Skip to main content

Creating a Domain based auto response rule using rule.dll

Somebody asked last week about creating a personalized auto response message based on the sender domain. While this would be pretty easy to do with a normal store based event sink another option you can use is to create a server side rule using the rule.dll. The script to do this is pretty basic there are numerous samples that show how to create a rule that will process mail based on a string in the subject field. Well all you really need to do is take that same logic and apply it to the sender address instead. So you basically end up with a rule that does a substring on the sender address looking for in this case a particular email domain and then use the Reply action which creates a normal automatic reply email using the text you configure.

To use the script just configure the following line with the domain you want to use

importPropVal.Value = "@domain.com”

And this line with the text to respond with

objReplyMsg.Text = "Im Sorry this Mailbox isn't currently maned for after hour enquires please contact 2223-2222-222"

I’ve put a download copy of the script here the script itself looks like.

const SUBSTRING = 1 ' Substring
const IGNORECASE = &H00010000 ' Ignore case
const PR_SENDER_EMAIL_ADDRESS = &H0C1F001E
Const ACTION_REPLY = 4


servername = "servername"
mailboxname = "mailbox"

Set objSession = CreateObject("MAPI.Session")

objSession.Logon "","",false,true,true,true,servername & vbLF & mailboxname
Set objRules = CreateObject("MSExchange.Rules")
objRules.Folder = objSession.Inbox
Set objInbox = objSession.Inbox

Set CdoInfoStore = objSession.GetInfoStore
Set CdoFolderRoot = CdoInfoStore.RootFolder
Set CdoFolders = CdoFolderRoot.Folders

Set importPropVal = CreateObject("MSExchange.PropertyValue")
importPropVal.Tag = PR_SENDER_EMAIL_ADDRESS
importPropVal.Value = "@domain.com”

Set importPropCond = CreateObject("MSExchange.ContentCondition")
importPropCond.PropertyType = PR_SENDER_EMAIL_ADDRESS
importPropCond.Operator = SUBSTRING + IGNORECASE
importPropCond.Value = importPropVal

' Create reply message and store in HiddenMessages collection.
Set objReplyMsg = objInbox.HiddenMessages.Add

' Set reply message properties.
objReplyMsg.Type = "IPM.Note.Rules.ReplyTemplate.Microsoft"
objReplyMsg.Text = "Im Sorry this Mailbox isn't currently maned for after hour enquires please contact 333-333-33"
objReplyMsg.Update


' Create action
Set objAction = CreateObject("MSExchange.Action")
objAction.ActionType = ACTION_REPLY
objAction.Arg = Array(objReplyMsg.ID,objReplyMsg.FolderID)

' Create new rule
Set objRule = CreateObject("MSExchange.Rule")
objRule.Name = "Domain Reply Rule"

' Add action and assign condition
objRule.Actions.Add , objAction
objRule.Condition = importPropCond

' Add rule and update
objRules.Add , objRule
objRules.Update

' Log off and cleanup
objSession.Logoff

Set objRules = Nothing
Set objSession = Nothing
Set importProp = Nothing
Set importPropVal = Nothing
Set objAction = Nothing
Set objRule = Nothing

Popular posts from this blog

The MailboxConcurrency limit and using Batching in the Microsoft Graph API

If your getting an error such as Application is over its MailboxConcurrency limit while using the Microsoft Graph API this post may help you understand why. Background   The Mailbox  concurrency limit when your using the Graph API is 4 as per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/throttling#outlook-service-limits . This is evaluated for each app ID and mailbox combination so this means you can have different apps running under the same credentials and the poor behavior of one won't cause the other to be throttled. If you compared that to EWS you could have up to 27 concurrent connections but they are shared across all apps on a first come first served basis. Batching Batching in the Graph API is a way of combining multiple requests into a single HTTP request. Batching in the Exchange Mail API's EWS and MAPI has been around for a long time and its common, for email Apps to process large numbers of smaller items for a variety of reasons.  Batching in the Gr...
Read more

Sending a MimeMessage via the Microsoft Graph using the Graph SDK, MimeKit and MSAL

One of the new features added to the Microsoft Graph recently was the ability to create and send Mime Messages (you have been able to get Message as Mime for a while). This is useful in a number of different scenarios especially when trying to create a Message with inline Images which has historically been hard to do with both the Graph and EWS (if you don't use MIME). It also opens up using SMIME for encryption and a more easy migration path for sending using SMTP in some apps. MimeKit is a great open source library for parsing and creating MIME messages so it offers a really easy solution for tackling this issue. The current documentation on Send message via MIME lacks any real sample so I've put together a quick console app that use MSAL, MIME kit and the Graph SDK to send a Message via MIME. As the current Graph SDK also doesn't support sending via MIME either there is a workaround for this in the future my guess is this will be supported.
Read more

Export calendar Items to a CSV file using Microsoft Graph and Powershell

For the last couple of years the most constantly popular post by number of views on this blog has been  Export calendar Items to a CSV file using EWS and Powershell closely followed by the contact exports scripts. It goes to show this is just a perennial issue that exists around Mail servers, I think the first VBS script I wrote to do this type of thing was late 90's against Exchange 5.5 using cdo 1.2. Now it's 2020 and if your running Office365 you should really be using the Microsoft Graph API to do this. So what I've done is create a PowerShell Module (and I made it a one file script for those that are more comfortable with that format) that's a port of the EWS script above that is so popular. This script uses the ADAL library for Modern Authentication (which if you grab the library from the PowerShell gallery will come down with the module). Most EWS properties map one to one with the Graph and the Graph actually provides better information on recurrences then...
Read more
All sample scripts and source code is provided by for illustrative purposes only. All examples are untested in different environments and therefore, I cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

All code contained herein is provided to you "AS IS" without any warranties of any kind. The implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are expressly disclaimed.