How to bypass Outlook item that generates an error when replying to mail using Excel VBA? - vba

Question

I have working code that replies to an email in the user's Outlook, based on the subject. If the most recent item is a meeting invite, my code will not retrieve the email I want. Instead it will not pass the meeting invite and will display an error.
Code is as follows.
Sub Display()
Dim Fldr As Outlook.Folder
Dim olfolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim olMail As Outlook.MailItem
Dim olReply As Outlook.MailItem
Dim olItems As Outlook.Items
Dim i As Integer
Dim signature As String
Set Fldr = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
Set olItems = Fldr.Items
olItems.Sort "[Received]", True
For i = 1 To olItems.Count
signature = Environ("appdata") & "\Microsoft\Signatures\"
If Dir(signature, vbDirectory) <> vbNullString Then
signature = signature & Dir$(signature & "*.htm")
Else:
signature = ""
End If
signature = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").GetFile(signature).OpenAsTextStream(1, -2).ReadAll
Set olMail = olItems(i)
If InStr(olMail.Subject, Worksheets("Checklist Form").Range("B8")) <> 0 Then
If Not olMail.Categories = "Executed" Then
Set olReply = olMail.ReplyAll
With olReply
.HTMLBody = "<p style='font-family:calibri;font-size:14.5'>" & "Hi Everyone," & "<p style='font-family:calibri;font-size:14.5'>" & "Workflow ID:" & " " & Worksheets("Checklist Form").Range("B6") & "<p style='font-family:calibri;font-size:14.5'>" & Worksheets("Checklist Form").Range("B11") & "<p style='font-family:calibri;font-size:14.5'>" & "Regards," & "</p><br>" & signature & .HTMLBody
.Display
.Subject = "RO Finalized WF:" & Worksheets("Checklist Form").Range("B6") & " " & Worksheets("Checklist Form").Range("B2") & " -" & Worksheets("Fulfillment Checklist").Range("B3")
End With
Exit For
olMail.Categories = "Executed"
End If
End If
Next i
End Sub
Is it possible to bypass the most recent item if the code will not pass the first email. Example: Meeting Invite

Answer 1

Dim olMail As Outlook.MailItem
...
Set olMail = olItems(i)
That Set assignment will not only fail if the first item is a meeting invite, it will fail for any olItems(i) (i.e. any value of i) that is not an Outlook.MailItem instance. That includes anything that can possibly land into an Outlook inbox, including a meeting invite.
One way to go would be to handle the runtime error that's thrown in the specific case where olItems(i) isn't a MailItem:
For i = 1 To olItems.Count
On Error GoTo ErrHandler ' jumps to error-handling subroutine if there's an error
Set olMail = olItems(i)
On Error GoTo 0 ' let any other error blow everything up
...
SkipToNext:
Next i
Exit Sub
ErrHandler:
Debug.Print "Item index " & i & " is not a MailItem; skipping."
Resume SkipToNext
Notice I'm putting the assignment/validation as early as possible in the loop - that way you don't run useless instructions if you're not looking at a MailItem.
Another - better - way to go about it, would be to validate the type of olItems(i):
Dim olItem As Object
'...
For i = 1 To olItems.Count
Set olItem = olItems(i)
If Not TypeOf olItem Is Outlook.MailItem Then Goto SkipToNext
Set olMail = olItem ' essentially a type cast from Object to MailItem
...
SkipToNext:
Next
Alternatively, you can drop that GoTo jump and increase the nesting level instead:
For i = 1 To olItems.Count
Set olItem = olItems(i)
If TypeOf olItem Is Outlook.MailItem Then
Set olMail = olItem ' essentially a type cast from Object to MailItem
...
End If
Next
Note the indentation; feel free to use an indenter if you're not sure how to do this correctly & consistently. Proper indentation is critical for code readability, especially given nested looping & conditional structures (disclaimer: I own that website and the OSS project it's for).