outlookjs

In working with a customer on a new Mail App for OWA, they had a requirement to determine if the mail item being composed is a Reply or Forward or new mail message. Determining is New or Reply/Forward is easy. But getting the Reply/Forward determination is unfortunately… too easy. Meaning the ONLY way I have been able to determine this is to look at the subject and see if there is a RE: or FW: in there. It’s a little ugly, but this is how it is. And worse – it is language dependent. If you need to support multiple languages you will have to determine the language and then make this function – much larger. So here is the English only version:

[code lang=”javascript” collapse=”true” title=”click to expand if the github.com embedding below is not visible.”]
/// getMailType()
/// This function determines the type of email item currently being composed
/// – If it is a new item, it returns "New"
/// – If it is a reply, it return "Reply"
/// – If it is a Forward it returns "Forward"
/// – And if it cannot determine, it returns "UnknownReplyOrForward"
/// This accepts a function that is called with the resulting value.
function getMailType(returnFunction) {
// get the conversation ID – if it exists
var id = Office.cast.item.toItemCompose(Office.context.mailbox.item).conversationId;
if (id == null) {
// We have a new item
returnFunction("New");
return;
}
else {
// at this point we know we have a reply or forward. Now we determine which on it is.
// we do this by getting the SUBJECT and then – yes – we look and see if it is a
// RE: or FW: or unknown.
Office.cast.item.toItemCompose(Office.context.mailbox.item)
.subject.getAsync(function (result) {
var subject = result.value;
// now this sucks, but the only way to do this is look at the
// beginning of the subject and see it if it RE or FWD and
// even worse, this is language specific…
// and worse yet – if the user changed it, we have no idea
if(subject.toString().toUpperCase.startsWith("RE:")){
returnFunction("Reply");
}
else if(subject.toString().toUpperCase.startsWith("FW:")){
returnFunction("Forward");
}
else {
returnFunction("UnknownReplyOrForward");
}
});
}
}
[/code]

	/// getMailType()
	/// This function determines the type of email item currently being composed
	/// – If it is a new item, it returns "New"
	/// – If it is a reply, it return "Reply"
	/// – If it is a Forward it returns "Forward"
	/// – And if it cannot determine, it returns "UnknownReplyOrForward"
	/// This accepts a function that is called with the resulting value.
	function getMailType(returnFunction) {
	// get the conversation ID – if it exists
	var id = Office.cast.item.toItemCompose(Office.context.mailbox.item).conversationId;
	if (id == null) {
	// We have a new item
	returnFunction("New");
	return;
	}
	else {
	// at this point we know we have a reply or forward. Now we determine which on it is.
	// we do this by getting the SUBJECT and then – yes – we look and see if it is a
	// RE: or FW: or unknown.
	Office.cast.item.toItemCompose(Office.context.mailbox.item)
	.subject.getAsync(function (result) {
	var subject = result.value;
	// now this sucks, but the only way to do this is look at the
	// beginning of the subject and see it if it RE or FWD and
	// even worse, this is language specific…
	// and worse yet – if the user changed it, we have no idea
	if(subject.toString().toUpperCase.startsWith("RE:")){
	returnFunction("Reply");
	}
	else if(subject.toString().toUpperCase.startsWith("FW:")){
	returnFunction("Forward");
	}
	else {
	returnFunction("UnknownReplyOrForward");
	}
	});
	}
	}

view raw

getMailType.js

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

And to test this, I just created a button on my Compose App task pane, that runs the following code:

[code language=”javascript”]
$(‘#getMailType’).click(function () {
getMailType(function (result) {
app.showNotification("This is a: " + result);
});
});
[/code]

UPDATE: The code outlined in this post will no longer work with Office Online. See this post for more information: http://stackoverflow.com/a/32851938/678505. Specifically, this block:

Update Dec 5, 2016: We will soon be releasing an API to detect the platform info (partially in response to the fact that the _host_info URL paramater, which folks had unofficially relied on, needed to be recently removed for Office Online). We also have a temporary workaround in anticipation of the forthcoming official API. See “In Excel Online, OfficeJS API is not passing the host_Info_ parameter anymore to Excel Add-In” for information on the API and workaround.

Original post:

In case you missed the news, there was an update to the Office API’s. Version 1.2 was announced at //build and released 2 weeks ago. This API enhancement gets us closer to parity with the native object models used in VBA and VSTO. One interesting aspect of the new Office add-ins (formally known as Apps for Office) is how you can use the same codebase across all the applications. However, as the API becomes richer they are also becoming more product specific. Meaning, there is now the Excel.run() and Word.run() commands (PowerPoint is a little lagging in this area, but it is supposedly on the horizon). These allow you to do Excel Workbook (or Word document) context specific commands. And there is a lot of other goodies (like promises). But, I digress…

I was working on a proof of concept for my customer when I found that I needed to use the same codebase for a lot of the same work, but in some cases I needed to do something specific in Word and in another, something specific in Excel. I came up with the following function that I placed in my App.js file:

[code lang=”javascript” collapse=”true” title=”click to expand if the docs.com embedding below is not visible.”]
var current;
app.hostTypes = { Word :"Word", PowerPoint :"PowerPoint", Excel :"Excel"};
app.getHost = function () {
if (current == null) {
if (Office.context.requirements.isSetSupported(‘WordApi’)) {
current = app.hostTypes.Word;
} else if (Office.context.requirements.isSetSupported(‘ExcelApi’)) {
current = app.hostTypes.Excel;
} else {
var host = $.urlParam("_host_Info");
if (host.toLowerCase().indexOf("word",0) >= 0) {
current = app.hostTypes.Word;
} else if (host.toLowerCase().indexOf("excel",0) >= 0) {
current = app.hostTypes.Excel;
} else {
current = app.hostTypes.PowerPoint;
}
}
return current;
}
else {
return current;
}
};
[/code]

	var current;
	app.hostTypes = { Word :"Word", PowerPoint :"PowerPoint", Excel :"Excel"};
	app.getHost = function () {
	if (current == null) {
	if (Office.context.requirements.isSetSupported('WordApi')) {
	current = app.hostTypes.Word;
	} else if (Office.context.requirements.isSetSupported('ExcelApi')) {
	current = app.hostTypes.Excel;
	} else {
	var host = $.urlParam("_host_Info");
	if (host.toLowerCase().indexOf("word",0) >= 0) {
	current = app.hostTypes.Word;
	} else if (host.toLowerCase().indexOf("excel",0) >= 0) {
	current = app.hostTypes.Excel;
	} else {
	current = app.hostTypes.PowerPoint;
	}
	}
	return current;
	}
	else {
	return current;
	}
	};

view raw

getHost.js

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

To use this you would do this for Word:

[code language=”javascript”]
/// WORD
if (app.getHost() == app.hostTypes.Word) {
// Word specific code where
}
[/code]

Or, this for Excel:

[code language=”javascript”]
/// EXCEL
if (app.getHost() == app.hostTypes.Excel) {
// Excel specific code here
}
[/code]

Tag: outlookjs

Determine Compose Message Type

[UPDATE] In which Application is my Add-in running?