appending 'Date Modified' to autosave script

[ciru]

Hoping someone can help. I currently have a outlook script that basically extracts my attachments and saves it to a specific folder. The script works fine, but instead of having the Now() date being appended to the file name when it is saved, I want it to append the Date Modified. I have surfed the net and cant seem to find anything. Hoping someone can help modify the logic below to do this. Thanks for your time in advance. - Ciru

Public Sub saveAttachtoDisk(itm As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment
Dim saveFolder As String
dateFormat = Format(Now, "yyyy-mm-dd")

saveFolder = "C:\Desktop\Test999"
For Each objAtt In itm.Attachments
objAtt.SaveAsFile saveFolder & "\" & dateFormat & " " & objAtt.DisplayName
Set objAtt = Nothing
Next
End Sub

 

[Forum Admin]

The attachment's modified date? you need to use FSO to grab that, i'll look for some code. If you want the message received date, use itm.recievedtime.

 

[ciru]

Hi - I am not sure what FSO is, fairly new to this. I actually want the modified date that can seen when viewing a file via explorer. Just need the date and not the time stamp. Thank you for your time in advance.

 

[larry]

FSO = file system object. Won't the modified date be the same as the sent date? If so, you just need the sent or received date off the message. Sent would be more accurate, but the differences should only be a few minutes apart.

 

[ciru]

Hi Larry,
Actually the modified date can be a different date then the sent/received date. The file could have been created on a different date then when the email with the attached file was sent. I just want the modified date. Modified date will tell me exactly was created. Thanks.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Except that the email copy should use the date it was sent as the modified date. Some document types will have custom properties, but most files lose their properties when emailed.

 

[ciru]

I tested that theory and saved an excel attachment file that was in one of my outlook emails to my desktop. After the save, i checked the properties of that file via my explorer and the excel file had the Modified Date. It did not appear to have lost the properties of the file. Hoping someone can still help with how I can modify the Outlook script below to pull in this modified date. Thanks!

Public Sub saveAttachtoDisk(itm As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment
Dim saveFolder As String
dateFormat = Format(Now, "yyyy-mm-dd")

saveFolder = "C:\Desktop\Test999"
For Each objAtt In itm.Attachments
objAtt.SaveAsFile saveFolder & "\" & dateFormat & " " & objAtt.DisplayName
Set objAtt = Nothing
Next
End Sub

 

[larry]

Here is more on FSO: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa711216(v=vs.71).aspx

You'll need to Dim and Set the filesystem object, then get the modified date from the attachment and change the name. I'm not sure if you can get it from the attachment before its saved; if you need to get it later, you'll change the name as there is not a rename method - it would be like objAtt.name = newfilename
set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set file = fso.GetFile(objAtt.name)
' do whatever
set file = nothing
set fso = nothing

 

[ciru]

Hi Larry,
I am not sure how to incorporate your suggestions to extract the Modified Date from an attachment in place of the current DateFormat variable I have within the script in my earlier post. I am fairly new to this and found that script while searching online. It makes sense, but not sure how VB actually works in order to incorporate your comments into my scripts logic. Not sure if you can help with the coding, but it would be very much appreciated if you can. If not, thank you none the less.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

This is probably not complete, but this should give you a general idea of what you need to do and where to put it, you just need the correct code.

Public Sub saveAttachtoDisk(itm As Outlook.MailItem) 
Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment 
Dim saveFolder As String 
dim fso 
dim file 
 
set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 
 
saveFolder = "C:\Desktop\Test999" 
 
For Each objAtt In itm.Attachments 
 
set file = fso.GetFile(objAtt.name)
   dateFormat = Format(file.DateLastModified, "yyyy-mm-dd") 
 
objAtt.SaveAsFile saveFolder & "\" & dateFormat & " " & objAtt.DisplayName 
Set objAtt = Nothing 
Next 
End Sub

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Try this. This gets the last modified date from the attachment. For every attachment in my inbox, it is the sent date. You can test this with one or more selected messages - to use in a rule, replace the sub name with the name from your macro and remove the starred lines

Public Sub saveAttachtoDisk() 
Dim itm As Outlook.MailItem ' * 
Dim currentExplorer As Explorer '* 
Dim Selection As Selection '* 
Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment 
Dim saveFolder As String 
Dim fso As Object 
Dim newName As Object 
 
Dim file As String 
 
Set currentExplorer = Application.ActiveExplorer '* 
Set Selection = currentExplorer.Selection '* 
 
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 
 
For Each itm In Selection'* 
 
saveFolder = "C:\Users\Diane\.tresorit\Tresors\Attachments\" 
For Each objAtt In itm.Attachments 
  
 
file = saveFolder & objAtt.DisplayName 
Set newName = fso.GetFile(file) 
file = Format(newName.DateLastModified, "yyyy-mm-dd ") 
objAtt.SaveAsFile saveFolder & file & objAtt.DisplayName 
Set objAtt = Nothing 
Next 
Next'* 
 
Set fso= Nothing 
End Sub

 

[Diane Poremsky]

the macro above works with excel (should work with word), but not images or pdf. This one will rewrite the file name after saving it and getting the modified date from the file. It will work with all file types (AFAIK). Same deal as with the other one - test it on selected messages, remove the starred lines and change the name to use in a rule.

