, the character will not show up.
            Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
        Loop

'end the program.
        End

End Sub

'+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Private Sub SetUpEmailString()
        Dim oApp As New Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application
        Dim oNS As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace = oApp.GetNamespace("mapi")

Dim oInbox As Outlook.MAPIFolder = oNS.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox)
        Dim oItems As Outlook.Items = oInbox.Items

oItems = oItems.Restrict("[Unread] = true")

Me.sbEmail = New System.Text.StringBuilder

If oItems.Count >= 1 Then
            Me.sbEmail.Append("Messages for Today...")
        End If

Dim intCount As Integer = 1

For i As Integer = 1 To oItems.Count - 1
            If oItems.Item(i).ReceivedTime >= Today Then
                sbEmail.Append("Message " & intCount.ToString & "... From " & _
                               oItems.Item(i).SenderName.Replace(".", " dot ") & "..." & "Subject: " & _
                               oItems.Item(i).Subject & "...")
                intCount += 1
            End If
        Next

If intCount > 1 Then
            Me.sbEmail.Append("End of Messages!")
        Else
            Me.sbEmail.Append("No messages?  WTF!")
            'Do the 'Decline' gesture.
            Me.strPostAction = "Decline"
        End If

'Log Off.
        oNS.Logoff()
        'Quit the Outlook App.
        oApp.Quit()

End Sub

Instructions: Click the link below to download the code. Select 'Save' from the IE popup dialog. Once downloaded, open the .zip file from your local drive using WinZip or a comparable program to view the contents.

Download ekg.zip