Server based rule to collate 500+ adresses into ~150 inbox folders - vba

Question

I have a Company Project where ~500 clients send Emails to the my project inbox. Those clients correspond to ~150 offices (I have an Excel-List of the email addresses & according offices).
Each office shall have one Outlook folder, so I can quickly check upon the past correspondence with a specific office.
The Project inbox is looked after and used by several co-workers, hence server- and not client based rules.
How do I set this up?
My simple idea in form of a pseudo code:
for each arriving email
if (from-adress is in "email & office-List")
move that email to outlook folder "according office name"
end if
end for
and the same for outgoing emails:
for each sent email
if (to-adress is in "email & office-List")
move that email to outlook folder "according office name"
end if
end for
Thanks for suggestions!
...and besides, can outlook folders be created programmatically from a list of names?

Answer 1

My solution is a skript i run daily on a manual basis since my employer doesnt allow scripts on arriving messages.
the logic in short is:
fetch list of emails & their corresponding offices (both string lists)
set up folder variables
loop through messages, and move them eventually
the code looks like
Option Compare Text ' makes string comparisons case insensitive
Sub sortEmails()
'sorts the emails into folders
Dim msg As Outlook.MailItem
Dim itm As Object
Dim adress As String
Dim pa As Outlook.PropertyAccessor
Const PR_SMTP_ADDRESS As String = _
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x39FE001E"
'1) fetch emails
GetEMailsFolders locIDs, emails, n
'1.5) fetch folder objects
'Create an instance of Outlook & inbox reference
Dim Inbox As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim outbox As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Set outlookApp = New Outlook.Application
Set NS = outlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set objOwner = NS.CreateRecipient("email#host.com")
objOwner.Resolve
'Set inbox = NS.GetSharedDefaultFolder(objOwner, olFolderInbox)
Set Inbox = NS.Folders("email#host.com").Folders("Inbox")
Set outbox = NS.Folders("email#host.com").Folders("Sent Items")
Dim basefolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim bfName As String
bfName = "Offices" 'name of the folder for the offices
Set basefolder = MkDirConditional(Inbox.Folders("Project folder"), bfName)
'2)loop through inbox & outbox emails
Dim destination As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim fold(1 To 2) As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Set fold(1) = Inbox
Set fold(2) = outbox
Dim LocID As String
For Each fol In fold 'loop through inbox & outbox
Debug.Print fol
'reverse fo loop because otherwise moved messages modify indices of following messages
For i = fol.Items.Count To 1 Step -1 'Each itm In fol.Items
Set itm = fol.Items(i)
If TypeName(itm) = "MailItem" Then ' others are AppointmentItem, MeetingItem, or TaskItem
Set msg = itm
'Debug.Print " " & msg.Subject
If fol = Inbox Then
' there are two formats of email adrersses.
If msg.SenderEmailType = "EX" Then 'check two kinds of email adress formats
adress = msg.Sender.GetExchangeUser().PrimarySmtpAddress
ElseIf msg.SenderEmailType = "SMTP" Then 'SMTP case
adress = msg.SenderEmailAddress
Else
Debug.Print " neither EX nor SMTP" & msg.Subject;
End If
pos = Findstring(adress, emails) ' position in the email / standort list
ElseIf fol = outbox Then
For Each rec In msg.Recipients
Set pa = rec.PropertyAccessor
adress = pa.GetProperty(PR_SMTP_ADDRESS)
pos = Findstring(adress, emails)
If pos > 0 Then
Exit For
End If
Next rec
End If
'4.5) if folder doesnt exist, create it
'5) move message
If pos > 0 Then
'Debug.Print " Its a Match!!"
LocID = locIDs(pos)
Set destination = MkDirConditional(basefolder, LocID)
Debug.Print " " & Left(msg.Subject, 20), adress, pos, destination
msg.Move destination
Else
'Debug.Print " not found!"
End If
Else
'Debug.Print " " & "non-mailitem", itm.Subject
End If
Next i
Next fol
End Sub
'// Function - Check folder Exist
Private Function FolderExists(Inbox As Outlook.MAPIFolder, FolderName As String) As Boolean
Dim Sub_Folder As MAPIFolder
On Error GoTo Exit_Err
Set Sub_Folder = Inbox.Folders(FolderName)
FolderExists = True
Exit Function
Exit_Err:
FolderExists = False
End Function
Function MkDirConditional(basefolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder, newfolder As String) As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Debug.Print newfolder & " ";
If FolderExists(basefolder, newfolder) Then
'folder exists, so just skip
Set MkDirConditional = basefolder.Folders(newfolder)
Debug.Print "exists already"
Else
'folder doesnt exist, make it
Set MkDirConditional = basefolder.Folders.Add(newfolder)
Debug.Print "created"
End If
End Function
'function to compare two strings, min the option compare text at the top line
Function Findstring(str As String, arr As Variant) As Integer
'returns -1 if a string is not found, otherwise its index
Findstring = -1
Dim i As Integer
i = 1
For Each Item In arr
'Debug.Print Item
If str = Item Then
Findstring = i
Exit For
End If
i = i + 1
Next
End Function
' function to fetch the lists of emails and offices
Sub GetEMailsFolders(ByRef rng1 As Variant, ByRef rng2 As Variant, ByRef n As Variant)
'declare variables
Dim xExcelFile As String
Dim xExcelApp As Excel.Application
Dim xWb As Excel.Workbook
Dim xWs As Excel.Worksheet
Dim xExcelRange As Excel.Range
Dim TotalRows As Long
'declare SPOC xls file
xExcelFile = "adresses.xlsx"
'open the file
Set xExcelApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set xWb = xExcelApp.Workbooks.Open(xExcelFile)
Set xWs = xWb.Sheets(1)
'extract LocIDs (column A), emails (column O) and thir number
n = xWs.Range(xWs.Range("A2"), xWs.Range("A2").End(xlDown)).Count ' works
ReDim rng1(1 To n) As Variant
ReDim rng2(1 To n) As Variant
For i = 1 To n
rng1(i) = xWs.Cells(i + 1, 1)
rng2(i) = xWs.Cells(i + 1, 15)
'Debug.Print rng1(i), rng2(i)
Next
Debug.Print "done reading LocIDs & emails"
End Sub