Public Sub saveAttachtoDisk() 
Dim itm As Outlook.MailItem '* 
Dim currentExplorer As Explorer '* 
Dim Selection As Selection'* 
Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment 
Dim saveFolder As String 
Dim fso As Object 
Dim oldName 'As Object 
 
Dim file As String 
Dim DateFormat As String 
Dim newName As String 
 
Set currentExplorer = Application.ActiveExplorer'* 
Set Selection = currentExplorer.Selection'* 
 
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 
On Error Resume Next 
For Each itm In Selection'* 
 
saveFolder = "C:\Users\Diane\.tresorit\Tresors\Attachments\test\" 
For Each objAtt In itm.Attachments 
  
 
file = saveFolder & objAtt.DisplayName 
objAtt.SaveAsFile file 
Set oldName = fso.GetFile(file) 
DateFormat = Format(oldName.DateLastModified, "yyyy-mm-dd ") 
newName = DateFormat & objAtt.DisplayName 
oldName.Name = newName 
 
Set objAtt = Nothing 
Next 
Next'* 
Set fso= Nothing 
End Sub

 

[ciru]

Hi Diane,

I took the script you provided and removed all the lines with * behind it (see below). I created an outlook rule so that it runs this script each time it receives an email with certain words in the subject and to file then the email to a specific folder in my outlook email account. When I test it out, the script doesn't appear to run but I know the rule does execute it because the email was moved to the folder. I am not sure if the script is failing cause I do not get any error messages. Thoughts?

p.s. I had to add the (itm As Outlook.MailItem) otherwise outlook didn't recognize the script when I created the rule to run this script. Not sure if this is the problem??? Thanks again for you time.

Public Sub saveAttachtoDisk(itm As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment
Dim saveFolder As String
Dim fso As Object
Dim oldName As Object
Dim file As String
Dim DateFormat As String
Dim newName As String

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
On Error Resume Next

saveFolder = "C:\desktop\Test999\"
For Each objAtt In itm.Attachments
Set file = saveFolder & objAtt.DisplayName
objAtt.SaveAsFile file
Set oldName = fso.GetFile(file)
DateFormat = Format(oldName.DateLastModified, "yyyy-mm-dd ")
Set newName = DateFormat & objAtt.DisplayName
Set oldName.Name = newName
Set objAtt = Nothing
Next
Set fso = Nothing
End Sub

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Yeah, it was ok to add itm as mailitem back in the macro name - you need it there for rules but outside if you are running it manually to test.

The Rule should only have conditions in it, no actions. If you want to move the message (or do any other action), do it in the script.

Dim movetofolder As Outlook.Folder 
 
movetofolder =  Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Folders("Folder") 
itm.move movetofolder

 

[ciru]

So I modified the outlook rule and removed the action so it only has conditions. Ran the script as noted above, but still doesn't appear to execute it for when I check the path (c:\desktop\test999) where it was suppose to save the attachement(s) they are not there. Not sure what is happening??

 

[Diane Poremsky]

I'm assuming the path exists? Is it adding them to desktop, named test999date-name ? It shouldn't , since you have the slash on the file name: saveFolder = "C:\desktop\Test999\" (I won't mention how many times I've done that. )

Two things to try:
Remove the on error resume next so it stops if it fails.
Does the macro I posted work if you select a message that has an attachment and run it?

 

[ciru]

The script doesn't seem to be running at all. I commented out the on error resume next and it appears the file is not being saved either to the C:\desktop\test999\ path. I changed the path to something different just to double check but nothing is happening. So confused as to what is going on.

 

[Forum Admin]

Did you try using my documents path? The desktop should be writable, but maybe it's not.

Did you try the macro in #12 ? That works here - if it doesn't work there, then we know it's not the basic code.

 

[ciru]

Yes. I actually have tried My Documents path and various other paths I have access to. The script I used was the one in #13 . Diane had noted that I needed to remove all the lines with an * from the script in #12 thus the result was the script in #13. Still not working on this end for some reason - I don't even get any errors.

 

[Stru]

First, thank you for the script work. After trying several variations around the web, this script actually worked. Too well. I am drowning in 500+ emails a day. I have setup some automation, but my biggest issue has always been the attachments. For example, through today, I have 489 documents generated by this script, and yet another 811 non-wanted files (.jpg, .png, etc.). My question to you excellent people is how to use the above script to cull out non-wanted files/attachments. Thoughts?