Sending e-mail using VBScript through Outlook Anywhere - email

Question

I have the unfortunate task of sending e-mail through a client that needs to connect to Outlook Anywhere through VBScript. I may not understand the correct terminology when dealing with Exchange Server, therefore the answer may be evading me simply because I don't know what I'm searching for, and after hours on Google I still haven't found the answer.
I cannot use SMTP, since the script will be connecting from many locations/networks and they may or may not block the traffic through the default port. I cannot change the default port because the network admin (who is the actual customer) will not change it.
Any pointers in the right direction will be appreciated.

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, you actually want to be able to use the installed/running version of Outlook on a client machine to generate and send an email message which it will hand off to whatever configured MTA it is using, probably via the Exchange Server it is configured to on a private LAN or over VPN when on a public network. If so, what you want to look at is using what is called "Automation" in Microsoft's nomenclature. For most scripting languages and development tools, you can do this via COM. The following Microsoft article shows how to do this in VBA which should give you enough specifics to use almost as-is for VBScript.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/209948

Answer 2

The answer to my question is partially on stackoverflow already at the following question Ways to send E-Mails over MS Exchange with VBScript.
The code below (VBA, but close enough to VBScript) is simply sending a SOAP message to the Exchange Web Service. It was built from various bits and pieces found all over the web (including the links above).
Option Explicit
' ---------------------------------------------------------
' CONFIGURATION - change as needed
' ---------------------------------------------------------
Const TARGETURL = "https://mail.XXXXX.com/ews/exchange.asmx"
Const USERNAME = "XXXXX\dnreply"
Const PASSWORD = "X1X2X3X4X!x#x#x$x%"
Sub SendMessageEWS()
Dim SOAP
SOAP = CreateMessageSOAP()
' Send the SOAP request, and return the response
Dim oXMLHTTP, oXml
Set oXMLHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
Set oXml = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
' Send the request
oXMLHTTP.Open "POST", TARGETURL, False, USERNAME, PASSWORD
oXMLHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "text/xml"
oXMLHTTP.send SOAP
If oXMLHTTP.Status = "200" Then
' Get response
If oXml.LoadXML(oXMLHTTP.ResponseText) Then
' Success
Debug.Print oXml.XML
End If
Else
Debug.Print oXMLHTTP.ResponseText
MsgBox "Response status: " & oXMLHTTP.Status
End If
End Sub
Function CreateMessageSOAP()
' Normally this is done by using the DOM, but this is easier for a demo...
Dim SOAPMsg
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:t='http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types' xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <soap:Body>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <CreateItem MessageDisposition='SendAndSaveCopy' xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages'>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <SavedItemFolderId>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:DistinguishedFolderId Id='sentitems' />"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </SavedItemFolderId>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <Items>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:Message>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:Subject>Exchange Web Service E-Mail Test</t:Subject>"
' For HTML message body
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:Body BodyType='HTML'><![CDATA[<h1>Test html body</h1>]]></t:Body>"
' For text message body
' SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:Body BodyType='Text'><![CDATA[Test text body]]></t:Body>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:ToRecipients>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:Mailbox>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " <t:EmailAddress>recipient#XXXXX.com</t:EmailAddress>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </t:Mailbox>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </t:ToRecipients>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </t:Message>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </Items>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </CreateItem>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </soap:Body>"
SOAPMsg = SOAPMsg & " </soap:Envelope>"
CreateMessageSOAP = SOAPMsg
End Function