Track email through the draft/send/sent process - vba

Question

I'd like to follow the status of an email as it passes through the phases and folders of its life cycle, through "Drafts", "Outbox", and "Sent".
Of related interest is the ability to access existing emails to gather property info, such as sent time.
I've started with the included block of code. The Do Loop fails the moment the email is sent, because the variable disconnects from the email.
This causes the runtime error
The item has been moved or deleted.
The error number (Err.Number) is different every time, and I wonder what the design purpose is.
How can I stay connected to sending emails as they move through Drafts, Outbox, and Sent?
I see many mentions of the variable disconnecting from the mailitem, but no solutions that rely on the object hierarchy and avoid late-binding to address the issue. I thought perhaps there would be a GUID or UUID that identifies the message, but as indicated in the documentation, all properties such as EntryID can change if the item is moved, and such properties should not be relied on.
With deeper examination, this makes sense because an email is just a record in a database table. And if you duplicate/delete records between tables, the info might be the same or similar, but the record number probably won't be.
Also, that hits other nails: the same email can be sent multiple times, and also can be copied/pasted into different folders, and even different accounts. Now what's unique or not?
Aside from staying "connected" to a email, what properties or techniques can be used to ID one?
If there's no "proper" way to identify a mailitem as described, about the only thing I can think of is to use an existing or custom field, like the "Tag" property of OCX controls, to insert a UUID. Some companies use this sort of technique by putting a call/order/support number in the subject line to make then easier to track.
Dim outlobj As Outlook.Application
Dim mailobj As Outlook.MailItem
Set outlobj = Outlook.Application
Set mailobj = outlobj.CreateItem(olMailItem)
With mailobj
.Recipients.Add "wonderwoman#hallofjustice.com"
.Subject = "Invisible Jet Scheduled Maintenance Reminder"
.Body = "Your invisible jet need to be polished."
.Attachments.Add zipFilename
.Display
.Send
End With
Do
'next line fails due to email moving through Drafts, Outbox, & Sent
'notably, the VBA runtime Err.Num is different each time
'how do i keep the variable connected to a moving target?
If mailobj.Sent = False Then
Sleep 100
Else
MsgBox "The email has been sent."
'other code
Exit Do
End If
Loop

Answer 1

Create a class and add MailItem as the event enabled property of that class. Handle the events such as Open/Write/Send/Save etc. to have custom control on the e-mail life-cycle. EntryID is the unique property for each mail item.
Be cautious of the fact that Entry Id is only generated after the first save of the item and changes implicitly when user manually moves the item between folders.
Following a is an example to get you started:
Add a class Class1 like this
Option Explicit
Public WithEvents mItem As MailItem
Public id As String
Private Sub mItem_Open(Cancel As Boolean)
MsgBox "Mail item will be displayed."
id = mItem.EntryID
End Sub
Add a module with following code:
Option Explicit
Sub test()
Dim cls As New Class1
Dim id As String
Dim outlobj As Outlook.Application
Dim mailobj As Outlook.MailItem
Set outlobj = Outlook.Application
Set mailobj = outlobj.CreateItem(olMailItem)
Set cls.mItem = mailobj
With mailobj
.Recipients.Add "xx#yy.zz"
.Subject = "Test"
.Body = "Test Content of the e-mail."
.Save
.Display
id = cls.id '/ Store ID for later use.
Debug.Print id
End With
'/ Search that e-mail and display its body contents
Call Retrieve(id)
End Sub
Sub Retrieve(sEntryId As String)
Dim mailobj As Outlook.MailItem
Dim ns As NameSpace
Set ns = GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set mailobj = ns.GetItemFromID(sEntryId)
MsgBox mailobj.Body
End Sub
Run the sub test